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Few projects have had such a profound and lasting effect on the world as the Manhattan Project. Today, after it was approved 70 years ago by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, its legacy is felt in nuclear medicine, military defence, terrorist threats, and the production of energy. What was remarkable about this project was that to succeed it had to push through the frontiers of knowledge in ways that are impressive even by today's standards. This paper includes a short history of the project and the challenges that had to be overcome. But the paper is primarily about a very large organisation that was forced to learn quickly, compress each stage in the project in a race against time, and pass knowledge, which was often incomplete, from one phase to the next. As such, it makes a theoretical contribution to the literature on the management of large-scale science projects and provides insight into the problems that these projects face today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outsourcing of research and development (R&D) activities has grown rapidly in recent years. Outsourcing has major implications for how knowledge and R&D activities are organised and coordinated in a wider open innovation environment and creates major challenges for firms and their managers. This paper explores the implications of outsourcing and the increasingly distributed nature of research and innovative activities using primary survey data collected from the UK pharmaceutical industry. These issues are uniquely examined at both firm and activity level. This paper then seeks to set the findings of the study within the context of the wider debate and conceptual frameworks surrounding R&D outsourcing and offshoring in terms of the increasingly open and distributed nature of research operations. This paper concludes by exploring the implications for this for firm strategy and the open innovation agenda and for future research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product platforms are applied in order to increase the stability of the product architecture and to reap benefits of scale and scope. However, many firms face a dynamic environment with quickly changing market demands. In such an environment, firms may have to continuously renew and improve their product platforms to achieve desired flexibility. The modifications comprise two types of innovations, component as well as architectural innovations. Combining these types to simultaneously achieve stability and strategic flexibility demands continuous innovation capability. This paper provides a viable approach to coordinate architectural and component innovations. The paper is based on a case study of an international truck manufacturer. Two major issues, decision-making and the management of knowledge, stand out as important for realising continuous innovation and improvement of product platforms. Moreover, product platform management needs to consider modularity and its related economies of substitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the economic growth and social cognitive theory, this paper investigates the effects of management strategies-based factors (knowledge management process competence and innovation capability) and dynamic capabilities-based factors (rewards system and marketing fit) on corporate growth in the Chinese high technology firms. The results show that the knowledge management process competence, innovation capability, and marketing fit exert significant effects on corporate growth. In particular, this study identifies a significant curvilinear relationship between innovation capability and corporate growth. The findings suggest that both management strategy-based and dynamic capabilities-based factors should be considered in achieving long term corporate growth in Chinese high technology firms. These results have important implications for researchers investigating the determinants of high technology firms' growth performance in transitional economies as well as practitioners seeking to improve corporate growth. This paper concludes with a discussion of the implications and limitations of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the special role of knowledge examination within a knowledge production value chain. Any generated knowledge has to be examined to achieve diffusion and commercialisation. The methods of examination, however, vary. Within aeronautics, original equipment manufacturers executed for a long time the function as knowledge examiners, while the further diffusion was mainly based on trust and social proximities. With global sourcing and the rising importance of system suppliers as integrators of new knowledge, examination has to be more formalised posing new challenges to incumbent SMEs. The paper investigates these challenges and consequences for the aeronautics value chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lean production and supply concepts are amongst the most influential management theories. Yet, they have scarcely been applied to aerospace, an industry sector of great importance. This paper identifies generic trends in aerospace outsourcing and explores to what extent the lean supply approach is fit to conceptualise them. It investigates to what degree the outsourcing strategies of Airbus UK and the wider Airbus operations are explicable with the lean approach. The paper finds that lean is capable of conceptualising most generic trends in aerospace outsourcing and most of the Airbus policies. Lean neglects the relevance of knowledge to outsourcing, however, and fails to recognise the diversity of the Airbus supply approach. Knowledge management in this process is now crucial. Technological capabilities are central to the Airbus strategies, illustrating the need to acknowledge knowledge as a key explanatory parameter of outsourcing theory. In conclusion, we find the higher the knowledge content, the more partnering occurs, the lower the content, the more hierarchical the relationship are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of the innovation process on organisational learning. To achieve this goal, we decompose innovation into two components, innovativeness and the capacity to innovate. This paper proposes theoretically the concept of Operative Real Options (OROs) and empirically seeks to measure their influence on the relationship between innovation and organisational learning. Using empirical data gathered from 204 