It is my aim in this paper to elucidate the nature of ideas. I will argue that an idea, far from being a useful asset or tool, comes down to a disposition to overcome, whether in thinking or in acting, an impasse. Generating ideas cannot fail to affect the generator’s structure of subjectivity itself, enabling them to look ‘beyond’ a given impasse. I propose an approach that is philosophical in nature, with an emphasis on phenomenology. In my presentation I will briefly discuss some phenomenological features of ideas. Ideas, I will argue, are (1) beyond a subject/object split: a fundamental ‘passivity’ in the subject will necessarily be part and parcel of their ‘generation’. Next (2), ideas will be occasioned by synchronistic developments that typify the idea-generator’s wider environment. Finally (3), ideas are bound to possess an irreducibly opacity, that can never be made fully transparent. This methodology puts in evidence that the prevailing empirical-scientific worldviews tend to over-emphasise objects. However, not only can we imagine ways of being that do not comply with an object-structure (emotions, values, beliefs), but also do those things that we approach as objects lose essential features in the very act of our objectification. This is very relevant when it comes to ideas. Approached as objects, ideas seem to be susceptible to manipulation and instrumentalization. It is my hypothesis that the nature of ideas undoes the prevailing subject/object structure that characterises our technological age. The outcomes of the application will be a non-exhaustive list of eight preconditions for idea generation.

Within the context of idea generation and the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process, the authors dive deeper into the transition step between Diverging and Converging, named Reverging. In most literature, the activities in the Reverging step are not seen as a separate step, but rather as part of a Converging step. However, Reverging differs significantly in goals and mindset from Converging. In Reverging the number of options will not be narrowed (as in Converging). Instead, the aim of Reverging is to revisit and rearrange all the options in order to build a shared understanding about the content with the Resource Group. Through this activity of Resource Group dynamics, new insights in the problem and solution space are revealed and refined. Finally, Reverging will enable a reset to smoothen the transition from the Diverging state of mind to the Converging state of mind. The Reverging mindset will be fostered by applying the golden rules of Reverging: Active participation, Responsive listening and Move circular. This paper builds on Tassoul and Buijs (2007) who already argued for an extra step, which they called ‘Clustering’. However, Clustering is only one way to approach the Reverging stage. Therefore, a systematic search was done for different techniques that can be applied in the Reverging step. The techniques were categorized along the number of dimensions used in the rearrangement of options: 0, 1, 2 or 3. Respectively, these technique types were named the Clustering Approach, the Scaling Approach, the Matrix Approach and the Cube Approach. Most practioners (Creative Facilitators) we have consulted conduct already some form of Reverging, however in literature there is a gap concerning this step. Therefore, this study expands the knowledge of this essential creative activity in the Creative Problem Solving process and offers a starting point for further research regarding this Reverging step. The goals and golden rules discussed in this paper will support Creative Facilitators in becoming more familiar with the purpose and value of conducting a Reverging step during the Creative Problem Solving process. In addition, the paper provides 5 sets of techniques to approach Reverging.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the troublesome situation of bringing out-of-the-box ideas into good currency within organizations. This is one of the central problems of innovation put forward by Andrew van de Ven in 1986. We describe the journey an idea travels through an organization until good currency is reached, that is, the idea has been realized and has been transformed into a new or adapted organizational practice; it has become part of the organizational knowledge and the new box is realized. We have applied a grounded approach based on the works of Glaser & Straus (1967), Glaser (1998 & 2002) and Locke (2001). This approach aims to build theory from observations grounded in real life. A large research base of 30 empirical projects that spans some 25 years of investigations serves as source for our theorizing. In addition, theorizing was complemented by the experiences from the trenches in two innovation projects. The abundant data sets and long stretch of the research, allowed for continuous data-theory iterations, reflective approaches and numerous trials to write theory. As the call for papers indicated, there is not one single theoretical framework that adequately explains the organizational life of an idea until it has been encapsulated by knowledge in action. Which is exactly the gap this paper aims to bridge. Based on March’s notion of the technology of foolishness and technology of reason we will describe what happens to the maturing idea while it proliferates into the organization. These two technologies are both indispensable for organization’s survival but live a life in the shades of duality. By temporal connection of these two into a continuum we are able to describe the organizational life of an idea. In addition, it is suggested that technology of foolishness, design theory and pragmatism are all describing the same phenomenon. Such, helps enriching the poorly described technology of foolishness, hence, it provides some method to support the madness. The framework presented here aims to serve as a pragmatic tool for practitioners with which they will be able to assess the situation they and their ideas find themselves in. For this purpose, the paper provides a different perspective on how to treat out-of-the-box ideas and suggests to hire a designer to support the creation of the new box around the out-of-the-box idea.

