At the turn of the 1990s, knowledge management was born out of a concern to better understanding how a sustainable competitive advantage could be developed within a Knowledge Society, within a business landscape where value creation was increasingly hinging on intangible assets. Some 30 years later, a new disruptive technology deemed equivalent to the Internet, Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Large Language Models (LLM) irremediably transforms and shapes our ‘new normal’. At the same time, business environment stability becomes a myth and uncertainty prevails. Against this backdrop, some reckon that a Super Smart Society has emerged: Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0. Society 5.0 is introduced as the new guiding principle for innovation where cyberspace and physical space meet and ambitions to serve as a smart bridge between techno-centric and human-centric perspectives. Industry 5.0 answers to the demand for a more human-centred and centric socio-economic paradigm and rests on three principles: (i) human-centricity, (ii) sustainability, and (iii) resilience (Carayannis & Morawaska-Jancelewics, 2022). Against this backdrop, a reasonable assumption is to ponder on how organizational knowledge is created, and how it can lead to innovations fit for this new world.
Although several frameworks and theories about organizational knowledge creation compete, a large consensus aligns with Nonaka and Takeuchi’s (1995) work. Their theory of knowledge creation and how innovation emerges is acknowledged as the most complete and practical theory of knowledge creation to date. Nonaka’s theory features mechanisms and dynamics prompted, embedded, and internalized by individuals and the organization at large. Within Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0, how is knowledge created? What kind of innovation emerges that could satisfy the ethos of the new paradigm? How does knowledge management support the innovation of tomorrow? Is Nonaka’s framework still relevant? Can it be challenged? Improved? What other opportunities are there?
For this track, we invite contributions that reflect knowledge creation mechanisms and dynamics and how these may lead to innovation in a Smart Society. The focus is on knowledge management, how organizational knowledge emerges, is used, or transformed and how new knowledge is developed or created in Society 5.0 for private and public sector organizations. Practical and philosophical insights are appreciated and both conceptual and empirical contributions are welcome.

Yasmina Khadir, Nyenrode Business Universiteit, The Netherlands
Peter Lindgren, Aarhus University, Denmark
Harri Laihonen,University of Eastern Finland, Finland