Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the efforts universities have done during the latest years towards convergence in terms of quality, as well as to reveal the new challenges that they have to face in the contemporary context. Universities have developed continuously according to different internal and external factors integrating into their strategic orientation the role of the university stakeholders. This paper will focus on higher education curricula, in terms of the efforts to increase employability of the students and will highlight the cooperation between university management and different stakeholders in the process of the knowledge management.
Design/methodology/approach – We propose an approach that takes into consideration several research methods: descriptive analysis based on both literature review and on case studies including examples of good practices; comparative analysis; research based on a questionnaire. Students will reveal their perceptions towards the latest movements in the university curricula, market and environment. They will express how they see partnerships between universities and industries, how they feel about the university efforts to help them better integrate on the labour market, what do they feel about the modern technologies involved in the teaching and learning process etc.
Originality/value – This methodology puts in evidence the new challenges in front of the university management, in the context of the 21 st century requirements. The originality of this paper consists of a new theoretical approach of the university concept, in terms of a sustainable organization, which means a new definition for sustainable university in the 21 st century, plus the concept of customer relationship management for universities in terms of student relationship management. At the same time, the value of the paper is also a practical one, reflecting a direct connection between organizations and universities.
Practical implications – The outcomes of the application consist of several practical implications for universities, students and companies. University management will be able to better understand their role in the knowledge management and to pay much more attention towards important changes and strategic movements. Students will be able to support university change in a more active way, for their own benefit. Companies will be able to reconsider the relationship with universities in terms of mutual advantage.
Keywords – sustainable organization, knowledge management, stakeholders, employability

This paper studies the antecedents of individual improvisation in the ad-hoc coimprovisation context. The paper explores how the intra-personal factors self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, and the inter-individual or other-focused psychological factor of positive affect are related with individual improvisation in ad hoc co-improvisation event. This is important for two reasons. First, improvisation is an increasingly important ability of individuals, teams and organizations working in various forms of temporary settings. Second, it is important to understand, what the simultaneous effect of both intra-personal (self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation) and the situation related inter-individual (otherfocused) factors are for one’s improvising. The study explores the relationships of these variables through the SEM-PLS path model with a data sample of 70 respondents collected from four co-improvisation workshops. The results indicate, that self-efficacy relates with individual improvisation. In addition, the positive affect moderates the relationship between intrinsic motivation and individual improvisation, and that this interaction effect is significant, strong and negative. The study contributes on the discussion of the antecedents of temporariness and suggests improvisation as a promising approach for individuals to deal and cope in such emerging conditions.
Keywords – Individual improvisation, self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, positive affect, PLS

Fashion worlds (Becker, 1988) describes the transition from Fordism towards a new type of economic model and supply chain in which creativity and innovation are favored (Leslie, Rantisi, 2010). The world of fashion design (Bourdieu, 1984) is one that is characterized as being cultural (Throsby, 2008) and creative (DCMS, 2001). It is worth considering that the transition from Fordism to a service oriented economybrings forth major paradigmatic changes (Boltanski, Chiapello, 1999). While observing major actors, a subculture is revealed that is resistant to standardisation and proposes instead development that is culturally, socially, economically, spatially and ecologically sustainable.

Purpose – The topic of local development is more and more liked to the role of innovation and creativity as main drivers to implement processes for change, aiming to structural growth and consolidation (Gilbert, 2012). Within such a framework, a crucial role is played by the so-called district economies, which are rapidly taking new shapes, through the transition from the traditional Marshall models to fully developed local systems, which base their competitiveness on innovation and creativity. Such systems, generally referred to as “creativity districts” or “clusters”, are not always able to face the many complex challenges which are coming up on the socio-economical stage and require a strategic planning, both on a political and on an entrepreneurial level, in order to develop those competencies which are nowadays crucial to compete globally.
Design/ Methodology – We propose an approach quantitative. The present paper, starting from the evolutionary tendencies of the post-fordist districts, analyses the identity of the creativity districts (evolved new economical districts, Sacco 2006; Salvemini, 2008) and their relevant policies according to the Italian experience. A creative district or cluster is a geographic concentration of companies, usually small or medium enterprises, with an elevated degree of creativity and innovation, highly specialised, inclined to operate within scientific research centres, such as universities or public laboratories (Cesaroni, Piccaluga, 2003).
Approach/ Originally/ Value – This methodology puts in evidence the tendency of the production district of creativity to balance the activities of exploration and exploitation of the involved stakeholders, meaning the capacity to research and exploit new technological chances and to implement new technology within products and processes (March, 1991). In order to facilitate the relationships between the stakeholders and therefore the balancing of exploration and exploitation it is essential to analyse the capacity of the district to stimulate the development of the social capital among the organizations, which is the base of the mutual trust, often driven by the presence and activity as well as sociocultural animation of associations and public institutions (Granovetter, 1985).
Keywords: Creativity district, Innovation, Exploration and exploitation, Absorptive capacity, Growth