This paper builds on more than a decade of study and practice of managerial reflection within management education. Reflection involves not only the stimulation of ideas, but also making those ideas tangible. This paper the interplay between intangibility and tangibility in the evolution of ideas, especially in a context where increasing unorder and ambiguity impact the nature of managerial knowledge. It then reviews how managers can in practical terms achieve successful reflection as an integral part of their everyday work. This paper draws longitudinally on successive experiments and research into this topic over more than 15 years. The core of this paper is a10 step model as specifically arising from our work on managerial reflection. This is the first publication of the 10 step model. The approaches included here have potential impact on learning design in business schools and in professional development, and can augment coaching and mentoring methods.

The purpose this paper is analyzing and comparing all the papers in the proceedings of International forum on knowledge asset dynamics (IFKAD) 11 (Dresden) and 12 (St. Petersburg). The study is classifying them according to methodology, analysis, discussion and conclusion regarding their contribution placing them into the four paradigmatic boxes. The papers presented in Dresden is compared to the papers presented in St. Petersburg. A total of 156 papers in Dresden and 164 papers in St. Petersburg. The approach is to use a philosophy of science framework and compare this to the content of the research papers. We will use the findings in four representations of knowledge, two typologies of concepts, four paradigmatic classifications and in the concluding framework for knowledge management research. Both conferences a heavy emphasis upon knowledge-itis and instrumental-itis and much less emphasis upon problem-itis. The papers are mostly centered around existing knowledge and accepted methodology and less related to new problems. The results indicate a conference based upon as-is knowledge and less upon new and often unsolvable problems. The IFKAD studies both in 2016 and 2017 have rather low complexity presented in an empirical and materialistic paradigmatic framework through definitive concepts representing a form of atomistic research. What would IFKAD have been with a higher degree of complexity in action and subjective paradigmatic framework through sensitizing concepts representing a form of holistic research? Probably a more creative, engaged and relevant conference. Probable also a more scientific conference since advances in knowledge demand not living up to the conference expectations data cannot meet. Data do not prove anything in themselves. It is only the logic argumentation and speculations of the researchers that can prove anything at all. Objectivity is in demand, but subjectivity is needed. To move ahead for better quality in the research it is necessary to break free from the empirical paradigm and the materialistic paradigm and move into the clarified subjectivity and action paradigm. Paradigmatic ecumenism will tend to a fiercer, but an idea-generating debate. This pluralistic approach will give more engaged practical research representing more sustainable societies and businesses.

