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As a critical component in the entrepreneurial process, knowledge is essential to the study of how entrepreneurs compete under constraints. Research in this area is challenged by the unobservable and imprecise nature of knowledge which inhibits advanced theory building and testing, and we explore this problem by analyzing the relationship between the entrepreneurial process, constraints to the process, and knowledge flows. We apply and extend a systems-theoretic framework that identifies the knowledge system in entrepreneurial organizations, and develop an integrative model to guide future research.

This chapter provides a deep dive into knowledge networks. The authors provide an inclusive definition of a knowledge network. A knowledge network includes nodes as sources and targets of knowledge, relationships as knowledge links, and messages as knowledge transactions and flows. The authors note how knowledge networks differ from other types of networks, specifically their dynamic and chaotic state and continuous transactions. These peculiarities reflect the economic properties and behaviors of knowledge. The elements of networks described in Chapter 2 are elaborated for knowledge networks. The chapter calls out knowledge network domains, geographies, typologies, nodes, messages, and relationships.

The chapter redefines the focus of the changes required to create sustainable healthcare away from fixing healthcare organizations and toward reconfiguring the constituent elements of the healthcare ecosystem and redefining how they interrelate to yield value more sustainably.

Based on a review of recent literature on healthcare reform, we argue that unlike other sectors, healthcare organizations cannot change themselves without changing their connections to the rest of the healthcare ecosystem, including other healthcare organizations, patients, governments, research institutions, vendors, and the citizenry at large. This is because these are not only stakeholders but also integral parts of healthcare processes.

Interventions intended to create more sustainable healthcare must bring together knowledge and perspectives from across the ecosystem, and must converge different sources of information and analysis to generate novel ways of connecting across the ecosystem. Change within a healthcare system cannot achieve the magnitude of transformation needed to become sustainable.

If the healthcare ecosystem evolves in the manner described in this chapter, the healthcare ecosystem will no longer center around particular institutions and doctors’ offices but rather be defined by flexible and variable interactions between co-acting elements of the ecosystem.

The chapter treats the context as the focus of change in order to change the healthcare system. It proposes three kinds of flows: knowledge, clinical, and resource that are already beginning to change and that will eventually result in fundamentally different approaches to healthcare.

Building on the resource-based view of the firm and complex systems theory, we argue that the effective utilization of knowledge-intensive teamwork (KITwork) can be a source of sustained competitive advantage for firms that pursue a variety of strategies and compete in a variety of industries. KITwork is a multi-dimensional, multi-level social process that promotes knowledge flows within and between organizations. Through KITwork, the knowledge resources of individual employees are transformed into a capability that contributes to the effectiveness of knowledge-based organizations. After introducing and explaining the concept of KITwork, we explore the challenges that organizations must address in order to design HRM systems that support and facilitate KITwork.

Strategy researchers have become fascinated with the possibilities for developing theoretical perspectives rooted in knowledge and intellectual assets as drivers of superior performance. However, there have been many different schools of thought, each with its own conceptualization lenses and operationalization approaches. In this chapter, we focus on three schools of thought: (1) knowledge as stocks; (2) knowledge as flow; and (3) knowledge as a driver of an organizational capability. We use them to: (a) lay out the distinct approaches to conceptualization and operationalization of strategy-related concepts; and (b) identify specific ways to enhance theory-method correspondence. We believe that considerable progress could be made towards developing a knowledge-based view of strategy but only when accompanied by serious attention to measurement and methodological issues.

This chapter focuses on network links as knowledge flows and relationships. Knowledge links are defined as channels for communicating and distributing knowledge. The literature on network links is aligned with the literature on knowledge sharing, transfer, exchange, and appropriation. This chapter focuses on the peculiar attributes of knowledge network links. The authors identify the attributes to include a link’s direction, length and distance, strength and durability, concentration and congestion, velocity and impact, meaning and intention, and the coverage and spread. The authors also describe standard configurations of knowledge networks.