Purpose – In the current hyper-connected world, the success of a firm is increasingly dependent on the activities of other active players within the same environment. It is therefore important to understand how to orchestrate ecosystems made up of multiple organizations, institutions and other intermediaries to produce continuous streams of innovation. The paper suggests a potential orchestrator role for academics within this scenario.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the experience of an applied research centre in Italy. We begin by describing the research centre, the collaborative research processes through which it accomplishes its activities, how it funds them, and the interorganizational results that it has achieved in seven years of practice. Reflecting on the experience of this research centre, we underline not only the key role that academics can play as knowledge management experts, but also the specific research design allowing them to be effective in orchestrating ecosystem innovation.
Originality/value – The analysis of the research centre outlines two main rationales supporting the key role of academics within an innovation ecosystem. The first rationale is associated with the fact that academics are in an independent position, which is neutral and represents a middle ground between the different organizations that share knowledge to ignite and sustain innovation at an ecosystem level. The second rationale is associated with the levels of compliance and complementarity that academics have with the main purposes forwhichknowledge within an innovation ecosystem is created and leveraged.
Practical implications – Two ‘design’ choices seem necessary to materialize the potential key orchestrator role of academics: (i) the extensive use of multiple approaches of collaborative research; (ii) the creation and maintenance of a knowledge platform allowing academics to manage and to progressively diffuse and leverage the ecosystem-based learning mechanisms underlying each innovation effort.
Keywords – Innovation ecosystems, Orchestration, Knowledge management

Purpose – We aim at investigating knowledge and learning mechanisms in innovation ecosystems as organizations and the surrounding firms’ context – including businesses and institutional actors – takes an active role in innovation success. Several studies focus on knowledge as firms’ asset and investigate on how knowledge could be transferred, integrated and managed (Blomqvist and Levy, 2006). The practice-based approach gained attention within organizational learning literature (Brown and Duguid 1991, 1999; Gherardi, 2000) to counteract the cognitive-based view of knowledge. We examine how learning perspectives enable collaborative innovation in a multiple context.
Methodology – Action research gave us the opportunity to focus on mechanisms at the base of knowledge and learning processes in an emerging innovation ecosystem (Ramos, 2002). This method is suitable when changes are ongoing. The ecosystem we investigated is linked to a project supported by the Italian Ministry of Research, set up as a mix of different actors to support the management of a smart city. We identified the “generating action” approach (Tacchi et al., 2003) as it fits with both new initiatives and relevant topics of our research, namely resources, knowledge and partners to be managed as a whole.
Originality – The paper contributes to knowledge and learning literature in innovation ecosystem. It identifies ecosystem as an innovation community of practitioners emerging as a form of integrating and organising activities, competences resources and tools lead by (and towards) common and negotiated goals, supporting one another. Collecting, integrating, and generating knowledge are pivotal practices for innovation dynamics and they allow ecosystem to be established. In contexts related to innovations such an approach is necessary to describe how different sources are combined to support projects and how knowledge can be generated, acting as a mean and as an outcome in innovation ecosystems.
Practical implications – The analysis led us to the rise of three different knowledge practices – collecting, integrating, generating – useful to describe the way in which learning takes place in a networking innovation context, shaped by actors with different backgrounds, like universities, organizations, and government. More into detail collection, integration and generation emerged as the ways in which knowledge shapes the collaboration in ecosystems, before being upgraded, shared, and integrated in order to generate new knowledge to reach the fixed aims.
Keywords – innovation ecosystem, practices, knowledge, learning, collaboration