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in European firms, the findings support the hypothesis that innovation and its two components improve the learning process in the organisation. However, we do not find support for the hypothesis that OROs moderate the relation between innovation and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing demand for reduced cost and improved quality of service in healthcare has prompted the call for better management of medical knowledge. The main emphasis has been on knowledge that is acquired through experience and medical research and then formalised into Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs). This paper presents a generic approach to CPG information and knowledge management that uses the Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rule paradigm and active databases within a unified management framework. The paper focuses on an approach for facilitating the use and management of CPGs by clinicians through delivering the CPGs at the point-of-care by a computerised mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper firstly analyses the importance of knowledge-based resources for the achievement of a competitive advantage for the firm. Additionally, the paper also addresses the strategic significance of this type of intangible resources in hospitals. Secondly, the paper argues that ''what is measured is managed'' and, therefore, proposes specific indicators to measure the different types of knowledge-based resources that exist in a hospital. Finally, the paper presents major conclusions and the implications for knowledge management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation, learning and knowledge leverage are crucial for the competitive edge of knowledge-intensive firms. In recent research on business relationships, the significance of studying routines embedded in inter-organisational learning has been stressed as a key element in understanding the development of relationships. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an approach for increasing understanding of the driving forces and influence of inter-organisational routines in the transformation process towards deeper customer-orientated collaboration in innovation. In practice, the results of the paper aim to promote organisations' balance between exploitation- and exploration-related activities towards more customer-orientated innovation management. The case study on the knowledge-intensive engineering consultancy industry illustrates features, driving forces and observed routines influencing the transformation process and collaborative learning mechanisms. Final conclusions and managerial implications are based on an analysis of the theoretical and empirical parts of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces a process for brainstorming new product ideas and business concepts. The developed process utilises a group support system. It aims to enhance the innovation process and the transfer of knowledge inside a company by offering effective means for cooperation. The paper reports the experiences and findings of using the developed process in business cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A challenge for African countries is how to integrate new sources of knowledge on plant genetics with knowledge from farmer practice to help improve food security. This paper considers the knowledge content of farmer seed systems in the light of a distinction drawn in artificial intelligence research between supervised and unsupervised learning. Supervised learning applied to seed systems performance has a poor record in Africa. The paper discusses an alternative - unsupervised learning supported by functional genomic analysis. Recent work in West Africa on sorghum, African rice and white yam is described. Requirements for laboratory-based analytical support are outlined. A science-backed 'farmer first' approach - while feasible - will require a shift in policy and funding by major investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is the backbone of economic and social development in Sudan, with 80% of the population depending on agriculture and all other sectors being largely dependent on it. Food security information is the key to food security and its timely availability, reliability and usability not only averts disaster, but also leads to developments that improve people's livelihoods (Mati, 2005). Food security information in Sudan is generated by many governmental institutions, UN agencies (WFP, FAO, IFAD, UNDP, etc.) and NGOs. This paper aims to assess the strength and weaknesses of information and data collection on food security and the existing market information system, identify gaps in the early warning system of impending food security disasters, and analyse the capacity to forecast yield and crop production and identify the gaps. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of strategic and policy implications of these findings for achieving food security in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the relationship among information, knowledge and technology management, with special emphasis on their applications in developing economies and how they relate to sustainable development. It also discusses the role of the national Information Technology (IT) policies in providing enabling environments for Knowledge Management (KM) for sustainable development. Finally, the paper appraises the national IT policies in two African countries (Nigeria and Ethiopia) to further provide insight into the provision of enabling environment that can lead to the process of KM for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable growth and technological development are achievable. This is possible when there is good governance striving for a vibrant entrepreneurship, with innovation at its very centre. In this regard, North African countries' records are strikingly lagging. Progress has been made, but remains far from expectations and potentialities. As globalisation has now pushed innovation to the top of the development agenda, new policies and strategies are needed. Successful integration into the world business requires innovation-based growth using all qualified people and initiatives. In these countries, competencies and creative forces do exist, but their effective utilisation requires greatest attention. As little is written about the issue, this paper aims at discussing obstacles of innovation in the countries in question and proposes