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A study was conducted to examine social interaction between managers from different units of a multinational enterprise (MNE). Findings indicate that social interaction has an effect on all intra-MNE knowledge flows. The need to devote more attention to the social constitution of MNE knowledge is also discussed.

INTRODUCTION Three major trends have come together at the start of the new millennium, raising the stakes for firms seeking to compete in the new economy. Initially, knowledge management (KM, [...]

Research shows that the most valuable activities in knowledge management focus on creating knowledge networks that exceeds beyond the communities of practice. In order to foster value creating networks, four stages of network development process are discussed also the Best-practice and Business Opportunity networks have directly contributed the creation of value within organizations

Byline: Stephane Aubry, Indira Thouvenin, Dominique Lenne, Shigeki Okawa Annotations in virtual environment are the means to improve communication in distant collaborative design. In the Matrics project, we develop a platform to support annotation-based collaboration and associate those annotations with a knowledge model. We present the collaborative design situations we are working on and split them into three subsituations: symmetrical collaboration, workflows and project re-exploitation. In these situations, collaboration problems often arise. We present a solution that consists in enabling the designers to directly annotate their model in the 3D-environment as well as its implementation in an application for annotating in VR environments. Then, we discuss tests on this application and the need to link the annotations to a knowledge model. We present the knowledge model, the ways to exploit it as well as experiments in order to evaluate the benefits of knowledge integration in the annotating environment.

Byline: Matt Statler, Johan Roos The strategic challenge of how organisations can become more prepared for unexpected events has risen in importance in recent years. It has become increasingly clear that organisational leaders require not only knowledge and skills but also ethical values as they make preparations in response to potentially overwhelming risks. In this theoretical essay, we explore the concept of practical wisdom within the growing stream of research that focuses on the practices of strategy making. In view of philosophical, psychological and organisational research, we develop an interpretative model of practical wisdom to guide future empirical research that describes and deliberates about preparedness-related practices that are both effective and ethical.

Byline: Jaana Parviainen, Marja Eriksson There has been a particular emphasis on knowledge and competence as increasingly important resources for successful enterprises. This notion of knowledge is based on 'positive knowledge', which considers knowing as merely a constructive, linear and accumulative process. We will introduce the notion of 'negative knowledge', which involves 'giving up' or 'bracketing' knowledge in certain situations. When experts encounter something that is incompatible with their knowledge, they should be sensitive enough to recognise a new situation by reconsidering or suspending their action. In addition to exploring the idea of 'unlearning', the paper introduces three other aspects of negative knowledge: 'to know what we do not know', 'to know what not to do' and 'the value of failure'. Negative knowledge seems to be possible, useful and even necessary in expert organisations because old ways of thinking or knowing something often prevent us from seeing new potentials.

Byline: Abdel Moneim M. Baheeg Ahmed, Khaled Abdel Aziz Hegazy The objectives of this study were to assess the current levels of application of Information Technology (IT) support for the implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) and other information resources in Egyptian organisations, underpinning the benefits from the effective implementation of KM and to identify the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) to develop a valid and reliable model that will serve as a good practice for the Arab world. Issues/items of importance to KM were generated by extensive literature review, case studies and non-structured interviews. A total sample of 150 questionnaires was sent to selected organisations; the response rate was 63.71%. This study has identified 33 key factors categorised under four different headings: (1) Technology, (2) KM processes, (3) Change management and (4) Top management commitment. This paper fills a gap that exists in the empirical studies literature regarding the Middle Eastern region, particularly Egypt. The paper reports on the first phase of an ongoing research project.

Byline: Jing Tian, Yoshiteru Nakamori, Jianwen Xiang, Kokichi Futatsugi Research on knowledge management in academia has become a hot issue and a promising research area. Most research, however, has focused on general educational organisations, such as high schools and universities. This paper concentrates on understanding the problems of knowledge creators per se instead of the general student population, as disclosed by a survey of the scientific knowledge management and creation process at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). By using comparison, classification, cross tabulation, and other analysis methods, some subtle issues and hidden problems have been discovered in this survey, such as the unevenness of technical support among different schools, ignorance of cooperation as one source of knowledge, different requirements of foreign and Japanese researchers, and so on. Along with these findings, we also present our corresponding analysis and suggestions for more effective knowledge management and better creativity support, and some perspectives and future research directions in this field.