Purpose – To be successful, the innovation and entrepreneurship processes require a systemic and dynamic search, evaluation and matching of purposeful knowledge, expertise and tangible assets. In this vein, the concept of ecosystem has been largely adopted at macro and organizational level to indicate the network of complementary actors needed by one company to succeed in this endeavor. This paper aims to define an individual perspective of innovation ecosystem and propose a model to drive the creation of entrepreneur-centric ecosystems aimed to support a more effective “idea-to-venture” process.
Design/methodology/approach – The review of relevant literature and the analysis of international initiatives has been used to identify the main theoretical constituents of the study. A design science approach has been thus adopted to conceptualize and define the components of the model through the phases of problem identification, objectives definition, artifact development, demonstration, evaluation and research communication. The model has been submitted to a preliminary face-validity test with experts in the areas of entrepreneurship and collective intelligence.
Originality/value – The paper presents an innovative application of the collective intelligence paradigm to design technology entrepreneurship ecosystems which are: a) context-independent, i.e. virtually global; b) specific, i.e. tailored to given technology domains and individual needs; and c) dynamic, i.e. able to gather relevant knowledge needed for the specific phase of the entrepreneurial process. The collective intelligence perspective allows to capitalize distributed ideas, knowledge, and competencies to take better decisions and actions respect to the case in which decisions and actions are taken by individuals alone.
Practical implications – The model can contribute to maximize the incubation, growth and sustainability of entrepreneurial initiatives thanks to a better gathering of critical resources and knowledge which is dispersed in a large network of actors. In particular, the model can support the design and implementation of technology entrepreneurship ecosystems tailored to the real needs of a specific entrepreneur as well as support more effective entrepreneurial processes within corporations and organizations in general.
Keywords – Collective Intelligence, Ecosystem, Knowledge Management, Innovation Ecosystem, Technology Entrepreneurship

Purpose – The paper aims at pointing out how new ventures develop the capabilities they need to compete. In particular the paper focuses on marketing capabilities that, although are usually overlooked in favour of technical capabilities, are important for the survival of the firm. Literature on new ventures has explained the characteristics and dynamics of firm birth, but additional knowledge can be developed in exploring how new ventures can cope with initial capability gaps and the drivers of gap filling, by considering the characteristics of the founders, the structure of the size and scope innovation networks.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on this theoretical perspective, the paper empirically investigates initial capability gaps and focuses on the development of marketing capabilities by new ventures starting with an initial gap, looking for the impact of founding characteristics of new ventures and the structure, the size, and geographical scope of collaborations new ventures are involved in for innovation purposes. The quantitative analysis is based on an original dataset of more than 400 Italian new venture firms specializing in the mechanics and KIBS sectors.
Originality/value – The value of the paper refers to both the theoretical and empirical analysis. From a theoretical point of view, it wants to contribute to the literature of new venture pointing out how firms develop capabilities in the start-up stage, focusing on the overlooked marketing capabilities. Moreover the paper discusses the role the business innovation ecosystem for developing capabilities in the case of new venture. From an empirical point of view, the analysis is focused on new ventures in advanced manufacturing and service industries.
Practical implications – The paper offers an overview of the drivers supporting new venture firms in filling their marketing capability gaps and how the external sources of knowledge can support new ventures in improving their capabilities over time.
Keywords – business innovation ecosystems, knowledge management new ventures, capabilities

