Competitive pressure and desire for success drive enterprises in general to involve in knowledge acquisition and dissemination activities that are becoming increasingly significant in the rapid changing and globalising economic world. In addition, with the increased mobility of information and the global labour force, knowledge and experience can be transferred instantaneously around the globe; thus, any advantage gained by one company can be eliminated by comparative improvements overnight. Therefore, the only comparative advantage a particular company will face will be its process of innovation – combining market and technology know-how with the resourceful talents of knowledgeable labour to solve a constant stream of competitive problems- and its ability to derive value from information. In this context, internal and external knowledge acquisition, intra-firm knowledge dissemination and management decisions taken in response to the significant information generated and subsequently filtered became the key factors of entrepreneurial success. This thesis explores how market orientation, learning orientation and entrepreneurial orientation systematically contribute to and are sources of competitive advantage in growth-oriented SMEs. The objective of this study was to investigate the likelihood of a growth-oriented enterprise established in Atlantic Canada to be involved in knowledge acquisition and dissemination activities and to succeed conditional on numerous internal and external factors. A ‘mixed-methods’ research approach was used in this study, comprised of: 1) a web-based questionnaire to study the knowledge management process and other aspects of entrepreneurial success and 2) ‘semi-structured’ interviews with a sample of the responding entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that knowledge management practices: external acquisition, intra-firm dissemination and responsiveness, do vary across the levels of entrepreneurial performance among the Atlantic Canadian SMEs investigated in the study. Having a market orientation and investing in human resources of the firm were found to be critical drivers of innovation leading to potential competitive advantage.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

A gestão do conhecimento é um dos temas emergentes da administração das empresas. Com o tempo, percebe-se que as empresas que dominem as informações e as transformem em conhecimentos para aplicá-los de forma organizada em prol de seus resultados podem levar vantagem sobre os seus concorrentes e, acima de tudo, atender com excelência e qualidade aos seus propósitos. Essa tese dá a oportunidade de conhecer, de forma mais detalhada, o que as empresas que alegam a utilização da gestão do conhecimento têm praticado para a sua concretização. Fica claro que, não se trata de uma tarefa rotineira, mas, ao contrário, é uma ação com características sistêmicas, exigindo de todas as pessoas e níveis das empresas que atuem de forma conjunta, integrada, interligada aos ambientes externo e interno e, considerando os efeitos das variáveis sobre as empresas. É um assunto que abrange e influencia as decisões estratégicas das empresas, passa pelas construções do ambiente e da cultura organizacional, pela criação e organização de ferramentas para a criação, e identificação de conhecimento, pelo seu compartilhamento e pelas atividades de atuação e descarte de seus conteúdos. Essa pesquisa analisa e investiga esses aspectos, o que as empresas têm praticado nesse tema e procura demonstrar os principais fatores propulsores e restritivos para sua aplicação. Além das teorias e pesquisa das atividades relacionadas à gestão do conhecimento, este trabalho desenvolve-se de acordo com a teoria institucional, tomando-a por base para a construção de um modelo teórico, que seja suficientemente amplo para acolher, a visão de processo e de sus etapas. A teoria