Building knowledge management (KM) infrastructure involves reuse and refocus of several existing infrastructure components, and awareness around future visions and conditions of infrastructure. We present a community perspective using a staircase metaphor for conceptualizing government supported KM infrastructure and services. Additionally we illustrate a model for government's role in providing and leveraging infrastructure components from all tiers of government. With examples, we build a case for adding diffusion of innovation characteristics, and features from innovation networks analysis in KM infrastructure. Observability and trialability are important to knowledge acquisition, while compatibility are central to knowledge application, packaging, and creation. Ease of use, and perceived usefulness affects knowledge use in all its forms.

This paper presents a hybrid approach to understanding the knowledge management requirements for a knowledge intensive service organization. It proposes a strategy‑knowledge management alignment framework grounded in literature. The framework was constructed by studying four published case‑studies that tackle knowledge management at world class management consulting firms. The paper then applies the framework to two cases in the knowledge intensive services sector. The first case studies a young management consulting firm needing to formalize its knowledge management policies and processes. The second case studies the creation of an IT Outsourcing Services Division by a traditional telecommunications company that needs to expand its product offering to increase its opportunities for growth in a small market. The two case studies support the proposed framework and show that it can be used to obtain practical solutions in a business environment. One of the case studies also contributes to developing the case method in research by using the Socratic Dialogue as a means to collecting and analyzing evidence.

Availability of sophisticated ICT infrastructure combined with emerging business processes such as various service orientation configurations, constitute major characteristics of many of today's libraries in western universities. This has created a vast amount of customer‑related information in libraries. This article provides a methodology for organising customer knowledge in academic libraries. A two‑dimensional Customer Knowledge Taxonomy (CKT) has been presented for organizing the customer knowledge, thus providing a formal and explicit specification to deliver a shared conceptualization of customer knowledge. Based on the proposed CKT, customer knowledge in academic libraries can be classified into (i) knowledge about customers, (ii) knowledge from customers and (iii) knowledge for customers. The knowledge in each of these three categories can be 'explicit' and 'tacit', thus providing six categories of customer knowledge. The second major contribution of this paper is to introduce a method for integrating the above first and second categories of customer knowledge in order to derive the third category. This integration methodology is based on an integrated cyclical knowledge flow model that consists of four phases including: (i) communication, (ii) knowledge sharing & dissemination, (iii) knowledge acquisition and application, and 'iv' knowledge utilization and evaluation. Through a qualitative research, the proposed framework, consisting of the CKT and the corresponding integrated cyclical knowledge flow model, was then applied to a large university library for coding and classifying the vast amounts of existing customer data residing in 2,500 interview scripts within the case study organization. In doing so, a uniform coding scheme had to be developed using a focus group methodology. Data were then stored into a customer knowledge base using the Laximancer software. The proposed framework was evaluated for consistency of conceptualisation to ensure reusability in similar environments. It is expected that similar organisations will benefit from the proposed methodology for classifying the customer knowledge in academic libraries and the associated evaluation methodology for design and development of integrated knowledge based systems which in turn will support emerging processes within the organization.

The present global economic crisis creates doubts about the good use of accumulated experience and knowledge in managing risk in financial services. Typically, risk management practice does not use knowledge management (KM) to improve and to develop new answers to the threats. A key reason is that it is not clear how to break down the "organizational silos" view of risk management (RM) that is commonly taken. As a result, there has been relatively little work on finding the relationships between RM and KM. We have been doing research for the last couple of years on the identification of relationships between these two disciplines. At ECKM 2007 we presented a general review of the literature(s) and some hypotheses for starting research on KM and its relationship to the perceived value of enterprise risk management. This article presents findings based on our preliminary analyses, concentrating on those factors affecting the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing. These come from a questionnaire survey of RM employees in organisations in the financial services sector, which yielded 121 responses. We have included five explanatory variables for the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing. These comprised two variables relating to people (organizational capacity for work coordination and perceived quality of communication among groups), one relating to process (perceived quality of risk control) and two related to technology (web channel functionality and RM information system functionality). Our findings so far are that four of these five variables have a significant positive association with the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing: contrary to expectations, web channel functionality did not have a significant association. Indeed, in some of our exploratory regression studies its coefficient (although not significant) was negative. In stepwise regression, the variable organizational capacity for work coordination accounted for by far the largest part of the variation in the dependent variable perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing. The "people" variables thus appear to have the greatest influence on the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing, even in a sector that relies heavily on technology and on quantitative approaches to decision making. We have also found similar results with the dependent variable perceived value of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) implementation.