Purpose: In today’s world knowledge workers are immersed in a great number of diverse networks. Very often access and exposure to such networks is an indication of how well a given knowledge worker will perform in his or her organization. So far most of the research focused on the formal organizational mechanisms (formal knowledge networks). This is however not enough as noticed by some researchers. There is also a grave need to examine the role played by informal mechanisms. Additionally it is necessary to investigate how the formal and informal knowledge networks operate and interplay between each other.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The research approach is an empirical study. Qualitative approach was used with convenient sampling. Data gathering method was in a form of a questionnaire, with follow up individual interviews. The empirical study was conducted among 70 final year students, who were split into 13 groups with 5/6 members in each group. Students were given an objective to carry out a mine design exercise to the level of a pre-feasibility (PFS) study based on the mineral deposit block model supplied to them.
Originality/Value: The originality and value of this research is as follows – displaying the impact of establishing a formal knowledge network (CoP) on both formal and informal knowledge sharing as well as knowledge integration. Additionally this research reports on the results of an empirical study conducted in South African mining industry and education sector. This can bring another original value as there is in general lack of studies in this area.
Practical implications: This study investigated how the introduction of a Community of Practice (CoP), which is a formal knowledge network, affected the existing informal knowledge networks among the students of the 4th year BSc mining engineering students at one University in South Africa. Moreover it measured the performance of the students that were members of the CoP and those that decided not to (“formally”) participate in them. Additionally it provides an insight into the opportunities of integrating knowledge from formal and informal knowledge networks. The results provided will be interesting for CoP practitioners as well as knowledge networks researchers.
Keywords – Knowledge management, knowledge network, Communities of Practice, knowledge sharing, human resources management

Purpose – This paper extends from the hypothesis that in many economic sectors competitiveness is based on intangibles. Knowledge and innovation are premises of social development and provide critical resources to local economies. Therefore countries with sizeable resources in human capital are likely to provide higher standards of living (Romer, 1989). Our argument draws on Richard Florida’s theory and intends to test the hypothesis according to which the city, in order to maintain its knowledge intensity, must develop a beneficial and attractive urban climate likely to retain creative workers – it must promote creativity and support innovation.
Design/methodology/approach – Our research is exploratory and proposes results from a first test of relevant attraction factors applicable to Montréal. We applied a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews. The investigation examines artistic careers and the features offered by Montréal to visual artists. The survey was conducted largely in the Plateau and Mile End districts. The interview guide has four sections that focus on the career path of highly qualified and/or creative workers, on the city’s strengths and weaknesses, on creativity-enabling aspects and on the city’s features that contribute to retention. Also examined is the influence of self-managed artists centres on the network of stakeholders on the territory
Originality/value – Richard Florida’s theory (2005-2002) has attracted the attention of many cities, but has not been tested much. It is interesting to test as Richard Florida’s theory considers that the city, in order to maintain its knowledge intensity, must develop an attractive urban climate likely to retain creative workers – it must promote creativity and support innovation – and it must offer not only good quality of life but scores of career opportunities, especially in the arts sector which can be seen as a source of innovation. The idea is also that the creative workers and amenities would then attract
knowledge workers.
Practical implications – The test of this hypothesis can have important implications in terms of city management, city infrastructure development as well as factors of attraction to develop in order to attract knowledge workers and creative workers.
Keywords – Creative class, creative workers, artists, local development, cities

In our study, we scrutinized multidisciplinary and multisectoral cooperation to learn about the factors which influence idea generation and coupled open innovation in cooperation. We specialized on multidisciplinary and multisectoral cooperation because those collaborations seem to have a high potential of developing disruptive technologies and innovation. Our study is a pre-test to set up a research model and to prepare further investigations.
Purpose – The goal of this study has been the investigation of coupled open innovation processes and the mutual idea generation in multidisciplinary and multisectoral cooperation. We have scrutinized how idea creation and creativity processes work, and how the factors: partner’s perspective (motivation, perceived risk, etc.) and cooperation background (rules, cooperation culture etc.) influence the performance of coupled open innovation processes in multidisciplinary and multisectoral consortiums.
Originality/value – Our study will give suggestions about the composition of collaborative relationships to create trusting environments to foster idea creation and knowledge/know-how exchange between the participating partners. Thus, coupled outside in and inside out open innovation processes can enable the development of products and services with the potential for disruptive innovations initiated by the input of multidisciplinary technology and multisectoral application knowledge and experience.
Keywords – Coupled Open Innovation, Mutual Idea Generation, Creativity, Co-Creation, Knowledge Management, Multidisciplinary Cooperation, Multisectoral Cooperation