institucional teve o objetivo de classificar os diferentes graus de implantação e desenvolvimento da gestão do conhecimento, e realizou a função de classificação do grau de implementação da gestão do conhecimento na empresa. Deve-se ressaltar a metodologia de estudos de caso, na modalidade de estudos múltiplos de casos, o que permitiu a análise cruzada entre as várias empresas e a verificação das diferentes práticas adotadas por elas. A pesquisa propiciou o entendimento das principais dificuldades para a institucionalização da gestão do conhecimento, a avaliação da abrangência e significado dessa ação para as empresas e fortaleceu o entendimento de sua influência para os modelos de gestão. A teoria é conceitualmente pródiga em conteúdos, mas a aplicação da gestão do conhecimento necessita de aprofundamentos adicionais e da continuidade das pesquisas, principalmente no que se refere à gestão da cultura organizacional, da estratégia e das pessoas nas empresas. É um novo momento da administração que deve evoluir e reconfigurar a missão para a aprendizagem organizacional e o papel dos responsáveis pela gestão de pessoas nas empresas. / ABSTRACT Knowledge management is one of the emerging themes of business administration. In the course of time, it becomes clear that enterprises which master information and molde it into knowledge which is systematically applied to favor results may have advantage over their competitors, and above all, reach their targets with excellency and quality. This paper aims at knowing, in detailed form, what the enterprises which claims to use knowledge management have done to make it real. It is clear that this is not a routine task, but a systemic action which demands from every person and from each level of the enterprise a team work which is integrated into the external and the internal environments, and considering the effects of the variables over the enterprises. Knowledge management is a subject which embraces and influences strategic enterprises decisions and is involved with the building of the environment and of organizational culture, with the creation and organization of tools aimed at building and identification of knowledge, with sharing of knowledge, with performance activities and with discarding contents. This paper also aims at analyzing and investigating such aspects, showing what enterprises have already done in this area and pointing out the main propelling and the main restrictive factors for knowledge management implementation. Besides studying theories and performing research on activities related to knowledge management, this paper is developed in accord with the institutional theory, as the basis for the building of a theoretical pattern wide enough to shelter on one hand the vision of the process. The institutional theory had the purpose of classifying the different levels of implementation and development of knowledge management, and performing the classification of the implementation level of the knowledge management in the enterprise. Case study methodology, in the form of multiple cases study, allowed the intersectional analysis among several enterprises and the inspection of the different actions they use. The research allowed the understanding of the main hindrance for the institutionalization of knowledge management, the evaluation of the range and meaning of this action for the enterprises, and invigorated the understanding of its influence for management patterns. The theory is plenty of contents, but the application of knowledge management needs deeper and continuous research, mainly on which it concerns to the management of organizational culture, strategies and people in the enterprises. It is a new age for the administration which must evolve and reconfigure the mission of organizational learning and the role reserved to the responsible ones for the management of people in the enterprises.

