Acceleration is defined as the change in velocity, whether in the absolute value or direction of motion. Knowledge transfer is the copying of information at one place and taking it to ­another. In contrast to the transfer of objects or people, information ­usually remains intact at its original site. The “site” or carrier of information in this case can be a person, a storage medium, or an organization (see box at the end). So the speed of the knowledge transfer is determined by the time it takes to move the information from one site or carrier to another. Acceleration of the ­knowlege transfer means that this speed changes in terms of its absolute value, i.e., becomes faster or slower, or that the direction changes, that the target site of the knowledge transfer becomes different.    

The decisive point for the transfer velocity is the nature of the knowledge   

During the following observations of knowlege transfer, a ­distinction will be made according to the nature of the knowledge and the corresponding inherent time scales. On the one hand, there is “factual knowledge”, such as that concerning products. This type of knowledge can be generated, exactly ­codified, and saved quickly – within a few hours or days. The ­information about the product is collected and processed by people. The ­generated knowledge is placed on storage media and made available to a large group of people. Examples of this are the forwarding of knowledge in call centers or the ­“learning on ­demand” at the workplace. The speed of the knowledge transfer in these cases is high.   

On the other side of the coin, there is the “knowledge from experience”. The accumulation of this type of knowledge takes years, sometimes even decades, and can be codified only in part, if at all. Source and target in this case are generally people. The transfer of knowledge requires both the disclosure and the reception of the knowledge. Only a fraction of the knowledge from experience can be passed on “quickly” because the experience which has been gained is an essential component of this type of knowledge, and it simply takes a certain amount of time to gain experience. Moreover, the complexity of the knowledge from experience is far greater. The relevant information is much more closely meshed within itself. Examples of this are the utilization of the knowledge found in the employees of many years’ standing or the demographic challenge: How is the knowledge transferred from the older age groups, which are constantly ­growing in relative size, to the younger members of the ­population – or of the company? The velocity of the knowledge ­transfer in this case tends to be rather low.