Purpose – In an ever-changing business environment, organizations have begun to recognize the importance of behaviors that emphasize employee initiative, such as making constructive suggestions for change and innovation (LePine and Van Dyne, 2001). Different initiatives have been taken by private and public organizations to leverage arts as potential drivers and motivational factors spurring people to act in a certain way and create value. However, we still lack research that builds on behavioral studies to investigate the relationship between arts-based initiatives and individual and group performance. This paper recognizes such limitations, shows the centrality of understanding human behavior to optimize performance-oriented actions, provides a theoretical framework that emphasizes behavior’s antecedents and consequences, and addresses the value of arts from both theoretical and practical perspectives in cultivating the right attitudes that have the potential to drive consequently people actions and performance.
Design/methodology/approach – This research is based on a thorough literature review including five major fields: human resource development, applied psychology, the knowledge-based view of the firm, performance management, and arts-based management. The purpose is to review the theoretical assumptions of each field and develop a theoretical framework that draws connections between arts-based initiatives, behavioral drivers, contextual factors, and human performance. This research will also draw on a few cases to provide empirical evidence on how arts-based initiatives affect human performance through behavioral alignment and outcomes.
Originality/value – This research provides a theoretical framework and empirical evidence on how arts-based initiatives drive behavior and human performance. This will help organizations to better understand the behavioral consequences of arts-based initiatives and how they translate into performance outcomes.
Practical implications – This research suggests new assumptions and perspectives that show the centrality of human behavior in organizations and lays the foundations of a behavior-based performance management model. Such an understanding will help both scholars and practitioners develop theories and tools linking arts-based investments to individual and organizational performance outcomes.
Keywords – behavior-based performance, arts-based initiatives, behavior antecedents, behavior consequences, performance management

Purpose – Over the last 24 months the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) has been working with a consortium of industry, academia, and government (Triple Helix) based organizations to develop a capability view of how organizations can effectively manage their knowledge. This has the potential to be a broad and complex endeavour, so the research workgroup (made up of triple helix members) focused on the IT influencing / influenced capability that drives an organization’s ability to effectively manage their knowledge asset. The outcome of this research has resulted in an industry-tested assessment for organizations interested in driving knowledge asset management (KAM) as a competitive capability. This KAM assessment looks at 3 key areas: Governance, facilities & processes, and the knowledge life cycle. These are then broken down further into thirteen sub-capabilities, or capability building blocks. This paper will present in detail how the KAM assessment was developed, validated, and what value the assessment output can bring to those organizations using it.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper will present its findings in a case study format (Yin, 2002). However, the manner in which the IVI engages and conducts its research will be examined, as this is fundamental to encouraging a triple helix (academia, industry, and government) collaborative open innovation approach. IVI is mainly engaged in mode 2 research that follows an ‘engaged scholarship’ (Van de Ven, 2007) approach, with particular emphasis on a ‘design science’ (Hevner, et al, 2004) perspective. Through design science the desire to look for and encourage the development of artefacts as part of the research process is important as it provides an added incentive to industry and government partners to engage in research and any follow-on development projects.
Originality/value – This paper will outline the first capability maturity approach to assessing knowledge asset management from an organizational perspective. There are many frameworks and models that describe how organizations shape, and engage with knowledge management activities. Many of these frameworks (over 23) have been used to inform and shape the research thinking around this KAM assessment but this, the author believes, is the first framework that will help define an organizations knowledge capability – this is vital for organizations that view the understanding of capability in any form as critical to developing sustainable competitive advantage (Davenport et al, 2001).
Practical implications – This approach to developing a capability view of knowledge management is helping a number of organizations (both public and private) operating complex organizational structures drive clarity around defining the scope of their ‘knowledge’ activates, with particular focus on tacit-explicit-tacit knowledge transfer activities. By assessing their capability against specific aspects of knowledge management organizations are given a relative scale against which they can assess their progress. The KAM assessment also provides the organization with a list of potential improvements to be made that will positively influence knowledge capability maturity. This means that the assessment not only ‘quantifies’ the organizations current capability, but it also provides a set of industry-validated practices, metrics and expected outcomes. This enables the participating organization the ability to build an improvement roadmap to move the capability up the maturity curve to the desired level of performance.
Keywords – Knowledge management, dynamic, capability maturity

