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Innovation within companies is becoming mandatory and vital. A policy of voluntarism aiming at supporting innovation can be based on an operational process managing the evolution of the firm's intellectual corpus, becoming a tool for innovation. This paper seeks to explain and demonstrate the link between knowledge management and innovation.

The fundamental assumption is to regard knowledge creation as an intellectual corpus evolution process, based on knowledge workers' creativity. Their creativity is stimulated by the critical analysis of the intellectual corpus, which leads to the creation of new technologic trajectories in continuity or divergence from existing trajectories. Based on a systemic model of intellectual capital, the analysis of the dynamic of knowledge has shown that the increase of value of intellectual capital may be described as an evolutionist process.

An experiment was conducted to validate the assumptions based on the analysis of the intellectual capital of a company, on the process of generating new items for the intellectual capital, on the regulation of this process by a community of knowledge workers and based on the integration of the results into the value chain of the organization.

Based on interviews with experts about their inventive tracks during recent decades, the main limitations/difficulties come from making the inventory of the intellectual corpus of an organization.

Social implications include an emphasis on the projection of experts' inventive tracks onto the knowledge map of the organization.

This paper links intellectual corpus and creativity: creation leads to intellectual property rights.

This paper aims to present the state of the art of a rising French research community on knowledge management, who organized during the past four years, a French speaking congress (GeCSO). Interests in knowledge management (KM) come from various disciplines: economy, social, engineering. These interests are not often linked. Within the firms, KM practices vary a lot depending on national cultures and on activity sectors. However, one can identify a potential symmetry between the diversity of practices and the partitioning of scientific approaches.

In order to synthesize the different approaches in KM, the authors studied the 62 papers published in the first three conferences. To have a first representation of the diversity, they analyzed the keywords that were used: among 173 keywords used by the authors, eight keywords represent 27 per cent of the total amount.

Three main dimensions which emerged from the articles are analysed: the practical dimension, the epistemological point of view, and the intention to define a theory of action.

KM is an emerging domain, especially in French culture. This paper can be seen as a first foundation of the domain, and also a manifesto to develop interdisciplinary research on this topic.

For almost 20 years, knowledge management projects hit various domains. This paper aims to describe briefly a set of four well‐tried knowledge management tools allowing practitioners to analyse and structure, describe and represent, share and store, teach and transmit knowledge.

This paper focuses on selected tools now of general practice and becoming popular among the practitioners.

The paper finds that, originally out of the information science laboratories, the tools introduced here have been proved tested efficient and reliable after hundreds of real projects, no matter what type of industry and domain use them. This now common practice should open the path to new models for the knowledge economy. Dealing with complexity becomes easier as well as putting the information system at the crossing of the interactive information flows instead of keeping it out of reach of a majority of knowledge workers. Because of the massive retirement of the baby boomers, a large loss of workforce challenges the companies for the first time in history. How to evaluate and pass to the next generation its core business of knowledge is thus of critical importance.

This paper reminds that knowledge management is no longer a solely academic issue since tools of the next generation are now available, beefing up the growing domain of the knowledge economy.

Knowledge management (KM) has become a key concern for companies which nowadays are constantly looking for better ways to assure knowledge sharing between their employees. However, companies encounter several challenges arising from the fact that several generations share the same workplace and a big portion of today's employees are close to retirement. This article aims to focus on knowledge sharing between generations.

The article reviews the “generation” concept and its limitations, and introduces a new view on generations as “communities of knowledge”.

Companies have to find ways not only to assure knowledge transfer between generations, but also knowledge retention of the workers that are retiring. This requires a deeper understanding of the generations and their differentiated knowledge. Yet, today's dominant descriptions of generations (“baby‐boomers”, “generation X”, “generation Y”), do not appear to adequately take into account cultural, socio‐professional and individual factors.

The proposed change of paradigm allows a deeper comprehension of nuances that may exist within the same age group. In doing so, the article makes a contribution to the understanding of knowledge sharing in organizations.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the conditions of production of methodological knowledge on innovation management. It seeks to present the experience of an applied research team working with practitioners of R&D by means of an inter‐disciplinary research team in social sciences. The theoretical framework aims to present two approaches for knowledge production: collaboration with practitioners and interdisciplinary research in social science.

The methodology is a case study focused on the various forms of collaborative research. While the literature mainly considers only one form of collaborative research, the author distinguishes between mono‐disciplinary and inter‐disciplinary collaborative research on one hand, and between mono‐partner and multi‐partner collaborative research on the other, leading to four typical research situations. The paper examines empirically the rigor‐relevance debate as seen as the researchers and the practitioners.

