Knowledge creating theory in retrospect and prospect

Knowledge creating theory has become one of the major frameworks used widely in the fields of knowledge management and other management studies. However, the knowledge creating theory was not just simply a made‐in‐Japan theory. It has emerged from a series of English and Japanese publications. Therefore, research questions and arguments in this study are identified and reviewed to portray the development of knowledge creating theory and to synthesise their arguments with organisational and managerial studies. This article reviews the content and process of the knowledge creating theory along with discussions from different streams in management and organisation studies. The result of this study sheds light on how the knowledge creating theory developed as well as perceiving its future development.