Assignment (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / On title page: Master of Philosophy (Information and Knowledge Management. Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2009. / ""Submitted to College of Business in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-117)

A gestão do conhecimento é um dos temas emergentes da administração das empresas. Com o tempo, percebe-se que as empresas que dominem as informações e as transformem em conhecimentos para aplicá-los de forma organizada em prol de seus resultados podem levar vantagem sobre os seus concorrentes e, acima de tudo, atender com excelência e qualidade aos seus propósitos. Essa tese dá a oportunidade de conhecer, de forma mais detalhada, o que as empresas que alegam a utilização da gestão do conhecimento têm praticado para a sua concretização. Fica claro que, não se trata de uma tarefa rotineira, mas, ao contrário, é uma ação com características sistêmicas, exigindo de todas as pessoas e níveis das empresas que atuem de forma conjunta, integrada, interligada aos ambientes externo e interno e, considerando os efeitos das variáveis sobre as empresas. É um assunto que abrange e influencia as decisões estratégicas das empresas, passa pelas construções do ambiente e da cultura organizacional, pela criação e organização de ferramentas para a criação, e identificação de conhecimento, pelo seu compartilhamento e pelas atividades de atuação e descarte de seus conteúdos. Essa pesquisa analisa e investiga esses aspectos, o que as empresas têm praticado nesse tema e procura demonstrar os principais fatores propulsores e restritivos para sua aplicação. Além das teorias e pesquisa das atividades relacionadas à gestão do conhecimento, este trabalho desenvolve-se de acordo com a teoria institucional, tomando-a por base para a construção de um modelo teórico, que seja suficientemente amplo para acolher, a visão de processo e de sus etapas. A teoria institucional teve o objetivo de classificar os diferentes graus de implantação e desenvolvimento da gestão do conhecimento, e realizou a função de classificação do grau de implementação da gestão do conhecimento na empresa. Deve-se ressaltar a metodologia de estudos de caso, na modalidade de estudos múltiplos de casos, o que permitiu a análise cruzada entre as várias empresas e a verificação das diferentes práticas adotadas por elas. A pesquisa propiciou o entendimento das principais dificuldades para a institucionalização da gestão do conhecimento, a avaliação da abrangência e significado dessa ação para as empresas e fortaleceu o entendimento de sua influência para os modelos de gestão. A teoria é conceitualmente pródiga em conteúdos, mas a aplicação da gestão do conhecimento necessita de aprofundamentos adicionais e da continuidade das pesquisas, principalmente no que se refere à gestão da cultura organizacional, da estratégia e das pessoas nas empresas. É um novo momento da administração que deve evoluir e reconfigurar a missão para a aprendizagem organizacional e o papel dos responsáveis pela gestão de pessoas nas empresas. / ABSTRACT Knowledge management is one of the emerging themes of business administration. In the course of time, it becomes clear that enterprises which master information and molde it into knowledge which is systematically applied to favor results may have advantage over their competitors, and above all, reach their targets with excellency and quality. This paper aims at knowing, in detailed form, what the enterprises which claims to use knowledge management have done to make it real. It is clear that this is not a routine task, but a systemic action which demands from every person and from each level of the enterprise a team work which is integrated into the external and the internal environments, and considering the effects of the variables over the enterprises. Knowledge management is a subject which embraces and influences strategic enterprises decisions and is involved with the building of the environment and of organizational culture, with the creation and organization of tools aimed at building and identification of knowledge, with sharing of knowledge, with performance activities and with discarding contents. This paper also aims at analyzing and investigating such aspects, showing what enterprises have already done in this area and pointing out the main propelling and the main restrictive factors for knowledge management implementation. Besides studying theories and performing research on activities related to knowledge management, this paper is developed in accord with the institutional theory, as the basis for the building of a theoretical pattern wide enough to shelter on one hand the vision of the process. The institutional theory had the purpose of classifying the different levels of implementation and development of knowledge management, and performing the classification of the implementation level of the knowledge management in the enterprise. Case study methodology, in the form of multiple cases study, allowed the intersectional analysis among several enterprises and the inspection of the different actions they use. The research allowed the understanding of the main hindrance for the institutionalization of knowledge management, the evaluation of the range and meaning of this action for the enterprises, and invigorated the understanding of its influence for management patterns. The theory is plenty of contents, but the application of knowledge management needs deeper and continuous research, mainly on which it concerns to the management of organizational culture, strategies and people in the enterprises. It is a new age for the administration which must evolve and reconfigure the mission of organizational learning and the role reserved to the responsible ones for the management of people in the enterprises.

Internet-based and mobile technologies enable new ways of learning. They offer us new possibilities to access an enormous amount of knowledge at any time and everywhere. Among many advantages, the adaptations require a rethinking of our previous learning behaviour patterns and processes. The challenge for students is no longer to get access to information and knowledge, but to select the right one and to deal with the information and knowledge overflow. The aim of this research is to define, design and validate an advanced concept to support the contemporary learning processes. Therefore, the requirements for a new approach have been assessed, the available solutions from the related area of (personal) Knowledge Management have been investigated, and the weaknesses in the context of learning identified. The identified issues have been substantiated by university students via a quantitative survey. Besides several smaller aspects, knowledge fragmentation and the nescience of the knowledge formation process have been classified as the most critical ones. To overcome these problems, a methodological concept has been developed, and a corresponding technological design created. The chosen approach is an intelligent, independent intermediate layer, which traces the different steps our knowledge entities are going through. Based on personal and individual configurations, the system provides a comprehensive and overall observation of nearly all our knowledge work activities. It supports the building and accessing of the knowledge formation paths for every important knowledge unit, later path combination and the access to automatically generated versions of our work. Moreover, it helps the users not only to remember what they did, but also gives them some strong indications why they did it. This is achieved by combining different knowledge actions and looking at the influences they have on each other. The suggested concept has been critically proved and confirmed via a qualitative expert analysis and backed up by a quantitative survey among university students.

