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The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes and beliefs of front‐line employees regarding how customer‐company interactions might be improved. Since front‐line employees are closely connected to customers, the resultant experiences and relationships with customers are highly dependent on their actions. However, little is written from the perspective of front‐line employees.

Using a qualitative approach and employing an adaptation of the grounded theory method, this study uses front‐line employee participants with data collection occurring over a six‐month period. A variety of data sources were used including open‐ended reciprocal interviews, member‐checking interviews, observation, and collection of participant and researcher artifacts.

Findings suggest that organizational changes initiated by management create strategically constructed silos that force implementation through people and systems to control and standardize the service interface and resultant customer experience(s). This reactive and inwardly focused construction of silos often serves company rather than customer needs and can result in deteriorating service levels based on the type of customer‐company interaction occurring.

Contrary to how most customer service processes are designed by management, not all customer‐company interactions are alike and vary both in regard to the degree of knowledge needed by front‐line employees to fully serve customers, and the routine or non‐routine nature of the interaction. A two‐by‐two matrix is presented to highlight the impacts of silos occurring for various interaction types.

This study aims to identify knowledge-related tensions in remote work in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and increase understanding of how such tensions can be managed.

The research was conducted as an inductive, qualitative study in the field of higher education in Finland. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews of 34 managers in two higher education institutions and analyzed using an inductive and interpretive analysis method.

The findings demonstrate that the knowledge-related challenges and opportunities during the remote work period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Finnish higher education institutions can be conceptualized as tensions involved in knowledge codification, knowledge silos and creating new knowledge. The study contributes to research by presenting a framework for managing knowledge-related tensions in remote work arrangements to benefit remote and hybrid work in knowledge-intensive organizations.

This paper increases the understanding of the tensions in remote work arrangements; the results can help managers understand the challenges and opportunities of remote knowledge work concerning their organization and thereby assist them in management and decision-making in complex operational environments.

This study adopted the little-used perspective of tensions to examine knowledge management issues. By examining the various affordances that remote work may allow for knowledge-intensive work and higher education institutions, the study contributes to a deepened understanding of knowledge work in remote contexts, the related tensions and their management.

Executives in large organizations know that they must develop better techniques to manage their greatest asset: knowledge. Organizations currently create and maintain knowledge in isolated systems targeted at specific workgroups. For users outside the workgroup, that knowledge is virtually invisible. Vendors of all manner of tools, from intranet development tools to document management systems to search engines, are calling their products Knowledge Management systems, without regard to what that means. Without new technologies to create revolutionary change in the way knowledge workers create, communicate and manage information, a Knowledge Management system has little chance of improving enterprise knowledge sharing. This paper explores the concepts and technologies associated with an effective Knowledge Management system.

This exploratory case study research aims to apply a processual analysis to the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) system from a knowledge management perspective to a contemporary (1999‐2004) situation within a UK city council. The paper seeks to place a specific focus on areas neglected in previous CRM studies – sub‐cultures, psychological contracts, how tacit knowledge is surfaced and transferred, and with what effects on implementation.

The paper investigates how the system stakeholders and the information system (IS) itself evolved through encountering barriers, sharing knowledge, finding new uses, inventing work‐arounds.

A rich picture emerges of sub‐cultural silos of knowledge linked with psychological contracts and power‐based relationships influencing and inhibiting adoption and acceptance of the CRM system.

This case study research provides useful information on the implementation of a CRM system from a knowledge management perspective with a specific focus on sub‐cultures, psychological contracts, how tacit knowledge is surfaced and transferred, and with what effects on implementation, which are areas neglected in previous CRM studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of a relationship marketing orientation within a strategic alliance (referred to as the Alliance) to determine whether those firms have achieved synergy in knowledge sharing or whether they operate as knowledge silos.

To achieve this aim the paper takes a strategic perspective and proposes a model based on the resource‐based view of the firm (RBV) in order to discover whether member firms can move Alliance relationships towards knowledge sharing experienced within long‐term and continuing relationships.

The results of this study reveal that intangible assets, such as relationships and knowledge, should be managed by the Alliance with the same care as would be undertaken with tangible assets. Further, the development of a relationship market orientation (RMO) by the Alliance appears to be crucial.

A key limitation of this paper could be considered the sample size (although the response rate was high) and geographical location.