some feasible solutions. The paper will draw from published and unpublished work and make reference of some factual records. Policy implications will be identified and specific actions will be proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing Countries (DCs), particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), are suffering from scientific information famine. The expectation that the internet would facilitate scientific information flow does not seem to be realisable, owing to the restrictive subscription fees of the high quality sources and the beleaguering inequity in the access and use of the internet and other Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources. This paper aims to assess and evaluate Open Access (OA) movement as a proposed solution to avoid the restrictions over accessing scientific knowledge, particularly in SSA. The paper also outlines the opportunities and challenges in implementing OA in SSA. However, there are often mismatches between what the 'donor' countries can reasonably offer and what the SSA countries can implement. Finally, the paper will discuss the slow uptake of the OA in Africa, the perception of the African scientists towards the movement, the non-expression of concern by policymakers and their implications on the scientific activities in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that Sub-Saharan Africa is a passive bystander in the global 'knowledge economy' race. In this race, success hinges on a country's capacity to develop and apply tacit knowledge to production systems, resulting in wealth creation and an enhanced quality of life. This race is currently led by four regions, called knowledge engines, namely, the European Union, East Asia, India and the USA. However, China, Brazil and others are making quiet strides as contenders. Africa's quest to join the race is crippled by complex problems which, arguably, are best solved through the adoption of modern knowledge systems and tools. In this Catch-22 situation, Africa can join the race only through pragmatic regional and global initiatives and resources, which would assist the region to develop the capacity to acquire the knowledge needed to pursue sustainable development. The paper suggests initiatives to radically hasten Africa's pace in the knowledge economy race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, mainstreaming knowledge management practices in government processes has assumed increasing importance. How have governments in Africa, if at all, incorporated knowledge management in governance and how inclusive has this process been? This paper will attempt to answer these key questions by examining the experiences and lessons learned in efforts to build knowledge management capacity across Africa. In doing so, the paper will provide a summary of the key presentations of the latest two-day conference, Knowledge Management as an Enabler of Change and Innovation in Africa (Cairo, 2007). Central to discussions was the need to create an enabling environment encouraging the adoption of knowledge management practices in Africa and the utilisation of indigenous knowledge assets as an important input in poverty alleviation strategies. More importantly, the paper outlines the challenges that can be observed and what opportunities for building the Africa Knowledge System are available. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of strategic and policy implications of these findings for achieving sustainable development in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proxies Knowledge Management (KM) enablers as strategy and leadership, organisational culture, employees, IT and establishing a special unit in charge of KM. By surveying small and medium enterprises in Taiwan, the results indicate that the four enablers of strategy and leadership, organisational culture, employees and establishing a special unit in charge of KM are significantly and positively associated with non-financial performance in the learning and growth perspective, internal process perspective and customer perspective. The outcomes of the learning and growth perspective and the internal business process perspective have mediating effects between the KM enablers and the performance in the customer perspective. This paper thus recommends that small and medium enterprises set up infrastructures of KM to increase the performance in the non-financial perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge Management (KM) is of growing interest in today's business and academic community. The increase in the number of books, articles and papers written reflects practitioners and academics alike trying to improve theories and concepts put forth by their peers to further support KM practice. This paper contributes to the stream of research on KM systems by proposing a KM environment to facilitate the knowledge evolution cycle. Guided by well-reviewed KM activities and the role of information technology and communication in strategically supporting knowledge processes, we have developed a KM system called KMsharer. The system consists of three major components: the XML editor, the KM tools and the WebShare server. The KMsharer uses an innovative XML knowledge-based schema for document conversion and storage has demonstrated to have better searching/accessing performance than the documents stored in common Word and XML formats. The KMsharer indeed is a powerful and useful tool for all personnel to access, create and store information in order to enhance knowledge sharing, collaboration and expedite decision-making strategically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge management requires an understanding of what knowledge is before the management can be meaningful. This paper observes how modules are identified and combined to form solutions in other systems. Once these infonomes and infomemes are identified through decomposition, perhaps a more precise cause-effect mapping may be used for a more efficient information management. Finally, this paper proposes an 'I wonder' list to help assess the true information needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether or not companies with a competitive advantage make better use of Information Technology (IT) through a survey sent to Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in a cross-industry sample of 204 large Italian firms. Using structural equations modelling on data about the returns produced by IT between 2001 and 2004 in the companies