Creativity is crucial in solving the wicked problems we face today. We make theory on creativity easily applicable for practicioners (i.e. designers, innovators, buisness leaders, and falicilators and trainers of creativity). This will lead to more efficient and effective use of creativity and assist us in our complex problem solving. In this paper we focus on expertise and the role of expertise in facilitating innovation and problem solving workshops (i.e. all workshop that require creativity). Expertise is recognized as an important mediator of creativity and reseached thoroughly (Weisberg, 2006; Sawyer, 2012). It should be clear for facilitators that expertise is an aspect to focus on in innovation and problem solving workshops. Not only is expertise not the focus in these workshops, there are still facilitators believe that expertise kills creativity! Also, in a great amount of tools or work forms we use to facilitate creativity, I found none that makes explicite use of the expertise of the participants in a workshop (Brown et al., 2010; Dirkse-Hulscher et al., 2007). The purpose of this paper is to argue for more explicite use of expertise in innovation and problem solving workshops. The methodology has four steps. The first two steps are, one, a literature study on the role of expertise in creativity, and, two a thouroughly analysis of two tool books that together hold over two hundred techniques to enhance creativity for each situation. For the third step we invent a new technique to enhance creativity that explicitely uses expertise, and fourtly we put this technique to the test. The fourth step is testing the new technique. This paper focusses on step one. Bridging the gap between theory and practice is super important and valuable. This focus on expertise is a first step in that direction. Our grant mission is to make us use all mediators of creativity in a most effective way. With an emphasis on use. We will unleash all usused creative potential! The practical implication of this project is huge. The entire purpose of the project is to have practical implication, as we target practitioners, facilitators in this specific case. We need practitioners to live up to their full creative potential and stimulate creativity in others by using the mediators of creativity, in order to solve the complex problems we face today.

My presention will be a follow up on the presentation of dr. Guido Enthoven on how to develop a Science of Ideas. Ideas are seen as related to knowledge which is taken as an organized framework (Kroeber) following the social construction of observations, facts, theories, paradigms and ideologies (Giddens). In my presentation the focus will be on the relation between knowledge and ideology. Examples will be presented from different fields. It is reasoned that the postmodern approach does not seem capable to adress the challenges of current times. The author will therefore propose a future oriented postnihilistic approach. On the theoretical level the conclusion is that for a Science of Ideas a comprehensive approach which includes both knowledge and ideology is promising but not unproblematic.

Online research reports 2,4 billion of daily conversations online, that involve a brand (Thelwall & Kousha, 2015), and those comments take place whatever the brand are agree or disagree. The online post between consumers is known as the Word of Mouth electronic (eWOM). EWOM was defined by Henning-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K., Walsh, G. and Gremler, D. on 2004 as “any positive sentence or comments realized by a potential, current or previous consumer, over a product or company, which is attainable to navigators by internet”. This research will expose the key factors of eWOM posted on portals for booking online like TripAdvisor, on the consumer making-decision process. Examining the eWOM qualitatively with lexical analysis software we discover these key factors. Finally, an experiment will be performance for discover how the factors effects on the consumer making-decision process, when the booking online could take place. The first stage is a qualitative lexical analysis with software Alceste. For the second, an experiment will be performance, for understand how the key factors of eWOM can affect the voyagers on the process of make a booking online for a hotel for they dream vacations. Qualitative research for eWOM has not been taken for researches so often, there is a gap on these investigation, especially for lexical analysis. The hospitality market could take advantages of this type of research, because eWOM can be measured for predict the rise of booking online for the future, on the hospitality management.

The purpose of this paper is to map supporting and hampering factors of innovation in emerging countries through conducting a systematic literature review. The research is based on a systematic literature review (SLR) approach. The review was conducted in several steps; determination of keywords and strings, selection of data bases and inclusion and exclusion considered search in chosen databases. The analysis includes 160 papers. This review provides an insight into the current body of knowledge on the topic which researchers can benefit from constructing an in-depth understanding of the state of research as well as innovation activities in emerging countries although our initial understanding presents a limited research on this topic. Based on these findings, future research avenues will be proposed and shown to both researchers for conducting future research to fill the gaps in research in innovation activities in emerging countries, and also practitioners to better understand the possible supporting and hampering factors towards innovation activities in emerging countries and therefore, build a better organisational structure for their firm or organisation.

This research aims to evaluate different design and research methods for their applicability to the design of smart environments. It focuses on methods that are able to capture human emotions, feelings and interaction with their environments. The article will focus on a comparison of different design methods in the light of smart buildings and will further explore these comparisons by using two types of buildings (housing for older adults and schools). This article is a literature study on design methods, comparing literature on different types of design (such as user-centred design or co-design). Afterwards these insights are applied to two types of buildings, specifically smart housing for older adults and smart schools. This research shows the importance of designing with empathy in the design and research into smart buildings. Furthermore, it examines different design methods for different stages of the design. Lastly, it applies these methodological insights to two building types. For designing of and research on smart environments it is important that designers and researchers develop a sense of empathy for the users. It helps to give a more complete view of the user in terms of how they make sense of their environment and the interaction with their environment. This article contributes specifically to how this can be applied in the case of smart schools and smart buildings for older adults.