The findings bring to light different criteria that influence the production of knowledge, within the rigor‐relevance dilemma, according to the collaborative research situations and the epistemological posture of researchers from various disciplines.

The practical implications concern the conditions under which a research program in social sciences can reach both rigor and relevance and produce methodological knowledge. It provides a guide for effective collaboration between social science academics and managers.

This research enlightens the conditions of collaboration between the academic world and the industrial world, which is key to foster innovation, particularly in social sciences.

The value of the paper is to illustrate that collaborative research requires a “boundary organization” to create new knowledge, which is a type of task force capable of mediation between academia, industrials and consultants.

This paper aims to provide evidence on the multilevel effects of a method of knowledge transfer centred on the expert.

A longitudinal evaluation of the method's effects was undertaken in several companies. This method of knowledge transfer in cognitive psychology is centered on the reflexive relationship between the expert and the tasks which he has to carry out. The analysis in clinical sociology show that the effects of such a method make it possible to observe organizational learning induced on the level of the expert, the group and the global strategy.

Coding is conceived as an aid for the expert, it transforms the expert's knowledge and strengthens their professional legitimacy in transmission. The conceptualisation of their practices, as well as verbalising the problems which it causes, transforms work rules. These cognitive and organizational changes then have consequences on the conditions of negotiation for new business and business strategy.

The method observed is applicable to various levels of qualification but also for entrepreneurs who have expert knowledge. It requires time and is implemented when management desires an organizational change coupled with innovation.

Assisting the experts in the codification and transmission of knowledge supports co‐alignment between KM and strategy.

The focus is on the direct reflexive effects of codification on the expert but also on the indirect effects on the organization and management.

The sciences of knowledge and the sciences of communication have evolved to become two separate disciplines. The current transformations of technologies, managerial practices, and organization of work, force communication sciences to take into account issues related to cognition. Similarly, the science of knowledge needs to better consider the problems of context, economy and social environment, at a higher level of generalization than just those of individuals or groups. This paper seeks to present how both sciences can better integrate.

Starting from an epistemological study of the use of the word “knowledge” in cognitive sciences and in sciences of communication, the authors developed a framework to analyze knowledge management tools and practices.

The framework developed presents the organizational mechanisms for knowledge management in relation to the artifacts (objects) of communication through which they operate. It highlights the cognitive aspects present in communications.

Owing to the general aspect of the framework, some applications in industries might only be relevant to a portion of the framework. Further applications in several contexts are encouraged.

The study of the relationship between knowledge and communication aims to bring together the research which puts into perspective the analysis of forms, tools and methods of knowledge management, with the study of associated communication issues. The implementation of knowledge management systems within organizations is often associated with organizational change. The study of communications implied in this change leads to a macro‐analysis methodology to appreciate strengths and weaknesses of these mutations.

Corporate R&D internationalization is today perceived as a strategy intended for enhancing the knowledge of large firms within a highly‐polarized global cognitive space. Two main questions arise and, as such, are incorporated as the two complementary themes of this paper: What are the risks of wasting resources used by multinational firms (MNFs) when they establish or take over laboratories abroad? What strategies do they apply to harmonize relations between their various R&D entities and, as such, help reduce these risks?

The analysis is developed from a base comprising international cases, established within the R&D laboratories of multinational firms.

R&D internationalization strategies generate a great diversity of knowledge. Consequently, these MNFs should develop inter‐entity management skills, for which the paper provides a few of the keys to success.

The factors determining the effectiveness of the articulation of knowledge sharing systems were not really part of any systematic analysis. Such an analysis would have been an opportunity to specifically appraise this.

The approach could indeed improve social interaction‐related issues. The results may greatly add to social interaction theories by attempting, above all, to enhance “sender ‐ receiver” type models, on a MNF network scale.

This article aims to examine the nature and logics of organizational learning considered as a process by which organizations capitalize on the variety of experiences accumulated by their members.

Complementing the current literature on experiential learning, the authors build on a case study to investigate how organizations benefit from action learning and seek to identify the properties of the architecture supporting it. The case study focuses on how French Air Force fighter and airlift aircrews carry out debriefing sessions in their daily activities.

Within this framework, it can be observed that learning in debriefing sessions ultimately depends on the capacity of the learning agents to integrate individual and collective functions (namely, individual progression and collective performance).

Building on the foregoing, the paper elaborates on a conceptual model of the debriefing procedure made up of three components: a learning mode, a learning structure and a learning culture. It follows that the organization is likely to capitalize on individual experiences to improve knowledge and action if it is capable of providing its members with a flexible learning architecture enabling individuals to combine distinctive learning modes along with heterogeneous structures and cultural values.