analysed, this paper shows that in the manufacturing industries, firms with a competitive advantage - thanks to their superior availability of organisational capabilities - were more likely to use IT to improve their knowledge about customers and the performance of the new product development processes. Thus, by investing in IT, these companies were able to strengthen their preexisting advantage. Furthermore, by showing the importance of the effects on IT results due to structural variables such as industry, size of the firm and multinational origin, this paper underlines the importance of more carefully considering such effects (and especially those due to industry) in information systems research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to take a first step in developing a theoretical framework describing the role of HRM in successful CI, based on the current literature from both fields. To this end, elements from the Cl Maturity Model and a framework depicting the role of HRM in innovation serve as a foundation for examining how specific bundles of HRM practices utilised during different phases of the CI implementation process may contribute to sustained organisational and enhanced operational performance. The primary contribution of this paper is theoretical; however, the framework has practical value in that it suggests important relationships between HRM practices and behaviours necessary for successful CI. A preliminary test of the framework in an empirical setting is summarised at the conclusion of this paper, where a number of possible research avenues are also suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews 100 papers on the topic of Industry—University (I/U) collaborations to identify the drivers and main-barriers to such collaborations. It reveals that the greatest challenges from the companies' point-of-view reside in steering the collaborative project towards business-objectives, and internalising the results for corporate technology innovation impact. Our review also reveals that there is only limited advice in the literature on how to handle these challenges. New knowledge is developed through deduction from theory and induction from qualitative in-depth studies with ten leaders of innovation in high-tech industries. The most relevant case is described in this paper — illustrating how Bang and Olufsen (B&O) spun off their core technology into a separate company so as to radically improve their steering and internalisation of academic knowledge in this area. Managerial conclusions are drawn from the theoretical framework and the case to suggest how to explore and exploit academic knowledge for global technology innovation impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectively implementing Knowledge Management (KM) is a strategic process and requires a balanced performance measurement system in high technology industries. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a comprehensive performance measurement model that aligns measurements with a firm's strategy and organises measurements into four perspectives, namely, financial, customer, internal business process and learning and growth. By analysing the data collected from high technology firms in Taiwan, this paper analyses the relative weights placed on the four perspectives of measurements in a BSC framework for KM. In such a performance measurement system for high technology industries, the performance measurements related to the internal business process perspective obtain the highest weight. This result suggests that measuring the performance of the internal business process perspective is more important than that of three other perspectives for high-tech firms. This paper provides evidence showing that high technology firms having a clear description of KM strategy, and linking rewards to KM are more likely to pay attention to measurement performance for KM, especially, the performance measurements related to the customer and internal business process perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the R&D knowledge management in a consortium. It presents an ethnographic study on Mobiconomy group, a consortium designing mobile services. We first demonstrate that the actor-network theory can be linked with theory of organizational knowledge creation, and thus apply it to examining the knowledge creation in Mobiconomy as a 'black-boxing' process. This paper discloses the improvisatory characteristics of knowledge of creation process in consortium. The author argues that a consortium should have a pre-project phase when a common vocabulary is developed and an integrator is introduced. The experience of our case consortium - that the write book has emerged as a tool of R&D knowledge management - can be drawn upon by other consortia. Implications for understanding the future trend of the mobile commerce market have been given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition process from building a minimum knowledge base to deploying the first strategic capabilities is a neglected issue in the literature on technological accumulation in Latin American firms. This paper analyses three organisational processes that may affect this stage and discusses the role of an unstable firm's technology strategy in influencing such processes. Based on a detailed case study of Vitro S.A., one of the largest and most successful Mexican industrial groups, this paper argues that a context characterised by macroeconomic instability and distortions, and the lack of vision of the firm's top management about the role of technology in competitiveness, contribute to explaining the instability of the firm's technology strategy. This, in turn, is a major factor that negatively influences the conversion of individual into organisational learning, the coordination of different learning strategies, and the steadiness of the knowledge-creation process. The weaknesses in these processes make the deployment of strategic capabilities and the completion of the transition process more difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The factors that facilitate organisational learning have traditionally been analysed by the organisational learning and, in particular, the learning organisation literature. However, empirical work in this area is lacking. This paper aims to address this shortcoming. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to identify through empirical research the factors that favour organisational learning. The hypotheses proposed are tested on a sample of 195 Spanish firms using the Structural Equation Modelling technique. The results show that decentralised strategic planning, collaborative culture, transformational leadership, selective hiring, strategic training and participation of employees in the decision making are positively related to the organisational learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant volatility within the manufacturing industry has meant that managers are expected to maximise advantages out of available resources. A large part of these available resources have over time become intangible, resident in the skills and knowledge of the workforce. Competitive advantages have been gained by inter alia, reducing lead times in production, shortening of product lifecycles and enlarging the diversity of product ranges. Such initiatives are linked to flexibility and adaptability of the knowledge systems in place. Evidently for these organisations to succeed, it is necessary for them to have formal knowledge systems that could sufficiently facilitate production processes. The first objective of the present paper is to evaluate current practices in developing knowledge management systems. The second objective is to relate obtained evidence within a particular manufacturing organisation which produces components for the electronics industry. For the purpose of this paper the organisation is referred to as Sarison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong's post-war catching up with economically advanced nations is well documented. Starting as a piece of 'barren rock', the island economy has emerged as the 'Mart of East Asia'. While there are numerous explanations for the success from neoclassical development economists, few studies have focused on the technological strategies and paths of Hong Kong's manufacturing firms, the chief economic actors. This paper attempts to interpret Hong Kong's economic success by examining its national innovation systems. More specifically, this paper investigates the technological catch-up paths taken up by Hong Kong's manufacturing firms. It will argue that manufacturing firms in Hong Kong in general took on imitative strategies. Their capability development routes are attributed partly to organisational learning and partly to Hong Kong's unique physical, political and cultural environments. Relying on three major imitative strategies, namely 'reverse value chain' strategy, 'reverse product life cycle' strategy and 'process capability specialist' strategy, manufacturing firms in Hong Kong were able to compete and survive in the global markets. Furthermore, by extending their competence in managerial and consultancy services, firms in Hong Kong evolved into regional coordinators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a discussion based on a literature review and a case study on the suitability of using an intranet as a platform to implement Knowledge Management System (KMS). A description of Knowledge Management (KM) and the current research carried out in this area, with examples of web-based KMS systems currently implemented in organisations, are presented. Further, this paper then describes how knowledge mapping of an organisation's intranet as a form of a KMS can be used to promote the re-utilisation of knowledge, which will contribute to the competitiveness of the organisation. A case study that illustrates and presents evidence of the need and suitability of such a system is provided. The paper ends with a proposal for future research to be carried out in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This theoretical paper explores the fundamental issue of how knowledge management initiatives impact business performance. Reflecting on the management literature in the fields of knowledge management and performance management enabled the deduction of four basic assumptions, representing the links of a conceptual cause-and-effect framework - the knowledge value chain. Drawing on the resource-based view and the competence-based view of the firm, the paper identifies strategic, managerial, and operational dimensions of knowledge management. The review of performance management frameworks discusses the role of knowledge management in those models. These reflections allow linking knowledge management with core competencies, strategic processes, business performance, and finally, with value creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a look at the spatial dimension of innovation processes, which do not occur in high-tech sectors but in clusters of SMEs. Territorial knowledge management means the generation of a system of procedures and incentives to convert tacit and localised knowledge into explicit knowledge available to all companies and employees in a region by overcoming cognitive barriers. Territorial knowledge management is a methodology, which aims to promote innovation within existing firms and the birth of innovative firms through the enhancement of the local endowment of intellectual capital and the governance of those processes, which drive knowledge creation within the firms and between these latter and the local actors. The paper presents an outlook on empirical indicators to measure the value generated by information and knowledge embodied in the firms and human resources of a local territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisational capability management is a recent approach; it enables global and coordinated management of resources and facilitates future synergies within extended organisations. This paper provides a state of the art of organisational capability approach and proposes a management framework. On the one hand, an overview of the theoretical principles and the practical solutions, especially methods for standardising and transferring firms' good practices, points out the limits of their sustainable functioning. On the other hand, the framework manages organisational capabilities by following the theoretical principles and overcoming identified barriers. This proposition is structured around three kinds of processes: primary (design and transfer), support (assessment and enhancement) and management (coordination and alignment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation intermediaries are critical enablers of inward and outward technology and knowledge transfer processes, particularly in domains and industries that are characterised by high complexity. Nanotechnology as a radical, generic technology is one such