A Review and Assessment of Research This paper reviews and assesses the emerging research literature on information technology and organizational learning. After discussing issues of meaning and measurement, we identify and assess two main streams of research: studies that apply organizational learning concepts to the process of implementing and using information technology in organizations; and studies concerned with the design of information technology applications to support organizational learning. From the former stream of research, we conclude that experience plays an important, yet indeterminate role in implementation success; learning is accomplished through both formal training and participation in practice; organizational knowledge barriers may be overcome by learning from other organizations; and that learning new technologies is a dynamic process characterized by relatively narrow windows of opportunity. From the latter stream, we conclude that conceptual designs for organizational memory information systems are a valuable contribution to artifact development; learning is enhanced through systems that support communication and discourse; and that information technologies have the potential to both enable and disable organizational learning. Currently, these two streams flow independently of each other, despite their close conceptual and practical links. We advise that future research on information technology and organizational learning proceeds in a more integrated fashion, recognizes the situated nature of organizational learning, focuses on distributed organizational memory, demonstrates the effectiveness of artifacts in practice, and looks for relevant research findings in related fields. 2

Numerous contradictions are apparent in the knowledge management literature. For instance, tacit knowledge is regarded as an organiza- tion's primary source of competitive advantage. Knowledge management and organizational learning theories instruct organizations how to make this tacit unarticulatable knowledge, which is typically embedded in individuals, explicit and part of the organization's knowledge repository. However, once this tacit knowledge is explicit, it is vulnerable to replication, implying a loss of a firm's competitive advantage. Does this mean that the attempt to manage knowledge could destroy an organization's knowledge advantage? In order to explore this and other contradictions, this paper reviews some of the knowledge management literature in the areas of strategy, management, and information systems. Applying Burrell and Morgan's (1979) paradigms of social and organizational inquiry, this paper categorizes the research in knowledge management accord...

The basic economic resource in the post-industrial information economy is knowledge, but there is a lack in our knowledge on how to manage knowledge and knowledge processes for competitive advantage. We present a new conceptualization of knowledge management: knowledge management in network contexts. We also present a strategic knowledge management (SKM) framework. SKM is a process involving: 1) strategic vision, 2) knowledge vision and key knowledge identification, 3) design, 4) knowledge protection, 5) implementation, and 6) usage. The conceptualization and the framework are based on extensions of the resource- and knowledge-based view of the firm. The framework can support organizations in strategically managing knowledge and knowledge processes to gain and sustain competitive advantage. The conceptualization and the framework open up new knowledge management research areas and issues. 1.

Issues about the relation between information technology (IT), knowledge and organizational learning appear more critical as IT becomes an increasingly integrated part of organizational life. We believe that in order to understand the role of IT in organizational learning, we need to focus on the relation between learning theories and understandings of technology. This relation is often based upon the assumption that organizational learning is a process of knowledge acquisition, storage, application and diffusion in which IT is a primary enabler. We propose organizational learning to derive from participation in social work practices and to involve human existence and development. This brings forward an understanding of the role of technology to be a facilitator of the formation and maintenance of communities of practice within organizations – and not to be reduced to its information processing capacities. 1.

Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to investigate and identify the main determinants of successful knowledge management (KM) programs. We draw upon the institutional theory and the theory of technology assimilation to develop an integrative model of KM success that clarifies the role of information technology (IT) in relation to other important KM infrastructural capabilities and to KM process capabilities. We argue that the role of IT cannot be studied in isolation and that the effect of IT on KM success is fully mediated by KM process capabilities. The research model is tested with a survey study involving 191 KM practitioners. The empirical results provided strong support for the model. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this study also presents important practical implications through the identification of specific infrastructural capabilities leading to KM success.

