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This paper aims to understand how interest in the topic of knowledge management has evolved in the decade between 1998 and 2008 and to evaluate the claim that knowledge management is a management fashion.

The paper uses the academic publications database to investigate academic interest in the topic of knowledge management between 2000 and 2008, and company web sites to evaluate level of contemporary interest among global consultants and professional service firms in knowledge management.

The data presented challenge the idea that knowledge management can be regarded as a transient fashion, showing that academic interest in the topic has been sustained throughout the first decade of the twenty‐first century. However, in contrast to this, there has been a significant decline of interest in knowledge management among global consultancies and professional service firms.

The data on levels of academic interest in knowledge management were taken from only one source (ABI Proquest) and data on the level of interest among consultants and professional service firms were based on an analysis of their web sites.

The paper provides the first systematic evaluation of the level of interest in the topic of knowledge management in almost a decade.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how collaborative/opportunistic behaviours within subsidised university-industry partnerships are influencing the design/implementation of strategic knowledge management practices in emerging economies.

The proposed conceptual model was analysed with a retrospective multiple case study approach integrated by four subsidised entrepreneurial universities-industry partnerships of the Incentive Programme for Innovation from 2009 to 2014 in Mexico.

Entrepreneurial universities and industrial organisations confirm insights about dual collaborative-opportunistic behaviour within subsidised partnerships. The main effects of behaviours represent an increment in the knowledge management costs during the monitoring stages. The ex ante collaboration agreement anticipated and protected intellectual capabilities.

This research contributes to the ongoing discussion about public administrations’ opportunistic behaviours in emerging economies (Tripsas et al., 1995), the effectiveness of the innovation and entrepreneurial programmes (Guerrero and Urbano, 2019b), and the link between dual behaviours (collaborative and opportunistic) and knowledge management practices (de Wit-de Vries et al., 2018).

New questions emerged about the effectiveness of subsidies as new modes of knowledge generation among entrepreneurial universities and industrial organisations, as well as the need for implementing strategic knowledge management practices in the public administration.

For policymakers, the study presents insights about the effectiveness of public resources. Policymakers should understand challenges and re-define/re-incentivize the productive value chain as well as implement mechanisms to control opportunistic behaviours on potential subsidised firms.

The paper contributes to the academic debate about how entrepreneurial universities and industrial organisations are strategically managing their knowledge when participating in subsidised partnerships in emerging economies.

Knowledge is the fundamental basis of competition. Although the study of knowledge is as old as human history, it has only been recognized in the last decade as a crucial element of the industrial development of firms. Organizations view knowledge as their most valuable and strategic resource. They believe in managing their intellectual resources and capabilities in order to become and remain competitive. To this end, knowledge management (KM) has become a fundamental concept for those interested in the ever‐changing events of the business world. Organizations invest heavily in building KM systems. They must strategically assess their knowledge resources and capabilities, and need to establish their knowledge strategy to sustain competitive advantages.

The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of sharing knowledge processes aimed at promoting innovation in small businesses.

The empirical study was conducted in Israel on a sample of 202 businesses in face-to-face interviews.

The study demonstrated that small businesses in the industry sectors that seek to promote innovation must implement processes for sharing knowledge. Interestingly, these processes contribute mainly to product, marketing and organizational innovation and less to process innovation.

The study may contribute in a practical manner to assisting small businesses in the development and implementation of appropriate sharing knowledge processes for promoting innovation, and as a result, contribute to overall economic growth.

This study enriches the body of knowledge on managerial processes and on sharing knowledge processes for promoting innovation in this group of businesses, which has rarely been the focus of studies on innovation. The use of face-to-face interviews as a research tool facilitated obtaining knowledge that is generally not readily accessible.

The purpose of the paper is to suggest a novel approach that groups the theories of systems, information and bounded rationality into organizational knowledge management. We base our discussion on knowledge process mapping akin to the supply chain perspective. This is done to understand the governing principles of knowledge movement within an organizational system, and how the different functions within that system behave and interact among themselves in managing knowledge. We attempt to understand the impact of organizational structure in knowledge transfer and utilization among the different participating functions in the perspective of systems theory. Based on this framework the paper then makes use of information theory to comprehend the ideas behind an effective process of knowledge movement in any organization, and the probable factors that influence such movements. Lastly the concepts of bounded rationality are brought in, to examine the behaviors and interactions of these functions in creating, exploiting and sharing knowledge towards an effective knowledge management system.

Multinational companies are considered “driving forces” of globalization and “prime movers” of global sociation. Yet the problems, conflicts, and contradictions in the implementation of global strategies at the micro level – as well as the real possibility that such implementation will fail – are virtually ignored in macro‐sociological studies. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to address this neglect by focusing on a micro level examination of the contribution of expatriates in their interactive role as facilitators and managers, and, their informal social networks.

