Managing organizational knowledge integration in the emerging multimedia complex

Due to technological convergence, complexes of interrelated industries are emerging. This paper presents a conceptual framework of the role different organizational forms and combinative capabilities play in the management of organizational knowledge integration in this context. The focus is on firm s previously operating in one of the relatively stable constituting industr ies. We argue that a firm's organizational form has to be matched with appr opriate combinative capabilities in order to integrate component knowledge into architectural knowledge that consequently serves as a platform for gen erating new product-market combinations. The framework is empirically illus trated using the example of two Dutch publishing firms moving into the mult imedia complex, which is currently emerging around information and communic ation technologies. The empirical analysis shows that the framework offers strong potential for improving the understanding of the complex process of organizational knowledge integration, as the prerequisite for developing ne w business in an emerging industrial complex.