Knowledge is an essential source of competitive advantage in modern society and is particularly important in the current on-line environment due to increased business interactions throughout the world. Knowledge sharing initiatives taken by organisations to improve technicalities to tackle cyber threat have been extensively investigated. A particular focus of this study was on the security professionals sharing their learning experience in order to help address and mitigate identity theft. Multiple case studies were employed to interpret the triangulated data collected. ShoppingCo, PaymentCo, TeleCo, and NetworkingCo participated in this investigation. Semi structured interviews were scheduled and conducted in conjunction to company reports, personal communication, presentation slides and related materials was gathered to ensure trustworthiness and authenticity. Pattern matching analysis was employed to draw conclusions by evaluating 30 transcripts and 11 internal documents. The major theoretical contribution of this study was the proposal of a conceptual framework that adapts for private sector organisations knowledge sharing elements in the security profession. Lack of knowledge of the manager’s role is addressed. Current knowledge sharing and corporate communication practices are synthesised. Formal and informal communication, social forums and networking events are evaluated. Thus, improving the current understanding of identity theft. This empirical study contributes to an improved understanding of inter-organisational knowledge sharing practice within three retailers and an official networking forum. Because of this evaluation, an extended framework is proposed and components synthesised into a new framework. Recommendations are drawn based on an evaluation of what is working and what does not seem to be providing benefits with regard to knowledge that address and mitigate identity theft. The framework suggested that the key to improved knowledge sharing was to persuade a range of security officials working for different private sector organisations to share their knowledge of identity theft prevention.

Novelty is a widespread notion that has not been given commensurate critical attention. This research is an ethnographically-inclined exploration of practices surrounding the accomplishment of novelty in an institution for which novelty is a central notion: the patent system of the United Kingdom. The research is based on interviews with patent examiners at the UK patent office, interviews with patent attorneys at various legal firms, and documentary analysis of legislation and numerous legal judgments. The thesis brings to bear themes from Science and Technology Studies and ethnomethodology to assess the extent to which they can account for the practices surrounding novelty in the UK patent system. As a fundamental legal requirement for the patentability of inventions, novelty is a central part of the practices of patent composition, assessment and contestation. Rather than being a straightforward technical criterion, however, novelty is shown to be a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon emerging from interwoven legal, bureaucratic and individual practices. The local resolution of whether or not a given invention is new, and the cross-institutional coherence of novelty as a practicable notion, raise questions concerning ontology, accountability, scale and inconcludability, and provide an opportunity for empirically grounded engagement with these longstanding analytical concerns.