While knowledge is increasingly considered to be a key resource for companies, the models for formulating business strategies that explicitly include it as a core component are still lacking. The paper investigates such issues by considering the particular case of computer service companies, which can be seen as Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) firms connecting the sources of innovation (i.e. large multinationals, research laboratories, universities, etc.) to the individual needs of the local customers. In doing so they operate as mediators between the local cognitive requirements and the more generic knowledge available in the global environment. Since those companies base their competitiveness on the capability to manage knowledge flows among various actors, the formulation of their business strategies requires new approaches that directly focus on knowledge assets and relevant processes. The paper describes the results of a survey involving twenty‑one computer service companies located in the Northeast of Italy. The study allows the user to draw useful schemes for the identification of knowledge‑based strategies, which can be of use beyond the specific context of investigation. In particular, rather than proposing completely new models for knowledge‑based strategic formulations, the paper analyses the way knowledge can be integrated into more traditional strategic frameworks. The assumption is that these approaches can be more comfortable and understandable by the management of companies whose business is strongly based on knowledge but don't have deliberate knowledge management strategies.

The term knowledge‑intensive business services (KIBS) indicates private companies whose job consists of collecting, generating, analysing, and distributing knowledge with the purpose of delivering customized services to satisfy client’s needs. KIBS firms rely on highly educated professionals, and supply knowledge resources or other knowledge‑based services that clients are unable or unwilling to develop by themselves. The provision of KIBS entails a bilateral exchange of knowledge between the service provider and the end user along with the entire supply cycle. In this process, not only KIBS firms supply clients with precious elements of technical and applicative knowledge, but also client firms provide KIBS with pieces of knowledge that are necessary for designing a successful solution. As is well underlined in the literature, trust is an essential ingredient of client‑provider knowledge exchanges, so that KIBS companies have deal with it properly. This is not simple, since trust has several dimensions that rely on different trust‑building mechanisms. In light of this, the paper aims to analyse the different forms of trust and the related trust‑building mechanisms that come into play during the delivery of a knowledge‑intensive service. This is done by discussing the findings of a multiple case‑study of a particular group of KIBS, i.e. computer service companies located in the Northeast of Italy. Specifically, the study: a) offers a knowledge‑oriented description of the interactions that take place during the service delivery process between client and KIBS firms; b) analyses the role played by the different forms of trust, as antecedents and consequences of each interaction; c) makes some remarks about the trust building mechanisms that a KIBS company can exploit, and the resulting management implications.

Every public organisation faces the challenge of improving productivity. In this effort, productivity measures are essential managerial tools. However, the task of measuring service productivity has proven to be challenging. A key reason for the challenges seems to be related to the intangibility of services. The objective of this paper is to identify and apply a productivity measurement method satisfying the information requirements of public managers. The study is carried out using a qualitative case study approach. The paper consists of two parts: first, the current knowledge of the issue is examined by reviewing the literature on (service) productivity and performance measurement; second, an action research is carried out in the context of four case services of the City of Helsinki, Finland. A disaggregated approach to productivity measurement is applied. Three different measurement frameworks and methods are evaluated in light of practical criteria for measurement. Finally, a matrix method is chosen and applied in practice. As a result the paper provides more understanding of the process of applying the disaggregated productivity measurement approach in the context of public welfare services.

In this study, we sketch a problem‑based perspective of the service business, following the latest theoretical developments in the field of the knowledge‑based view of the firm and the related problem‑solving perspective. In particular, we approach services as problems to be solved for and with the customer. Our paper outlines a framework in which the knowledge processes regarding service delivery are conceptualized on two axes: 1) the intensity of knowledge sharing and co‑creation of services between the provider and the customer and 2) the nature of the problem‑solving process regarding the service delivery. Based on the developed conceptual framework, we provide implications concerning the organizing of various types of services in terms of the different problem‑solving processes they require. Furthermore, after identifying the distinctive problem‑solving processes with the help of the typology, theoretical and practical implications for service and knowledge management are discussed.