domain, which spans a plethora of different industries. As a result, intermediary organisations are essential for the future development and commercialisation of these technologies. However, little is known with regard to the inner workings of intermediaries and the knowledge management (KM) processes and capabilities deployed to facilitate matchmaking. Using an in-depth case study, the paper explores the key knowledge related challenges the intermediary faces and the KM processes and capacities utilised to facilitate intermediation. It is found that knowledge creation and exploration, knowledge storage, and knowledge transfer capacities are key capabilities that are enabled by the intermediary's proprietary access to an extensive network database. Results of the study have implications for both managers engaged or seeking to engage with intermediaries as well as managers of intermediaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the development path of four knowledge management (KM) projects in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that lead to the emergence of dynamic capabilities. First, we empirically show how KM projects create a learning context in which KM routines emerge that function as dynamic capabilities for adaption, absorption, or innovation to enable SMEs to remain competitive in a dynamic environment. In particular, KM projects aiming at adaption and absorption (efficiency, transfer of knowledge and experience) achieve sufficient results for obtaining enough resources and attention for a further development. Once the structure of the KM routine is established, the content migrates towards innovation. Second, we also provide an in-depth description of the evolutionary learning path from establishment to routinisation of KM projects winding up as dynamic capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of 1,011 employees in 54 small and medium-sized organisations from various industries examined the influence of five aspects of knowledge management on continuous innovation. Continuous innovation was divided into three composing elements: individual creativity; knowledge implementation and commercialisation; and organisational strategic flexibility. The results demonstrate that knowledge assets, strategic management of knowledge, knowledge codification, knowledge sharing and knowledge acquisition all function as enablers of continuous innovation. Furthermore, knowledge sharing practices among colleagues was found to be the most significant predictor of self-rated continuous innovation. Strategic management of knowledge predicted commercialisation success on the level of the whole organisation, while acquiring knowledge from external sources proved to be the key facilitator of organisational-level strategic flexibility. The paper extends understanding of the knowledge-based nature of continuous innovation by examining in detail the connections between various knowledge management activities and aspects of continuous innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of intellectual asset security has received widespread attention in recent times. Much of this attention can be attributed to the fact that knowledge assets can be used to secure competitive advantages for organisations. Moreover, one might assert that in today's knowledge-based economies and markets, it is these assets that truly differentiate organisations and are the only true source of sustainable competitive advantages. In order to have a robust program for managing intellectual assets, an organisation must account for its knowledge management and innovation processes. In this paper, drawing on: 1) a semiotic-based model for knowledge management (Desouza, 2006); 2) an organisational process of innovation (Desouza et al., 2006), the author describes an integrated process framework for the management of intellectual assets. The framework is then used to describe salient security management challenges faced when managing intellectual assets. Executives involved in security management programs in 23 organisations were interviewed to elicit key security management challenges faced by organisations when addressing intellectual assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes adjustments within the Madrid aeronautics cluster, which are driven by changes in the sourcing strategy of Airbus. Knowledge capabilities gain importance for the relations and importance of single organisations. Based on a detailed analysis of single organisations in the cluster, implications for the network structures and innovation processes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of anchor tenant was advanced to explain the emergence of regional systems of innovation. The anchor tenant is an organisation, often a large innovative firm or a research university or public laboratory that produces knowledge externalities in the region where it is located. The anchor produces such effects by spinning off new companies and attracting other ones. This paper argues that the dynamics of the anchor may help to explain the subsequent evolution of the region. It also maintains that anchor tenants are attracted to or created in regions that possess some favourable conditions and that such conditions are industry specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies have considered the concept of knowledge according to a cognitivist notion, that is, knowledge is associated with a set of viewpoints from the individual who handles it. This paper sheds light on the cognitive range and how it affects obtaining customer needs or knowledge conversion. The outcome of a questionnaire used with a large Japanese System-Integration (SI) firm shows that the cognitive range is related to the level of knowledge conversion but not to the impact of supporting factors. In contrast, in terms of obtaining customer needs, the cognitive range is related to the impact of supporting factors but not to the level of obtaining customer needs. Moreover, some factors consistently show positive relationships to obtaining customer needs and knowledge conversion under any conditions, meaning that they are necessary conditions for attaining knowledge creation and customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the linkages between Social Network Theory (Granovetter, 1973) and Organisational Knowledge Theory (Polanyi, 1966; Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka et al., 2001) as it relates to the diffusion of organisational innovation within large organisations. The