Technical Yearbook 2023

Individual characteristics • Learning intent

Knowledge characteristics • Technical/practical

• Absorptive capacity • Values and beliefs • Motivation and rewards • Innovativeness • Centrality

• Perceived usefulness • Complexity/ease of use • Observability • Timing

25%

45%

Knowledge source • Geographical distance • Organisational distance

Transfer channel • Social learning • Experiential learning • Technical learning

15%

• Distance of the knowledge base • Credibility • Social capital

15%

FIGURE 1. Factors influencing knowledge uptake by practitioners.

winemakers believe spontaneous fermentation is the best for their wines, and some believe commercial yeast is the better choice. Some producers believe organic or biodynamic is the best way to farm, and some stick to conventional viticulture. Practitioners are less likely to engage with knowledge sources that go against their values and beliefs. An interesting finding from the mentioned South African knowledge uptake study is that almost 30% of South African winemakers agreed with the statement: “My current knowledge of winemaking is enough for me”. This finding can be interpreted in more than one way, but one way would be that they ‘believe’ they know enough about winemaking to do their job. If you believe you know enough about something, chances are you will have less interaction with sources of new information about that something. Instead, you will focus on information about something else you know less about (e.g., marketing), or you won’t try to learn new things at all and will just use your existing knowledge and experience. Motivation and rewards refer to what drives you to learn something new. Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is the internal drive to do something for its inherent satisfaction rather than an external reward. Extrinsic motivation is a motivation to participate in an activity based on meeting an external goal, doing well in a competition, garnering approval and praise, or receiving payment or a reward. In winemaker terms, extrinsic motivation would be to earn a good salary, do well in wine competitions, be acknowledged by peers as a good winemaker, and be selected for the Cape Winemakers Guild. Innovativeness refers to how “not set in his/her ways” a winemaker is. Meaning, how likely are you to try something new, and how soon after you hear about it will you try it? About 50% of the winemakers who participated in the knowledge uptake study indicated that they would

immediately try an innovation if it could benefit them. This shows a high level of innovativeness; such practitioners are known as innovators and early adopters. The rest will wait until someone else tries it first; some will even wait until most of the industry has adopted the innovation. Innovators and early adopters are usually keen to learn new stuff. Centrality refers to a person’s standing in a social network. If you are seen as an opinion leader in your area, it is most likely because you are someone with rich experience, expertise and knowledge. Opinion leaders are usually aware that they are opinion leaders due to the frequency with which other producers or winemakers contact them. As a result, they tend to try and stay on top of the latest interesting information and technologies. Reference https://www.wineland.co.za/factors-influencing-knowledge uptake-by-practitioners-individual-characteristics/ Final words In the following three blogs, the roles of the characteristics of the knowledge source, the characteristics of the knowledge itself and the knowledge transfer channels, also referred to as learning pathways, will be discussed. They are the factors that knowledge producers, to some extent, can have some level of control over. Knowledge producers have no control over the individual characteristics of people. The cumulative effect of all these factors determines a specific human behaviour, i.e., knowledge uptake. 

For more information, contact Karien O’Kennedy at karien@sawine.co.za.

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TECHNICAL YEARBOOK 2023