Content of the article is an evaluation of the first results and observations in the framework of the EU-funded innovation project TRAILS. TRAILS is a new training and service format that offers innovation trainings on a mobile basis in rural regions. These are covered in rapid time by demographic change. Rural areas in the narrower sense occupy about 58 percent of the federal territory. Here live a quarter of the population. Central and regional centers, small urban areas, assume many cultural, economic and social functions for rural areas. Lack of work, educational and leisure opportunities make these regions unattractive for young people and often without prospects. The research aims at expanding the concept of ‘spacial usability’, `innovation adoption` and `technology acceptance` to the specific processes and determining factors and mechanisms in limited special work forms. A theoretical-qualitative approach was identified as an appropriate method of analysis, since the processes and factors at stake can be explained by a mechanism oriented strategy. The basic idea of TRAILS is to provide students and SME employees in rural and often economically disadvantaged regions access to new technologies such as maker spaces, hackathons and start up weekends, which are otherwise only available in urban areas. In addition, the innovation workshops on offer convey methods and techniques for their use as well as innovative thinking and acting. Companies such as Google use these formats worldwide to initiate innovations and founding ideas as well as to develop successful business models and at the same time secure the next generation of employees. Studies show that rural areas such as the project region have properties that, according to the regional scientific theory approaches, are considered enriching for innovation production. These include a strong cooperation tradition, close trusting network relationships based on long-term acquaintances, and occasionally close economic-political ties.

In the context of digital spatial analysis and modeling urban space and processes, this article presents a methodology to update and operationalize Jan Gehl’s traditional observations on activities people engage in public urban space. We aim to show how shared (big) data can help to understand contemporary urban processes and retool urban planning and management for the common good. The article details how newly computed analyses, such as Shannon-Wiener Index of complexity of activities as well as gravity and centrality indexes, can be implemented to study the experiential qualities of public spaces and development opportunities of urban spaces and neighborhoods. The proposed method is tested in the city of Turku in Finland, where an interactive interface called Turku Open Platform is used by developers and stakeholders, integrating these analytics to decision-making and public discussions. The so-called human behavior or city social dynamics or practices are not exclusively determined by the morphology of the place or its function, but they have an anthropological basis. Social needs (need for security, for openness, of play, for isolation and encounter, etc.) are anthropological requirements generated and developed socially. In this context, structure, function and form are not sufficient for the generation of social relations, but they can only favor it. By measuring these social needs stored in online social media servers, a new layer of the city is defined and thus, it is available for analysis and eventually intervention. This whole process constitutes the city as a hybrid space that can only be fully comprehended by analyzing the layers of information beyond the spatial form. A great part of this information is registered in online servers, and it is rated and reviewed by apps and social media users. This could be understood as a sample of human behavior or social dynamics and practices to which one can access by mining API data. Re-organising both location-based social media data, statistical sources and configurational spatial analysis, the presented method unearths emerging activity patterns across scales from local to regional, shifting focus from the traditional functional analysis of urban space towards understanding activities and, thus, the human perspective of use, practices and new agencies.