Purpose – Researches made in the last 25 years presented knowledge as a dynamic and fluid resource, critical for company’s success. Although there are some remarkable attempts of measuring knowledge assets and intellectual capital of a firm, their analysis tend to be static. They are either reflecting the current stage of development or they are highlighting an average performance. Besides, they overlook the fact that company’s competitiveness depends on competitors’ characteristics and actions. Starting from these, we aim to develop a benchmarking tool capable of capturing company’s competitive position and future evolution, based on its efficiency of using intellectual capital.
Design/methodology/approach – Developing an exploratory research, we combine the qualitative with the quantitative analysis. We create a composite index, entitled Competitiveness Intellectual Capital Index (CICI), for 20 Romanian companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). Our longitudinal study has three phases. First, we establish CICI’s value during 2009 – 2012, for each company. Then, we determine the average annual growth rate registered during 2009 – 2012. In the third stage, we develop a strategic knowledge map, using CICI’s value and the average annual growth rate. Based on these coordinates, we split the companies in four categories: leaders, chasing stars, followers and traditionalists.
Originality/value – This methodology brings forward the relative character of intellectual capital and its long term relationship with company’s competitiveness. First of all, it reflects that intellectual capital means more than money; it’s about creating, disseminating and using knowledge; it’s about valuing company’s human resources and its relationships with all the stakeholders. Secondly, it highlights that a company is competitive only when it manages its knowledge assets more efficiently than its competitors. Taking this into account, CICI is the first instrument that evaluates a company’s intellectual capital by comparing its performance with the one registered by the direct and indirect competitors.
Practical implications – The outcomes of developing and using this instrument focus on strategic issues. First of all, by using CICI, managers can have a complete image on what’s happening in the environment in which they operate. Secondly, they can notice where do they stand (compared with their competitors and companies from different fields of activity); they can identify potential threats and opportunities, they can monitor change and they can develop future strategies. In other words, it may serve as a managerial early warning system.
Keywords – Intellectual capital, Competitiveness, Human capital, Turnover rate, Stock price

Purpose –The purpose of our paper is to develop a IC Maturity Model (ICMM) for Universities which is a flexible model of implementing Intellectual Capital (IC) approaches within Universities. The ICMM provides a theoretical continuum along which the process of maturity can be developed incrementally from one level to the next one moving from IC Data Collection, Awareness of IC, Adjustment of IC specific indicators, Measurement of IC, Reporting of IC, Interpretation and decision making, Strategy and Planning.
Design/methodology/approach – The Maturity Model has been developed in the course of three Mutual Learning Workshops (MLW) organised in Romania in the period October 2012 – May 2013. 15 international experts and practitioners have worked together aiming to develop a Model for IC Management in universities. The MLWs have been developed in the frame of the Project “Quality Assurance in Higher Education through Habilitation and Auditing” initiated by the Executive Agency for Higher Education and Research Funding of Romania (EUFISCDI).
Originality/value – Although several methods for IC measurement and management exist, most of these are not able to affording the trade-off between the comparability aims and the efforts to capture the institution’s uniqueness when designing an IC model or framework. Pathways for adoption of IC management and reporting model strongly depend on the characteristics of the university, its previous experience with management tools and its managerial orientation. The IC Maturity Model for Universities (ICMM) explicitly allow to take in consideration these aspects hence enlarging the wide spectrum of Strategic Management approach inside the different University settings.
Practical implications – The IC maturity model provides a staged framework to initiate a step-by-step change within a University based upon its current level of IC management maturity. It allows Universities to follow different paths not necessarily the linear sequence; while some universities may start with the formulation of a strategy and a consecutive operationalization by using some IC indicators, others may gain experience in using some basic indicators and get aware about the necessity to use more specific IC indicators.. The ICMM can be used as a controlling and monitoring instrument in times of radical transformations and reforms.
Keywords – Intellectual capital, University, Maturity Model, IC Management, IC reporting

