Moving a global consulting organisation from an attitude based on individuals' "knowledge is power" to the advocated principles of knowledge sharing is a challenge that requires facilitation. This paper studies a real global consulting organisation that recognised that important firm resources like processes, technology and capital were not enough in order to drive the required attitudinal change. Details are presented about the lessons learned from a couple of unsuccessful past knowledge management programs and from a successful implementation of a knowledge enablement program involving agents as facilitators of attitudinal change. Some of the lessons learned were that (i) action research components were of help harvesting knowledge assets from tacit knowledge, (ii) perceived value moderates the motivation of associates to participate in the knowledge enablement program, and (iii) knowledge practice owners should perform their agentic task as consultants. A topic for discussion is if the prior knowledge of knowledge practice owners on a given knowledge domain is a requirement to facilitate an attitudinal change. 

The paper investigates the theme known as "Knowledge Management" (KM) in three large Brazilian organisations trying to discuss its concepts, constituent elements, managerial approaches and tools, while aiming at leaving behind the purely terminological discussion, which is innocuous and naive. The basic presuppositions were two: (i) most of what is referred to or named KM is actually "Information Management" (IM) and IM is just one of the components of KM. KM is more than simply IM due to the fact that it includes and incorporates other concerns, such as the creation, use and sharing of information and knowledge in the organisational context; (ii) a conceptual model or map can be formulated based on three basic concepts: (a) a strategic concept of information and knowledge, (b) the introduction of such strategy in the tactical and operational levels through the several managerial approaches and information technology tools and (c) the creation of an organisational space for knowledge. The main objective is to investigate and analyse the concepts, motivations, practices and results of KM effectively implemented in three large Brazilian organisations. The qualitative research strategy used was the study of multiple cases with incorporated units of analysis and three criteria were observed for the judgment of the quality of the research project: validity of the construct, external validity and reliability. Multiple sources of evidence were used and data analysis consisted of three flows of activities: data reduction, data displays and conclusion drawingverification. The results confirmed the presuppositions and the fact that KM means a rethinking of management practices in the information era. Knowledge as such cannot be managed; it is just promoted or stimulated through the creation of a favourable organisational context, namely "Ba". It was also identified that the main challenges facing organisations committed to KM have its focus on change management, cultural and behavioural issues and the creation of an enabling context that favours the creation, use and sharing of information and knowledge. 

Technology has always played an important role in medical science by contributing to health care development. The use of technological instruments helps diagnostics of normal and pathologic states; and thus leads to a better understanding of human physiology. Once a diagnosis is established, a suitable treatment or surgical intervention can be considered, according to the available clinical capacities. In the last four decades, research in biomedical engineering science has led to the manufacturing of cutting edge medical instruments. For example, the introduction of endoscopes into surgical practice is considered one of the biggest success stories in the history of medicine. However in order to develop appropriate medical instruments or procedures, one key issue for successful biomedical research is the ability to understand in an efficient way the requirements of the medical practitioners. Furthermore, the two main actors namely biomedical universities and the biomedical industry involved in the development of new technologies need to collaborate and cooperate to a greater extent. This paper discusses the role and the process of knowledge flow between the various stakeholders involved in the design of medical instruments. The aim is the delineation of a general framework facilitating the understanding of the technical and medical requirements in order to develop new tools and methods. 

Many organisational gurus highlight the value of oral narrative or storytelling as a catalyst for organisational change or a way to share knowledge. Tomes of articles describe seasoned raconteurs single handedly inciting enormous transformation in organisations. Oxymoronically many written works are describing the power of oral narrative. Surely these printed exposés are themselves motivators for change; so why the continued emphasis on the face‑to‑face storytelling? There is no disputing the fact that oral narrative is a powerful form of communicating; however, it is not always feasible. In fact, there are times when the written word packs a more powerful punch. Often it is simply not possible to catch the ear of a wide audience simultaneously, or even at all. Many people simply will not take time from their busy schedules to listen to stories. Busy executives seem to prefer the written word to the spoken. In these cases, the power of the pen offers a persuasive substitute. This is a tale about such stories in action, each of which seemed to sow the seed of change. Of course, time will be the real test; however, anecdotal evidence seems to support the proposition that well‑written futuristic stories provide an excellent alternative to face‑to‑face oral narrative. At least in these examples, the written story proved to be a motivator for organisational change and an effective way to share knowledge. This paper is about the use of narrative to share knowledge; it is part tutorial and part theory. Building on the foundational knowledge developed by Denning, Snowden, Prusak, and others this paper describes the "how to" of effective storytelling to create and share knowledge within organisations. 

The field of knowledge management is still relatively new, with all but a few of its related papers and books published during the last 15 years or so. However, one of the most cited sources is a much earlier work on the topic of tacit and explicit knowledge, by Michael Polanyi (1958 and 1966). An examination of some 60 papers from three major knowledge management journals demonstrates that Polanyi's work has frequently been misinterpreted by some authors and further suggests that, in some cases, the citing authors may not have read the cited work. Further, this has led to misinterpretation of Polanyi's work in ways that have affected wider issues in knowledge management. Polanyi's work is still relevant today and a closer examination of his theory that all knowledge has personal and tacit elements, such that knowledge cannot be made fully explicit, can be used to both support and refute a variety of widely held approaches to knowledge management. In particular, it raises issue about the continued efforts to make knowledge explicit through the use of information systems, without consideration of wider social issues, as well as refuting those who use the issue of tacit knowledge to dismiss the field of knowledge management as a misguided concept. It provides support for more recent work on next generation knowledge management. 