This paper describes a method and a toolset for capturing and analysing public opinions in social media in order to support citizen participation in urban development projects. This method was developed and is currently applied in the EU Horizon 2020 project “U_CODE” in order to inform professional urban planners about the public opinion and its different variations. In contrast to other projects our approach explicitly takes into account the dialogical nature of discourse in social media in order to capture the dynamics of online discourse and to get deeper insights into the public debate. We use a method called Discourse Structure Analysis to analyse the often complex message threads in social media. This method is able to detect dialogue sequences in order to find intensive discussions and calculate the amount of participation in relation to different topics. By analysing the reply patterns we derive the social network structures of the participants and find sub-groups and citizen experts. In combination with topic and sentiment analysis we can create structures which represent the connections between topics, sentiments and people and visualize these in different ways in order to support the cooperation between the public and the professional planners. Topic and sentiment analysis are very popular in the field of market research and arose as a helpful tool to gain useful insights from Social Media data. State of the art approaches usually share the method of assigning a numeric score between -1 and 1 to a target word referring to a product, a company or other developments to be evaluated. However, a single score which indicates whether sentiments are positive, negative or neutral, do not offer many insights for adjustment. Therefore, a combined approach of discourse, text and sentiment analysis for target based opinion retrieval is better suited to detect wishes, concerns, fear and similar emotions but also problems and ideas which are related to an urban planning project. The outcomes of the application are the following: Automatic capturing of online discourse across different social media channels. Mapping of public opinion structures, social networks and their interplay. Visualization of online debates in order to derive and summarize core argumentation structures. Feedback to all stakeholders of the discussion (participants, planners, decision makers) by adapted analysis results and visualizations.

The urban environment that we share today is going through complex processes of planning, re-design and refurbishment. Public involvement is largely scaled down to unidirectional informative announcements where fundamental strategic decisions and investments in conceptual design have already been made. Citizens are apparently split into people who are more than ever willing to engage in decision making processes regarding their built environment and others who seem to show disinterest. However, both groups do not hesitate to go out in protest and stop construction work that they do not approve of. This often turns into a nightmare for public administrations and investors, because a lot of money is at stake. Lack of continuous public involvement early on spurs civil resistance in realization phases caused by the feeling of being ignored and confronted with accomplished facts. Authorities, even if aware of the fact that conventional procedures are suitable no more, do not have the appropriate tools at hands, to pursue a dialog with the public on complex topics, at a large scale and with many, often disputing, stakeholders involved. Urban planning of a larger scale sometimes degenerates into a sharpened political discussion in which factual arguments do not take precedence. Public opinion then depends on random events and a mutually balanced decision-making process is far from likely. Misinformation can hardly be balanced out by content-focused information. A roundtable discussion involving all stakeholders such as citizens, experts, public authorities, investors and politicians is not likely to be convened only until the discussion has run already out of control. In addition, technical capabilities to make complex technical and planning content accessible and understandable to a larger audience are not available at present. Urban planning takes place in a complex context of regulations, expectations and opportunities which are prioritized differently in each of the groups involved. Success in communication between those groups depends heavily on media and formats used, as well as sentiments and trust. The language of an expert needs to be translated into terms understandable for citizen laymen. The budgetary options and limitations need to be explained to tax payers and other stakeholders. While the communication and data exchange needed for decision making and project management in construction planning resembles those of a BIM-project collaboration platform the exchange between experts and the public does not. Tailor-made areas i.e. for the laymen-to-expert dialogue, the different levels of co-creation between experts and citizens or the analysis and aggregation of bulk citizen feedback into a format consumable for experts are clearly an add-on. The developed framework and open platform prototype for mass participation will be a basis for an extended exchange of knowledge between citizens and decision makers in urban planning projects, making the public a part of the decision finding cycle. It leverages on the process management capabilities of the underlying Common Data Environment (CDE) Oracle + aconex connected BIM. The integration of the public in urban planning will further enhance the quality and acceptance of urban projects.