Purpose – The knowledge and competencies of the individual employees are valuable asset for a knowledge-intensive organization. A continuous education and training system enables an organization to build new knowledge and competencies among its members. To have an efficient and effective education and training plan that not only meet the need of individual employees but also improve organizational competencies is an important task for human resource management. Data mining has been used to discover the hidden patterns of data from a large-scale data warehouse. After further analyses, these data patterns may be transformed into intelligent knowledge as to support various decision makings. By using data mining, this study is aimed to explore the competency gap of the individual employees, and build the training needs predicting models. These models can assist human resource department to have an education and training plan that reduce the competency gap of the individual employees and also raise organizational knowledge asset and competencies as a whole.
Design / Methodology / Approach – The total amount of 638 example collected from Taiwan municipalities government 360-degree competency appraisal were used. These data were analyzed by SPSS to obtain statistic results. Data mining was used to explore the relationship among these data. Based on these results, the training needs predicting models were constructed.
Originality / Value – The results show that (1) the 360-degree competency appraisal model can be used to find out the competency gap and competency status. (2) the results of SPSS and data mining can be used to construct the training needs predicting models with accuracy above 70%. (3) the staff education and training plan can be obtained based on the training needs predicting models.
Practical Implications – The paper provided the reference of using data mining on the knowledge and competency management. The results could also provide the reference for planning the staff education and training plan, in order to achieve the purpose of improving individual and organizational knowledge and competencies.
Keywords: data mining, knowledge and competency management, 360-degree competency appraisal, staff education and training plan

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive research review on knowledge management in small and medium enterprises in order to identify gaps in the body of literature. By connecting these gaps to business future trends we identify several future research avenues for each research area.
Design/methodology/approach – The main objective of this literature review is to analyse the state-of-the-art of knowledge management in small and medium sized firms from the management perspective in order to identify relevant research gaps. The review has been carried out using Scopus and Web of Science Academic databases, and it has been conducted using the keyword “knowledge management” in combination with “SMEs” or “small firms” or “small business”. Seventy papers in total were selected and studied in detail; they are all relevant scientific papers covering the topic of KM in SMEs from 2003 to 2013.
Originality/value – This methodology puts in evidence the current situation in knowledge management in SMEs’ research field.
Practical implications – The outcomes of the application provide a valuable understanding of both knowledge management’s best researched topic, which concerns the factors affecting knowledge management in SMEs and the knowledge management topics which are poorly investigated which concern KMSs adoption in SMEs, the barriers hindering their dissemination and the impact of KM on firm performance. From a practical perspective, the review concludes that the barriers connecting to KMSs implementation seem to belong more to cultural area rather than technological one and need to be exploited more in depth.
Keywords – knowledge management, enabler factors, barriers, SMEs

Purpose – Network collaborations continue to be a central focus in a firm’s success and businesses are regularly striving to harness the collective capabilities of the networks to which they belong through the use of effective collaborative strategies. It is therefore vital for the firms to ensure sound and effective knowledge sharing strategies in their network practices. Previous literature has extensively investigated the impact of these network strategies on the performance of firms, but little empirical research has been conducted to examine the process of knowledge sharing through network collaborations. Moreover, the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is substantially unexplored in reference to these problems. Hence, the main purpose of this article is to examine the mechanisms at the base of knowledge sharing in SME business networks.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from SMEs through an extensive survey covering 116 SMEs based in the UK that manifested different modes of collaboration with their business partners and different knowledge sharing mechanisms. Empirical data was used to determine the factors that contribute to knowledge creation and important hurdles in sharing the knowledge between various network partners. A chi-square test, ANOVA test, a post-hoc analysis and a factorial analysis were conducted to analyse the dataset and verify robustness of findings.
Originality/value – Key findings of this research include understanding of formal and informal mechanisms used by SMEs to share knowledge in business networks, as well as key barriers associated to implementation. Moreover, results are discussed on the light of theory and in reference to different industries.
Practical implications – The paper contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on different mechanisms of knowledge sharing in SME business networks. Findings are relevant to academics for further development of theory and to practitioners for the formalisation of knowledge sharing strategies in a SME environment.
Keywords – Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Business Networks, Knowledge Sharing, Empirical Research

