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In both developed and developing countries, innovation in higher education improves decision-making capabilities and contributes to institutional growth. Similarly, all higher education institutions naturally store and access knowledge in some manner and these institutions are expected to be at the cutting edge of such innovation. To this date, institutional recognition determines if a higher education institution meets or surpasses the minimum standards of quality education across the globe. Knowledge-sharing builds collective knowledge, retains knowledge and increases innovation capabilities. Higher education institutions in developing countries should be comparable to their counterparts in developed countries. The study therefore explores the key drivers to innovation in higher education institutions of developing countries using a survey strategy. The study collected different views from academics on the core drivers to innovation. An adequate sample of 240 participants was carefully chosen from 4 state universities in Zimbabwe, a developing country in Africa, with a 66.6% response rate. The research participants were actively involved in higher education functions of teaching, learning and research. After performing reliability tests on the data collection instruments, the researcher performed a descriptive analysis to measure the effect of the drivers towards the much needed innovation in higher education institutions. The empirical findings confirm that the most important driver for innovation in higher education institutions is Knowledge Management, followed by technological advances, competitive advantage and globalisation. It was established that technology is an enabler to higher education functions and is now embedded into teaching, learning and research. This educational transformation empowers academics with technical skills. The adoption of Knowledge Management practices supported by up-to-date technology will certainly improve the capabilities of these institutions. Because knowledge cannot be imitated by institutions to gain a competitive advantage, properly investing in Knowledge Management should certainly strengthen an institution into more competitiveness. The study therefore recommends the adoption of Knowledge Management practices for all higher education institutions in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information Systems Plan (ISP) is increasingly becoming an instrument for success in the knowledge economy. Different types of organizations are adopting ISP, if they have not done so already. Organisations also invest money and time in the formulation of an effective Strategic Information Systems Plan (SISP) to ensure that ISP investment actually contributes to the achievement of organizational objectives. However, even the best SISP would not yield the desired business results, if the people involved lack relevant knowledge to execute the strategic plan. This article investigates the role of knowledge transfer in improving SISP success. Firstly, a data reduction technique was used to extract factors that measure the impact of knowledge transfer on SISP success. Then, a correlation and predictability analysis was performed to determine which of the factors contribute most to predictability of SISP success. The results reveal that all factors together yield a better R-value, than each factor individually. The findings contribute to the development of resource allocation strategy and the development of knowledge transfer programmes that would improve SISP implementation in organisations that have resources constraints [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the knowledge economy, organisations are shifting their investment focus from natural resources to intellectual capital, in order to sustain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Organisational survival is increasingly dependent on the organisation's ability to create knowledge that contributes to performance improvement. The purpose of this article is to qualitatively evaluate knowledge acquisition practices in the South African public sector. The researcher applied grounded theory analysis techniques to extract themes that could provide insight into knowledge acquisition that takes place in the South Africa public sector, even though these practices are not documented as knowledge transfer practices. Findings revealed that informal sharing of knowledge take place in discussion forums within communities of practice. These communities of practice are widespread throughout the public sector, and are established with the purpose of soliciting expert knowledge from those who have been using open source software successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]