Exploring data-driven business models in the context of smart or intelligent cities, this paper introduces a methodology how a strategic exploitation of urban data can lead to an iterative, controlled and sustainable development of innovative services or products for local entrepreneurs, companies or municipalities. Our key idea is that comprehensive and transparent knowledge about the behaviour, feelings and needs of people in their daily living environment, as well as about the urban context, business environment and local networks can support and flourish the emergence or improvement of businesses, services and products in future neighbourhoods. Our approach connects urban data and local business models. We consider the needs of the citizen – who are “key consumers” of cities – as major impeller for successful urban ventures. In order to comprehensively summarize those needs, a combination of qualitative (constantly pursued surveys) and quantitative measurements (sensor infrastructures) are requisite. The process of qualifying existing local business models with the detected local needs, and reviewing them on the basis of locally collected data, we have termed “Urban Data Business Modelling”. Detected needs may hint at yet unidentified deficits in the local economy, thus leading to new business opportunities and to future cities with increasing life quality . The approach presented here targets at evidence-based design of business models. As it argues for the generation of local business models spurred by local data, it contributes to discussions on hyperlocality. Using advanced data analytics in order to identifying demand patterns within urban data may provide an entirely new basis for the generation of business models. Within a project funded by the European Social Fund, TU Dresden Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture and IT company Spectos GmbH are currently developing a platform prototype “Data4City” that combines goal-orientated urban data harvesting with Urban Data Business Modelling. The outcome of the project will be an advisory software supported by data banks of various urban business models, and a guidance system for the exploration of local business models.

The paper aims at providing a procedural and instrumental framework for enabling massive citizen participation in urban planning projects via digital collaboration and communication tools. Derived from a structured analysis of existing formal and informal participation processes in urban development we developed a comprehensive process supported by specific digital tools for massive participation. This so-called Minimal Viable Process fulfils a) good practice standards for participation while b) utilising as few as possible technical means and procedural steps. For this purpose, several workshops with authorities and professional designers have been performed to estimate the advantages of the different strategies. In a next step, the necessary tools and their interlinkages were developed and tested with a test-run of the process and with mockup-tools (Dummy Testbed). Going beyond existing participation processes in urban development, the newly developed procedure ensures proper citizen involvement from the very start of a project up to design selection, plus a lean and feasible conduct of the overall campaign. The framework involves all necessary stakeholder groups, who are addressed by specific tools and algorithms. The test-run of the process and its tools (“Dummy Test Bed”) was performed in Spring 2018 under laboratory conditions, utilising a real world project case but within a controlled experimental environment. The results indicate the general applicability of the process and the tools, and provided insight for the further technical development of the IT tools and the procedure itself within the H2020 project “U_CODE Urban Collective Design Environment”.

Due to the increasing value of customized solutions, the entrepreneurial procedures from the customer order to the distribution getting more dynamic and complex. A way to handle this issue is an interdisciplinary value chain comprising corporations with different core competences. This type of overarching cooperation requires functional communication as driving source for every component of the production network. For this purpose, explorative research is needed on potential communication barriers in the exisiting organisational structures. We propose a descriptive model for company-wide communication including suppliers, distributors and customers of a value chain. After identifying the partners of a production network, we lowered the degree of detail from the structure of an organization to general communications methods in corporations. To analyse the whole system with its parameters on the different scales, we generalised it by way of so-called “communication paths”. These communication paths contain all information of communication between employees; they give a starting point for the evaluation of barriers and success factors of communication. The model is to uncover obstacles in communication structures in companies and production networks. Derivative communication designs will help to remove existing barriers and avoid the emergence of new ones, as well as to increase success factors. By enhancing the communication, operational processes can become more economical not just for enterprises, but for complete value chains. The research targets at a tool for architects, factory planners and entrepreneurs supporting the communication analysis of existing production network. The tool will show barriers within the value-chain-system and make proposals for overcoming them. The development of the descriptive model will be carried out within the DFG-funded research project InterKom (“Communication Design in Multi-Company Production Networks”).

The paper focuses on the Supply Chain Data Science (SCDS) by proposing System Dynamics as useful approach for managing the complexity of Big Data and optimizing the decision making process. The paper proposes the adoption of System Dynamics for the optimization of logistics of people, as pivotal test for a larger replication in the context of the Supply Chain. The analysis has been conducted for dynamically evaluating the different modal solutions available for different segments of demand. An element of originality can be identified into the application of a System Dynamics approach to the optimization of decision related to the logistics. By allowing to testing the usefulness of a System Dynamics approach for the decision making, the paper discloses several potential applications of Big Data in all the phases of a Supply Chain as well as for the larger customization of products and services.