focus is on examining these theoretical interrelationships in three case studies, delving into major change projects in three large telecommunications firms. The findings indicate that weak ties are vital when the focus is on explicit knowledge, while strong ties are vital when the focus is on tacit knowledge. Further, a model is posed to expand this theoretical interrelationship to include a third dimension: the knowledge source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the use of Information Technology (IT) tools in the management of Intellectual Property (IP) in collaborative projects involving groups of firms and their customer organisations in the design, development, manufacture and maintenance of complex products. We find that IT tools have long offered management capacities that have not been fully utilised. Through an in-depth study of IP management practice in collaborative defence projects we analyse the slow diffusion of available technological solutions and identify two contrasting models to set up inter-organisational networks for the exchange of large amounts of technical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a toolbox of elements which can be used to structure and characterise any Technology Intelligence (TI) system. The toolbox has been derived by reviewing what roles, activities and physical infrastructure companies adopt in practice to build their own TI capability, including social networks. The different choices of elements can be attributed to the four modes of searching from Kerr et al.'s (2006) model: mine, trawl, target and scan. With the exception of the trawl mode, which features just connector elements, all the technology intelligence modes are supported by coordination, source connectors, repositories of information and search elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information Systems in the context of the health domain play a critical role. The evolution of the semantic web and knowledge management technologies in the last years set a new context for the exploitation of patient-centric strategies based on well-defined semantics and knowledge. In this paper we have two critical objectives. On the one hand to exploit the state of the art on Semantic Web and Knowledge Management (KM) approaches in the context of the health domain and on the other hand to underline the key challenges within the FP7 framework of the European Union for customised and personalised health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical Knowledge-Management (KM) represents a specific category of KM that requires specific support. Clinical knowledge mixes formal scientific knowledge with a person-culture in which the expertise of clinicians is key. In KM life-cycles, this entails that the required processes associated to clinical knowledge diverge from other kind of activities. Further, the technological support required for clinical knowledge assets is multi-perspective. This paper deals with those differences from the viewpoint of formal ontology. An epistemological account of such knowledge is provided. Then, problems of claim evaluation and representation are approached from it, resulting in a realistic set of design guidelines for clinical KM prepared for ontology-based systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term healthcare organisations significantly benefit from Knowledge Management (KM). However, the extant literature has little empirical support for this statement. Using the KM instrument developed by Bontis and Fitz-enz (2002), this paper extends prior studies by evaluating behaviours within a not-for-profit context over several years. As such, it tests a comprehensive causal model that illustrates the inputs and outputs of effective KM. Longitudinal data was collected during three temporal periods which provides unique insight related to the optimal strength of each causal link over time. These results also broaden the initial findings developed by Bontis and Fitz-enz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the knowledge intensive pharmaceutical sector, novelty and value are essential for corporate success. This paper discusses the requirements for, and the role of, effective Knowledge Management, as a means for business optimisation and improvement in terms of performance and competitiveness. The various types of knowledge resources are identified and major issues for both explicit/informational and tacit/behavioural assets are discussed. It is argued that the key challenges for the future are underpinned by the rapidly increasing need for more effective communication, either between systems or between people. Intelligent information processing and improved knowledge transfer and sharing are called for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cooperative and collaborative nature of healthcare delivery requires active user participation in healthcare process design/redesign. Hence, there is a need to provide users with reusable, flexible, agile and adaptable training material in order to enable them instil their knowledge and expertise in healthcare process modelling and automation activities. This paper presents a prototype approach for designing user training material which is based on externalising domain knowledge in the form of ontology-based knowledge networks. The approach provides significant advantages to both designers (knowledge-content reusability and Semantic Web enabling) and users (semantic search, knowledge navigation and knowledge dissemination). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop a list of critical factors for knowledge management (KM), using different theoretical frameworks. We identified four elements which were common to most models: management promotion, infrastructure, strategy and evaluation. Conducting four case studies from firms in the chemical industry allowed us to compare our factors with empirical data. We found that the involvement of top management is crucial for the implementation of knowledge management, whereas evaluation seems to be less important. In all cases, knowledge management was seen as a continuous development process. However, one of our most interesting findings is that an incentive programme seems to be necessary for a successful implementation of KM in the culture and processes of an organisation. Looking at the development of KM systems over time, we observed a conversion of all four analysed cases at the process level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]