Study identifies marketing Prof. Jenny Darroch as most influential scholar in field of knowledge management

A new study in the Journal of Knowledge Management has identified Drucker School of Management marketing Professor Jenny Darroch as one of the world’s most influential scholars in the field of knowledge management.

The study, by researchers at Lakehead University in Canada and Macquarie University in Australia, examined the 100 articles that have been most cited in top knowledge management journals. Two of Darroch’s articles made the list.

Knowledge management emerged as a discipline in the early 1990s. It focuses on the processes for most effectively capturing, developing, sharing, and using organizational knowledge.  Darroch distinguished herself in the field largely due to her transdisciplinary approach, which borrowed heavily from the field of marketing.

“I began working in knowledge management when it was a relatively new field,” she said.  “In fact, the work that most inspired me was a 1995 book called The Knowledge-Creating Company by Professors Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi of Hitotsubashi University in Japan. Coincidentally, Professor Nonaka became the first Distinguished Drucker Scholar in Residence at the Drucker School.”

Darroch is one of only a handful of researchers to have multiple articles identified by the study.

Her 2005 article “Knowledge management, innovation and firm performance,” from the Journal of Knowledge Management, ranks 18th on the list with 329 citations.

Her 2003 article “Developing a measure of knowledge management behaviors and practices,” also from the Journal of Knowledge Management, is 56th on the list with 194 citations.

Alexander Serenko, a professor at Lakehead University, and John Dumay, a professor at Macquarie University, conducted the study to illuminate how the discipline of knowledge management has developed over the past 25 years. They claim it is the first study to comprehensively analyze the academic origins of the discipline.

Darroch is a core faculty member in Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker School of Management. She specializes in marketing strategy – in particular market definition and market segmentation, with a special interest in marketing to women. She is the author of three books and more than 30 research articles. She holds multiple graduate degrees, including a PhD in marketing, knowledge management, and innovation.