Byline: Stephen Ko, John E. Butler The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among prior knowledge, bisociative thinking mode and entrepreneurial opportunity identification in a sample of 197 technology-based entrepreneurs. Results indicate that bisociative thinking mode of an entrepreneur mediates the relationship between prior knowledge and entrepreneurial opportunity identification. In addition, the relationship between prior knowledge and entrepreneurial opportunity identification is stronger for high-technology entrepreneurs. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.

Byline: Georg Schreyogg, Daniel Geiger This paper attempts to revise the bases of the knowledge discussion in the field of knowledge management. The point of departure is the striking discrepancy between the great importance attributed to knowledge (knowledge economy, knowledge resources, knowledge-intensive firms, etc.) on the one hand and the largely vague and all-embracing conceptualisations of knowledge on the other hand. It is suggested that the concept of knowledge be reformulated in a much more selective and reflective way to provide an adequate template for the academic field of knowledge management. Concepts from the communicative theory of action, discourse analysis and constructivism are integrated to provide a model of the antecedents, processes and implications of a selective notion of knowledge.

Byline: Bertram Tan, Hsiang-chin Hung This study aims to facilitate knowledge management for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) by the proposed ISO 9000-based Knowledge Management System (KMS) introduction model. A Delphi study was employed to investigate critical success factors of both knowledge management and ISO 9000. The result helps SMEs easily build their KMSs.

Byline: Alex Koohang, Jacques Du Plessis, Johannes Britz Within the context of knowledge management, this paper explores how communities of practice (CoP) can be used as a framework in the process of creating, using, and reusing learning objects in learning organisations. The focus of this paper is not on how to create, use, and reuse learning objects. It is on the pertinent role of knowledge management and its tools in the process of creation, use, and reuse of learning objects in learning organisations.

Byline: H. Will Knowledge management and administration have been defined according to the symbol system hypothesis. This paper argues that they depend instead on semiotic information systems that entail an event-driven and dispositional user perspective. Semiotics as the theory of signs implies that information systems be designed as contextual knowledge and action support systems. This has behavioural, conceptual and technological implications and suggests that cognitive, ethical, methodological, organisational and technological criteria must be met if we are to replace traditional, un-assuring data, model, and information processing systems with those that can provide assurances to their users. Assurance is a transient attribute of information because what we know changes frequently and what we receive in terms of information may neither be believable nor true. To dispel doubts requires built-in assurances based on proper internal control systems, understood as meta-information systems, and re-assurances by such assurors as competent, ethical, and independent auditors.

Byline: Milan Zeleny Decision-making processes are characterised by purposeful coordination of interrelated activities of pre-decision, decision and post-decision stages. In this sense, human decision-making processes require explicit knowledge generation, enhancement and renewal. So far, the areas of decision-making have remained mostly free of knowledge and knowledge management, process orientation and autopoiesis and self-producing cycles in general. Yet, in this paper, we move further ahead. The transition from information to knowledge is still going on and much remains to be accomplished, but the next transition from knowledge to wisdom is already taking shape. We formulate clear, unambiguous and pragmatic definitions and distinctions of knowledge and information, establish simple and natural measures of the value of knowledge and describe the knowledge-information autopoietic cycle A-C-I-S and its circulatory nature in managing knowledge of the enterprise. Then we elaborate on the future evolution of knowledge management by discussing the outlines of wisdom, wisdom systems and the contours of the Wise Enterprise.

Byline: Jianzhong Hong, Pirjo Stahle This paper reviews and identifies the distinct perspectives on knowledge management and key conceptual views on organisational competence, and focuses on conceptual evolution over time. It introduces the perceivable coevolution of knowledge and competence management in recent research and practice, and shows the movement towards an integrated and systemic view where the overall challenge is the management of the whole system towards a self-renewable organisation. The strategic implications and the comparative analysis are discussed in this paper.