The interpretation of how global structures are concretely organized and sustained is based on case studies and interviews with German expatriates in Russia. The article examines two particular aspects: the contribution of expatriates in their interactive roles, on the one hand, and their informal social circles, on the other. The analytical framework draws on the concept of “global microstructures”.

Expatriates must maneuver between the conflicts and contradictions that surface from the three‐way relationship between head office, branch office, and the market, and their respective local institutionalized pressures. It is argued that such conflicts and contradictions cannot be resolved within the formal structure of organizations and that, as a result, they are shifted to the level of interpersonal interaction or to informal networks. Global reach as well as microsocial foundations therefore characterize the expatriate's action system.

Since the study is restricted to German expatriates in Russia, further comparative research is needed to sustain the findings for other institutional and cultural settings.

The findings raise awareness both of the contradictory demands expatriates are confronted with in their everyday work as well as their unique resources. They could contribute to better management training and preparation for expatriates prior to their move abroad.

The paper presents a micro‐sociological view on how systemic integration is actually achieved through a globally stretched as well as locally specified network of interaction. It could be valuable for international strategy definition as well as for personnel managers, and future expatriates themselves.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the extent to which knowledge management (KM), customer satisfaction (CS) and organizational image (OI) discriminate quality-certified municipalities from non-certified ones (ISO 9001).

An empirical study was carried out involving 81 Portuguese municipalities (40 certified, 41 non-certified), paired in a random sampling procedure. The Knowledge Management Questionnaire (n=1,372 municipality employees), the Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Organizational Image Questionnaire (n=3,096 residents) were applied. Multiple discriminant analysis was performed.

The results indicate that certified and non-certified municipalities are distinct based on a function that considers KM (competitive orientation and formal KM practices), CS (intangible and tangible factors) and OI (favorable image).

The findings need further validation in other countries. However, the results highlight the importance of quality certification for both employees and residents.

The results encourage local public administration organizations to introduce and maintain quality certification.

This research is the only one, to the authors’ knowledge, that simultaneously explores organizational processes of KM, CS and OI in local public administration. The sampling procedure and the information from diverse data sources are unique contributions. The conclusions may aid practitioners and scholars in understanding these organizational phenomena in the context of quality-certified and quality non-certified municipalities.

This study aims to analyze the structures, forms and functions of informal communication in telecommuting settings. Previous research on telecommuting has not considered the influence of telecommuting settings on informal communication, and research on informal communication has mainly focused on face-to-face communication while working in a physical office. This article aims to bring these two research strands together by analyzing the informal communication behavior of employees working from home.

The authors conducted qualitative interviews with 21 employees who were working from home. The participants were recruited using quota sampling and the data were analyzed following the procedure for examining qualitative data proposed by Mayring (2014).

The findings reveal similarities as well as differences between those working in an office and those working from home in terms of informal communication with co-workers: Informal communication fulfills similar functions in both cases, but remote work leads to less informal communication and hinders incidental exposure to other employees. Informal talks need to be planned in advance or strategically initiated. The authors identified five informal communication scenarios in telecommuting settings that partly, but not fully, overlap with scenarios in regular office settings.

The present study is one of the first to examine informal communication in telecommuting settings. Previous studies have either excluded the aspect of informal communication or the situation for employees working in telecommuting settings. The results provide new insights into informal communication behavior in remote work.

This introduction paper to the special issue on “The twenty‐first century knowledge‐based value drivers of innovation and sustainable development” aims to focus on such relationships between knowledge, learning, capabilities, innovation and competitive advantage in different forms of organization: businesses, clusters and regions. The purpose is to point out the conceptual pillars and contribute to the ongoing debate on: how knowledge assets impact organizational performance, what are the characteristics of such value‐generating processes, what factors affect the process of building organizational capabilities and distinctive competences, and how organizations translate specific capabilities into sustainable competitive advantages.

The article is based on a thorough analysis of the management literature addressing the nature, role and relevance of knowledge, organizational capabilities, learning and knowledge management for organization competitiveness. The conceptual background sets the foundations for a better understanding of the strategic importance of knowledge‐based value drivers for innovation and sustainable organizational value creation.

As knowledge management is establishing itself as a research discipline, it is fundamental to define the conceptual pillars grounding the application of knowledge management initiatives for innovation and business performance improvements. This paper provides a framework summarizing the key assumptions at the basis of understanding the strategic relevance of knowledge‐based value drivers for growth and competitiveness.

In addressing some of the questions posed, this article provides some implications for future research that build on different perspectives and emphasize the importance of adopting multi‐disciplinary approaches to disentangle the complexities of how organizations convert knowledge resources to a long‐lasting competitive advantage.

This editorial presents the key conceptual pillars explicating the role of knowledge resources as building blocks of organizational capabilities and how firms can develop and maintain their competences by promoting and nurturing learning processes. The value of this paper is the definition of a conceptual framework outlining the relationships between knowledge management, organizational capabilities, organizational learning and competitiveness.