This research is based on real issues that have been recognised within the global organisation, Rolls-Royce. The first aim concerned an issue that many companies face, the difficulty that employees face in locating the knowledge and information they require, especially in larger organisations. The developed solution of an Information Map proved to be a success in providing people within the Submarines business with the location of' Configuration Management information. The concept of the Information Map is one that can be adopted by any business as the stages in the tools development have been well documented within Chapters Four, Five and Six. Analysis of the success of the Information Map led to the derivation of 10 lessons learned. These were then verified in a second case study of an intranet development. The second aim of the research was to create a Knowledge Management framework that could be adapted by companies looking to invest in Knowledge Management and provide them with a guide to use. This framework was built from the lessons learned from the Information Map and from other best practice derived from available literature and within Rolls-Royce. The work conducted within the Support business tries to fill in gaps in current research by offering companies a new approach to Knowledge Management, which was based upon the way that industries work today. The creation of the Knowledge Management framework simplifies the work conducted and offers practitioners an easy, high-level approach to the adoption of Knowledge Management by grouping the process into ten steps. This is presented in a fashion that is easy to follow and ultimately offers a guide to make the best use of the resources and budget available to Knowledge Management practitioners. Overall the research addresses the 'real' issues faced by Knowledge Management practitioners. The main contributions to the Knowledge Management domain are the Information Map, action research approach, implementation of Knowledge Management tools for the users needs and a Framework as a guide for industry.

The effective use of computer based tools to support decision making in manufacturing industry is critical to business success. One of the most critical areas is during product design and especially in design for manufacture. This research will help in understanding of how manufacturing knowledge can be effectively maintained for an existing knowledge base. The work will use modern product lifecycle management tools in combination with a knowledge based environment in order to explore the effectiveness of the methods produced. This work is a part of the SAMULET (Strategic Affordable Manufacturing in the UK through Leading Environmental Technologies) research program and was done in association with an aerospace manufacturing company. The main focus of this research is to define a novel method for maintaining the machining knowledge associated with manufacturing of Xtra Wide Body (XWB) High Pressure (HP) turbine blade. The four main elements explained in this thesis are, a) the literature review done on knowledge management and knowledge maintenance, b) industrial investigation done on a manufacturing facility, c) detailed explanation of a novel manufacturing knowledge maintenance method d) four iterative case studies used for the evaluation and iterative improvement of the method. The research concludes that the aspect of knowledge maintenance is important. It is imperative to set out a formalised and mandated knowledge maintenance process in an organisation to keep the knowledge up-to-date and relevant. It has been shown that a novel task based knowledge maintenance method comprising a Knowledge Maintenance Process (KMP) and a Knowledge Maintenance Template (KMT) provides an effective route to knowledge maintenance. Three maintenance tasks, check relevancy, knowledge filtering, and integrity checking have been considered in detail for successful knowledge maintenance. Four iterative case studies have been conducted for the experimental evaluation of the maintenance method. As the result of these evaluations a novel method for maintaining the machining knowledge of XWB HP turbine blade was defined.

Mounting recognition of the socio-political context of the management of water resources has rendered the application of technocratic approaches in isolation insufficient in addressing future management challenges with participatory approaches increasingly promoted in response. Against this background, new regulatory mechanisms in the water sector in England and Wales promise an increased role for the views of customers in water utility planning and decision- making. Yet, existing scholarship on the institutionalisation of participative approaches in water utility planning and decision-making in England and Wales is sparse. This thesis contributes to an improved understanding of factors that hold potential to impact institutionalisation of participative approaches in this context by focusing on three specific aspects of effectiveness; motivational clarity, the influence of participative mechanism design, and the use and influence of water utility customer contributions in water sector planning and decision-making. This has been achieved through the deployment of participatory research in collaboration with the sponsoring organisation (a water utility operating in England and Wales) utilising group discussion and semi-structured interviews with domestic water customers and water utility practitioner respectively. Findings demonstrate that preference elicitation vehicles embedded within participatory mechanisms hold the potential to influence participants expressed preferences thus representing a key design consideration where multi- mechanism approaches are deployed in planning and decision-making contexts. Furthermore, useful design considerations for multi-attribute presentation in participatory mechanisms are presented. Findings also identify a dominance of instrumental and legalistic practitioner motivations for the use of participative approaches in water utility decision-making. Foremost, it identified the significance of the regulator in driving water utility practices for the management and influence of customer contributions in planning and decision- making, and more fundamentally illustrates the significant barrier posed by a legacy of technocratic practices for the institutionalisation of participatory approaches in water utilities.