Aspects such as human capital, structural capital and customer capital are important variables of the whole intellectual capital management programme, which forms part of the knowledge management initiatives of institutes of higher learning. The skills and expertise of university staff as part of its human capital are discussed. Structural capital will encompass aspects such as the role of innovation and intellectual property rights. Customer capital of the university and the knowledge of stakeholders in the field of tertiary education are becoming more important. The results of a study done at a South African university are used to indicate which of these aspects needs to be measured and a new framework for measurement and management of IC is discussed. 

Intangibles have emerged in the last decade as an important issue among companies' accounting theories. Companies have implemented strategies based on the robustness of their own intellectual capital. Competitive advantage is based on the capacity to anticipate, innovate and make shared use of opportunities. In the air transportation sector, strong changes have also occurred — traditional value chains based on linear activities alignment, were replaced by a new perspective: the innovation cycle (specific intangibles recognition associated with new business models) and its impact on the operational cycle. This paper presents a theoretical framework approach about intangible assets identification and valuation in the air transportation sector as a whole. The first step of this empirical evidence is based on the Portuguese Airlines companies. 

Existing relevant literature regarding approaches to context formalisation is analysed in search of a characterisation that explains the links — suggested by knowledge theory of the firm — between knowledge integration capability and common knowledge types. The ontological and the syntactic‑semantic‑pragmatic continuum approaches reveal an extensive description of context, which contributes to the understanding of the knowledge integration process, and to an eventual operationalisation of common knowledge types. This theoretical development opens possibilities for the elaboration of prescriptive models that support the integration of knowledge during routine operations of the organisation. 

The Information Resources Management College is the largest of four colleges of National Defence University, the pre‑eminent U.S. graduate‑level institution responsible for educating military and civilian senior leaders across government for national security. The college, dedicated to developing information leaders who can leverage information and information technology for strategic advantage, is rapidly becoming an adaptive enterprise. The college is transforming into a "sense‑and‑respond" organisation (Haeckel, 1999), that is increasingly netcentric and agile, an essential quality for survival in a dynamic Information Age environment. By engaging more directly with stakeholders, the college is sensing the learning needs of government organisations. In response it is re‑designing current, and designing new, educational programs, re‑framing its courses into professional development seminars, and designing tailored educational services to meet the learning needs of government organisations. Via its large distributed learning program, the college reaches students around the world, and is expanding its current global reach by supporting communities of practice aligned with perceived stakeholder interests. It is also encouraging faculty participation with networks of government, academic, and private sector colleagues to enrich learning. Cross‑boundary communication, collaboration, and leadership are valued as essential to better government and the agility of the college, and are infused as curricular and organisational goals. As part of its transformation, college leaders streamlined the organisational design to create teams of faculty to develop and deliver programs. Replacing command‑and‑control systems, the leaders are adapting the organisational context by re‑framing the organisation's reason for being, governing principles, and high‑level business process design. While continuing to offer credit‑bearing courses and programs consistent with the academic traditions of a graduate school, the college is transforming from a "make‑and‑sell" organisation to a "sense‑and‑respond" organisation that models agility in today's information‑driven federal government environment. 

A range of collaborative group structures are analysed from the perspective of knowledge management enabling technologies. A framework is developed demonstrating the application and role of specific technologies in supporting collaborative group structures including Communities of Practice, Centres of Practice, Special Interest Groups, Centres of Competence and Communities of Competence. In evaluating the utilisation of such technologies, the nature, purpose and capabilities of such group structures are analysed. 

Knowledge has long ago been recognised as an important asset for sustaining competitive advantage. Recently, the use of information technologies for knowledge‑sharing within an organisation is identified as an important tool for managing organisational knowledge in order to improve business performance. This paper starts with a retrospective analysis of the basic theories that during the course of the 20 century, gave birth to the Knowledge‑based Theory of the Firm. Then it focuses on Knowledge Sharing within the organisation, and the Knowledge Sharing Networks that facilitate this complicated task. Through an empirical study, it evaluates the role and the level of contribution of Information Technology functions and infrastructure among knowledge‑sharing groups, for their relationship and the organisation's performance. Finally, building upon both the theoretical analysis and the empirical results, the paper concludes with guidelines that help management to overcome existing barriers and at the same time, make Knowledge Sharing Networks the backbone of their knowledge‑sharing infrastructure. 

The development of intellectual capital theory has been guided by the ideas and thoughts of a handful of influential practitioners, including Karl Erik Sveiby (1997), RS Kaplan (Kaplan and Norton, 1992) and Leif Edvinson (Edvinson and Malone, 1997). These pioneers established the basis of the "intellectual capital standard theory". In the present paper the assumptions and principles that support the standard theory (the prevailing paradigm) are discussed. The paper then introduces other models and methodologies as alternatives to the standard theory„such as the "Value Explorer" (Andriessen and Tissen, 2000) and the "Intellectual Capital Benchmarking System (ICBS)" (Viedma, 2001)„ and examines the foundations and principles on which the alternative new theory (the 'new paradigm') is based. Finally, the paper attempts to synthesise both of these theoretical approaches with other new views and contributions, and tries to develop the basis for a first general theory of intellectual capital.