Many industry analysts consider that the pharmaceutical sector has not achieved its growth potential, in part due to the inherent organisational barriers to knowledge transfer. This thesis provides a critical review of the knowledge transfer literature; with particular reference to absorptive capacity, social capital and external knowledge transfer meta-routines. The research has identified routinized patterns of information seeking behaviour, reveals the micro-foundations of template use and provides insights into how scientists recognise value in the knowledge that they find. A model is proposed that suggests that recognising the value of new knowledge is a construct that is influenced by factors which affect the perceived information quality, the relative subjectivity of the solution and the source¿s social-identity. This book is required reading for all those that have an interest in the micro-foundations of routinized behaviour in the transfer of external knowledge.