Purpose – It is widely agreed that the know-ledge management (KM) lay beyond the success of companies. In case of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) the value of
KM is indisputable; some research has even shown that the majority of SMEs’ competitive advantages refer to knowledge management and intangible assets. However, KM has been studied extensively especially in large organisations, but not in SMEs. The purpose of this study is to find out the utilization of KM in brand creation and R&D within an international marketing channel (marketing channel replaces supply chain, because of the marketing nature of the case) of SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach – We propose an approach of a case study methodology as our aim is at theory building rather than theory testing. Case studies may be used as illustration in the context of making a conceptual contribution and to sharpen existing theory. The focus is on KM in international marketing channel between two SMEs. The case companies, one in Finland and the other one in the United States, are analysed during their first seven years of cooperation (1959-1965).
Originality/value –This methodology puts in evidence that KM utilization within an international marketing channel of two SMEs can include brand creation and R&D. Successful operation requires knowledge sharing, trust, commitment and learning.
Practical implications – The outcomes of the application suggest for managers knowledge sharing, commitment and trust for successful cooperation in marketing channel. on the one hand the Finnish manufacturer recognised the potential of its U.S. partner and granted the right to its brand, but on the other hand the partner realized a tremendous opportunity, together with a major responsibility, in creating a strong brand. This reflects consortium in licensing models.
Keywords – knowledge management, marketing channel, SMEs, brand, R&D

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the reciprocal nature of the client-consultant relationship in management consulting. Although different aspects of the client–consultant relationship have been addressed – including interaction between client and consultant (Fincham, 1999; Pellegrinelli, 2002; Werr and Styhre, 2002), the multitude of roles of both the client and the consultant during the consulting process (Hislop, 2002; Kaarst-Brown, 1999; Schein, 1987; Williams, 2001) and the knowledge transfer or creation during a consultancy process. (Todorova, 2004, Handley et al., 2007; Ko et al., 2005) – the research still lacks proper descriptions of the process of interaction in management consulting projects. In this paper we show with the aid of case study analysis how the client affects the final outcomes of a management consultancy process and how external processes and events have an impact on the outcome of the consultation process. The study describes a changing event path, during which an IT outsourcing project was affected by decisions by the client company’s management, its board, and the suggestions from an external consultant. In addition, the paper discusses the consulting project success criteria.
Design/methodology/approach – In this paper we build on a single case study of an internationalizing Finnish SME technology company. The case provides a design enabling us to examine longitudinally and in rich detail the changing goals and directions of a consulting project, affected both by the consultant’s and the client’s input in knowledge creation. In the case study we relied on multiple sources of data: of in-house memos, emails, interviews, project reports, meeting notes, consulting evaluations, and field observations. The collected data in this study was analyzed according to case study protocol (Yin, 1989) with a connection to the explorative and grounded theory approaches, in which data collection, analysis, and theory stand in reciprocal relationship with each other. (Straus & Corbin 1990, p. 23)
Originality/value –This paper adds to the existing research by showing how the client and the consultant interact and how the external unexpected and not-controllable factors affect the whole consulting project. Secondly, the case shows that the client problem can change during the project and the consultant has to adapt to the changing client’s problem and criteria. Thirdly, the case shows how different types of clients in the consulting projects actually have different goals and unclear or hidden agendas. This widens the view on client-consultant relationship in existing theory on knowledge intensive client work (cf. Sturdy et al., 2009; Ciampi, 2007; Todorova, 2004; Pellegrinelli, 2002; Bitner et al., 1997) and especially in the reciprocal client-consultant processes. (cf. Nikolova & Devinney, 2012)
Practical implications – The proposed results of the analysis provides a framework, which allows the clients of management consultants better design, brief and guide the consultancy processes. From the consultant’s perspective, the results of this study contribute to a view which encourages to design facilitation methods, which strengthen the need for understanding the multiplicity of client’s goals.
Keywords – Management consulting, knowledge creation, innovation, internationalization, client-consultant relationship