Big Data has been heralded as a key agent of the third industrial revolution, and currently represents a promising area for value creation and frontier research. The potential to extract actionable insights from Big Data has gained increasing attention of both academics and practitioners operating in several industrial sectors. However, the adoption of Big Data solutions does not always generate effective value for the adopters. Therefore, the gap existing between the potential of value creation embedded in the Big Data paradigm and the current limited exploitation of this value represents an area of investigation that this paper aims to explore. In particular the present study aims at investigating the following research question: “Which are the multiple value directions that the Big Data paradigm can generate for organizations?”. In this vein, the article presents the result of a systematic literature review aimed at defining a framework that identifies the possible dimensions of value creation for an organization that may decide to adopt the Big Data paradigm. The research methodology adopted in this study is based on a Systematic Literature Review, and consists in four key steps such as search, selection, analysis, and synthesis. The result of the search process was a list of 481 resources. Then, by adopting the exclusion criteria, a subset of 91 resources was obtained. The analysis allowed to highlight the different types of value created through the adoption of Big Data paradigm within the organizations. Through the synthesis step, 12 value directions were defined and grouped into 5 key value dimensions. This paper introduces and describes a framework highlighting the possible value creation dimensions associated to the adoption of the Big Data paradigm by the organizations. By adopting a systematic literature review, the framework leverages and extends a previous contribution of Wamba et al. (2015) on the same topic. A further element of originality is related to the introduction of a further phase in the analysis, consisting in the application of text mining algorithms to analyse the selected resources, in the final aim to highlight possible terms and concepts remained hidden or latent in the human-led analysis. From a research perspective, the proposed framework aims at providing a twofold contribution: the more general one consists in the development of the debate on how organization can generate value by adopting the Big Data paradigm; the more specific one refers to the extension of the framework previously proposed by Wamba et al. (2015) on the same topic. From a practitioner point of view, the proposed framework may support managers and executives to understand better and define the strategic perspective of innovative projects based on the Big Data paradigm, which can be promoted and sponsored by the organizations.

This paper proposes a decision-making tool for both supply firms and policy makers to evaluate the alignment between supplier’s knowledge and knowledge management systems (KMSs), and identify the level of efficiency and effectiveness of KMSs. Starting from these indices of efficiency and effectiveness, a taxonomy able to encompass the possible typologies of suppliers was established. A fuzzy logic-based decision-making tool is proposed to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge management systems in relation to a supplier’s knowledge. The proposed methodology is divided into three phases. The first phase consists in mapping supplier’s knowledge according to the two perspectives of analysis proposed by Nonaka in 1994. The second phase consists in mapping the KMSs used by suppliers by means of a Delphi panel involving two senior IT consultants and two researchers. Finally, the indices of efficiency and effectiveness are defined in the third phase. The paper evidences that suppliers adopt a large variety of KMSs to support the process of knowledge management. It seems to be of less concern that suppliers have scarce human and financial resources to invest in the area of knowledge management. This could be the result of the process of innovation in the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs) that are increasingly offering suppliers new low-cost opportunities (not requiring significant financial investments) and ease-of-use (needing no specific skills). The results of this paper suggest that the problem lies in the misalignment of the supplier’s knowledge with the KMSs adopted. In the end, the problem does not lie in difficulties in investing in human and financial resources, but in the ability to invest in the specific KMSs better able to support the KM process. This paper provides an operational tool for both suppliers and policy makers. Concerning the suppliers themselves, the proposed methodology may be used as a decision-making tool to suggest suitable changes in the adoption of KM-Tools and KM-Practices in order to increase the level of alignment with knowledge and thus improve the process of knowledge management. For policy makers, however, the methodology proposed here may be of help in identifying the weaknesses of the suppliers and identifying specific policies to support the competitiveness of supply systems by improving their management processes and the circulation of knowledge in a supply chain facing digital transformation.