We examine the wake of innovations in architecture and construction propelled by the adoption of digital three dimensional (3D) representations of buildings and their parts. Departing from the traditional view of innovation that treats information technology adoption as an unproblematic, singular event, we examine IT induced innovations and their consequences as path creation created by the network of professional communities involved in architect Frank Gehry's projects. We report the results of a retrospective case study of 3D representation enabled and triggered innovation during the design and construction of the Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University. Our analysis suggests that the consequences of a complex information technology innovation like the use of digital 3D representations of buildings and their part cannot be fully understood as a singular adoption event. Instead, a more holistic and integrated view of the innovation process as continuous path creation by multiple actors sharing practices and feedback across professional communities while they appropriate 3D representations is required. Information technology innovation is not a single event created by a heroic individual or champion, but it involves multiple agents' mindful deviations from established paths of practices and resource use. We observe that the use of 3D representations breaks down the traditional

Abstract: Creativity as the prerequisite for innovation is a core competitive factor in contemporary organizations. When creativity happens this involves creative persons who produce creative products in a process of imagination. We introduce the concept of Pockets of Creativity for those sections of a business process where creativity occurs. These sections are characterised by a high demand for flexibility and knowledge of the involved creative persons. In Pockets of Creativity previous knowledge is retrieved, transformed and combined into new procedures or artefacts – in short – innovations. Naturally, this raises the question of how Pockets of Creativity can be supported by Information Technology. Informed by the Cognitive Network Model by Santanen et al. and the work of Amabile and others, in this paper we introduce a conceptual framework for information retrieval that suggests creative persons to access relevant information through a multiperspective, hierarchical view. Thus, people’s differing worldviews and approaches to creative-thinking are considered. At the same time, such an approach can provide stimuli to invoke the discovery of entry points to areas of a person’s cognitive network that have not been considered before. Through this, people may be able to think imaginatively and to combine seemingly different concepts to truly creative and innovative products. We suggest to consider the process as a whole as knowledge is created, retrieved, transferred and applied within business processes. 1

IT supported ways of working are indispensable when working in a virtual enterprise where there are geographic separations to be overcome and where the effective and managed sharing of resources is indispensable to its efficient operation. Current web technologies have significant limitations with respect to communicating not only resources but also semantics to enable a much more context sensitive processing, presentation and navigation of resources. This paper reports about progress in the development and evaluation of an ontology based tool that allows individuals and groups to easily develop shared conceptualisations and to use these conceptualisations to index shared resources. The paper is presenting a user managed application of lightweight ontologies to information and knowledge sharing which is currently being evaluated with a number of enterprises. The work has been done as part of the NOPIK project (IST-2001-33487) where the tool presented here is a part of a more comprehensive set of tools.

A/S, Rovsing Management A/S, and ITK. Previous discussion of knowledge transfers within multinational corporations (MNCs) tends to focus on the process as an isolated phenomenon, and the factors that impede these transfers. Less attention has been given to identification and the personal codification processes of knowledge prior to the transfer. A model is proposed to understand how knowledge is retrieved MNCs, with a specific focus on the draw on formation located in information technology (IT) systems. The model is derived from (1) a critical examination of knowledge management theory, and (2) the result of an empirical research conducted in Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). Our survey reveals the fact that the company is able to overcome the problem of identifying valuable knowledge in a geographical dispersed organization by establishing virtual communities of practice via its portal system. Virtual communities of practices are in this paper seen as a combination of the codification and the personalization strategies.

It is argued that the basic economic resource in the next economy is knowledge. An important source for competitive advantage in this economy lies in an organization’s network of external relationships. This paper presents a conceptualization of strategic knowledge managing within the context of inter-organizational networks. The conceptualization is based on extensions of the resource- and knowledge-based view of the firm as well as ideas from inter-firm relationships and the “gift economy. ” Three types of inter-organizational networks for strategic knowledge managing are defined: 1) extra-networks, 2) inter-networks, and 3) open networks. Based on the conceptualization, the paper discusses strategic knowledge managing in the three network types and points out new knowledge managing research issues. The paper also presents some implications of the conceptualization for the use of information and communication technologies for knowledge managing. 1.