Search

Based on an examination of best-practice organizations, five stages common to successful KM implementation are identified. Together, they form the APQC Road Map to Knowledge Management Results. A quiz is provided to help an organization assess its current stage of KM development. Each stage is described and illustrated with examples from best-practice organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, there is a growing recognition by researchers and practitioners about the importance of managing knowledge as a critical source for competitive advantage. Various assertions about competitiveness through knowledge management (KM) are consistent with results of empirical studies and lessons learned on the knowledge highways and byways. In spite of these macro-level contentions and success stories, there has been little investigation of a systematic means for studying connections between KM activity and competitiveness. This chapter advances a knowledge chain model that identifies and characterizes KM activities an organization can focus on to achieve competitiveness. The model is analogous to Porter's value chain and is grounded in a descriptive KM framework developed via a Delphi-study involving international KM experts. It is comprised of five primary activities that an organization's knowledge processors perform in manipulating knowledge resources, plus four secondary activities that support and guide their performance. Each activity is discussed in detail, including examples. Evidence is provided from the literature illustrating each activity's role in adding value to an organization to increase its competitiveness through improved productivity, agility, reputation, and innovation. In conclusion, we present some observations about avenues for future research to extend, test, and apply the model in business practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An expanded paradigm is needed to explain how competitive advantage is gained and held. Firms resorting to 'resource-based strategy' attempt to accumulate valuable technology assets and employ an aggressive intellectual property stance. However, winners in the global marketplace have been firms demonstrating timely responsiveness and rapid and flexible product innovation, along with the management capability to effectively coordinate and redeploy internal and external competences. This source of competitive advantage, 'dynamic capabilities', emphasizes two aspects. First, it refers to the shifting character of the environment; second, it emphasizes the key role of strategic management in appropriately adapting, integrating, and re-configuring internal and external organizational skills, resources, and functional competences toward a changing environment. Only recently have researchers begun to focus on the specifics of developing firm-specific capabilities and the manner in which competences are renewed to respond to shifts in the business environment. The dynamic capabilities approach provides a coherent framework to integrate existing conceptual and empirical knowledge, and facilitate prescription. This chapter argues that the competitive advantage of firms stems from dynamic capabilities rooted in high performance routines operating inside the firm, embedded in the firm's processes, and conditioned by its history. It offers dynamic capabilities as an emerging paradigm of the modem business firm that draws on multiple disciplines and advances, with the help of industry studies in the USA and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]