A framework for avoiding knowledge leakage: evidence from engineering to order firms

By adopting multiple case-studies, this paper attempts to investigate, in the engineering to order companies’ context, knowledge leakage problems. It proposes a framework for managing knowledge leakage that represents the first attempt to depict together different knowledge threats, knowledge identification methods, and defensive mechanisms. Results confirm, in the context investigated, the existence of the knowledge threats and the adoption of knowledge identification and defensive mechanisms identified in the literature, even if with some exception, and recognize three “new for the literature” methods. Findings neglect the significance of knowledge management systems, thus raising doubts about their usefulness in knowledge leakage situations. Our study is valuable not only for scholars interested in the topic but also for firms’ managers, as it could help them in understanding, detecting and preventing knowledge leakage situations.