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Why has innovation become such an important part of strategy development? D.L.: I believe there are several reasons. The first is that strategic planning has failed us in the current environment. We've begun to realize how difficult, if not impossible, it is to do strategic planning in the traditional sense. Companies can no longer plan five or ten years out because of the volatility of the environment, and so they have begun to look at their distinctive capabilities as important assets to be mined for new strategic directions. The concept of a firm having distinctive capabilities goes back a long way, but recently it has become more important to identify these capabilities and to build on them for future success.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of literature that establishes the factors affecting the ability of an organisation to absorb and apply knowledge. The review aims to draw from literature on the resource‐based view of the firm, dynamic capabilities, organisational learning, knowledge management and technological innovation. The paper then seeks to present a model of knowledge translation capability synthesised from the literature review.

The model that is synthesised from the literature review draws on three streams of work. First, the work of Dorothy Leonard on technological capability; second, the I‐space model of knowledge assets developed by Max Boisot; and third, other work based in the organisational learning and innovation management literature. The model is illustrated using a case study of an innovation project.

The effective development of a knowledge translation capability requires attention to a network of both formal and informal structures/activities across an organisation. Together these activities constitute a dynamic capability that operates iteratively throughout the whole organisation and are an example of triple‐loop learning processes.

The paper will prove useful to other academics in the area of technological innovation and practising managers who can use the model to evaluate their own organisation's knowledge translation capability.

The advantage of the model presented is that, unlike other discussions of dynamic capability, the link between conceptual level description and real world activities has been made more distinct. By recognising relevant organisational structures and relationships, it becomes possible to takes steps to assess their performance and then manage their improvement.

Theories of knowledge are critical to practical reasoning. Nevertheless, most students of management pay little or no attention to the disciplines that deal most directly with questions about knowledge, its origins, and its nature: epistemology primarily, but the philosophy of science and other related disciplines as well. Even where underlying philosophical assumptions influence their thinking and writing, students of practical reasoning often fail to acknowledge these influences. That is a great pity. By looking to epistemology, a richer and more coherent development of practical reasoning and its contribution to administrative inquiry as a field of intellectual endeavor may be possible. Moreover, the relationship between our understanding of knowledge and our understanding of practical reasoning is potentially reciprocal. A fuller exploration of this relationship may help us better understand social epistemology as well as promote conceptual development in the fields of practical reasoning and administrative inquiry.

The Second Comparative Study of Knowledge Creation Conference was held in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in June 1998. The conference focused on the development of ideas, concepts and perspectives that advance the theory and practice of knowledge creation. Three conference presentations are highlighted in this review.

This article suggests that Patrick Pearse’s thought and work was rooted in the child‐centred movement of the late nineteenth‐century, was informed by the tenets of progressivism and predated the work of later influential educational thinkers. It is further argued that Pearse developed a unique conceptualisation of schooling as a radical form of political and cultural dissent in pre‐1916 Ireland. Aspects of Pearse’s thought that are evidently problematic are highlighted and the article suggests that discussions of his work might benefit from moving to these more substantial and germane areas.

The increase in environmental consciousness around the world since 1970's pushed firms to engage in socially responsible behaviors. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has naturally gained attention in the academic and business world (Colvin, 2001; Harrison & Freeman, 1999; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001; Waddock & Smith, 2000). The reasons for these socially responsible behaviors are not only the external obligations or regulatory compliance but also the firms desire to increase competitiveness, to improve stock market performance (Bansal & Roth, 2000; Drumwright, 1994, 1996; Klassen & Mclaughlin, 1996; Russo & Fouts, 1997; Waddock & Smith, 2000) and to create a positive self‐image among consumers. There have been numerous studies on CSR suggesting a link between social initiatives and consumer's positive product and brand evaluations, brand choice and brand recommendations (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Drumwright, 1994; Handelman & Arnold, 1999; Osterhus, 1997; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001). Moreover, the consumers are continuing to become more interested in CSR and green product market is fast growing so the use of CSR initiatives by the firms to receive the support of the society and to influence consumer behavior has become quite common. However, these socially responsible steps must also have an effect on corporations' major objective: maximizing the profits.

A short personal view on the development of the Internet phenomenon is given. It is argued that the Internet is a powerful paradigm of change and community building. Changes which enable the learning organization are of particular interest. This is investigated in the context of corporate training using, or learning from, the Internet. Next, capabilities and rigidities of the net as a knowledge management tool rather than yet another way to distribute unwanted information, are listed. Finally, the important lessons learnt from the success of the Internet are linked to the future of marketing the Internet world wide.

The notion of working together in teams is like motherhood; everybody loves the idea. The benefits of team‐based product development, which have been well documented in numerous articles and books, derive from the concept of overlapped stages of product development. Despite such benefits, however, teams face numerous challenges.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how lessons learned from a case study of a construction project undertaken in the Pacific Islands relates to the interaction between social capital and knowledge transfer. The paper is reflective in nature focusing upon the experiences of one of the authors, being a Pacific Islander and trying to make sense of the role of social capital and the way that it impacts upon knowledge transfer.

Three theoretical frameworks are drawn upon in a pilot test of tools used to better understand and measure knowledge transfer including barriers to knowledge transfer to help explain the difficulty of knowledge transfer in a given context and the development of social capital for a foreign aid project. These tools allowed us to visualise project stakeholder outcomes for knowledge transfer and building social capital that were articulated by the aid recipient as being highly important. This was a pilot study and results reported upon in this paper were fed back to stakeholder representatives concerned for their comment and validation. Project documentation data, unstructured ad hoc interviews, together with personal reflection‐in‐practice, were gathered and used for the study.

The approach was found to be very useful in helping stakeholders better visualise and measure this project outcome, whereas experience from previous similar projects indicated that it was very difficult for stakeholders to find a tangible way of measuring this important element of success or failure.

Many projects of the type exemplified by the case studies are funded by aid agencies. This paper makes a contribution by presenting an evaluation tool for intangible project outcomes. The findings may influence the design of project success measures.