Implications from the study were that, although information and knowledge were being shared, one area of improvement would be in relation to the depth of knowledge sharing that tended to occur on a superficial basis.

The findings are original in terms of knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries. There is currently very little research available that focuses on the influence of an RMO on knowledge sharing within network groups.

There is a dearth of research addressing network failures, and in particular failures of large-scale organizational networks that pursue radical innovation or grand challenges through collaboration. Yet these failures manifestly exist with potential learnings for network participants. In this chapter, the authors consider three major network failures that have been identified in prior research and in the ongoing empirical work. The authors term the failures stalling – not getting started in collaborative work, strategizing – using the network opportunistically to serve other goals than what the network was formed for, and siloing – the network falling short of its collective capacity to learn and innovate due to its lack of connectivity and communication. After describing these three seminal failures in networks of independent organizations, the authors consider the implications for high ambition network collaboration – whether radical innovation or a grand challenge. The authors ask: what do these failures suggest in terms of network participation that would help contribute to network realizing its objective? How should the individual participants of these large-scale organizational networks mitigate failure and maintain the founding ambition, and the performance of the network? What available models for learning are there for the network participants?

The purpose of this paper is to inquire how large multinational firms can develop and implement knowledge-sharing measures that move their corporate strategy towards the open innovation paradigm, since open innovation becomes increasingly important as source for competitive advantage.

We review the literature on open innovation and combine it with a single case study of one multinational firm that is gradually implementing its open innovation strategy. We pay special attention to the development and usage of a collaborative IS infrastructure that is deployed to create a culture of openness and to support knowledge networking amongst the workforce.

The in-depth case study demonstrates that managers have to balance a complex interplay of human and IT components to make open innovation happen. Measures taken to foster openness and knowledge exchange inside the firm include developing managerial innovation capabilities, creating communities and networks around strategic topics and leveraging the adoption of the collaborative IS infrastructure through piloting use of cases in innovation projects.

The findings of this case study remain limited to the characteristics of large firms in multinational markets.

This article offers valuable insights for corporate strategists, IT specialists and change managers who want to open up corporate innovation. We present a range of institutional measures that help to overcome silo mentalities and knowledge-sharing barriers and establish an open innovation culture within large firms operating in multinational markets.

Complementing previous research, this article highlights how large firms can use a combination of strategic, cultural and technological measures to bring open innovation from strategic vision to organisation-wide reality. We identify in addition factors which either inhibit or foster the implementation of knowledge sharing and open innovation practices inside large firms.

The impact of innovative web portals on users, from access to application, is gaining interest as the global call for increased data availability gains momentum. This study reports on the perceptions of portal end users about usage and access to digital data across a range of fields of practice.

Data were collected and analysed from interviews (n = 132) and email feedback (n = 235) from end users of interoperable spatial knowledge web portals.

Data reveal that users attribute importance to ease of access and applicability, and to confidence and trust in data. The acquisition of data assists with reducing knowledge silos, facilitates knowledge sharing and decision-making. Digital data portals enable the building of stronger collaborations between different groups of individuals and communities leading to improved outcomes and more positive developments across varied discipline and practice areas.

Recommendations for developing online portals to optimise knowledge transfer and associated benefits, for users, are offered.

By collecting extensive qualitative data drawn from the experiences of end users of digital data portals, this paper provides new insights, thereby addressing a knowledge gap in the published literature about the use of technology uptake and the application of online data for practice and industry benefit.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework designed to assess the capacity of a knowledge management (KM) system to facilitate new knowledge creation.

A longitudinal case study methodology, in a single company, Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), was used to test the framework.

New knowledge creation is best supported through mature KM systems that include all four modes of knowledge creation: combination, externalization, socialization, and internalization. KM systems and environments as a whole reach maturity by progressing through stages, which is presented as a KM maturity model.

By combining Nonaka's knowledge creation theory with Wittrock's generative learning activities, the paper illuminates both the why and how of new knowledge creation, in a way that can be applied to KM technological initiatives. One of the limitations of this study is the generalizability of the findings, which may be limited by the single case study method used.

The framework provides a rubric against which both old and new KM initiatives can be assessed to determine whether they are capable of generating new knowledge. The maturity model provides a template against which organizations can map their progress towards a mature KM environment.

Much of the literature on KM systems has focused on capturing knowledge and disseminating it. Few studies have provided practical, theoretically based advice on how to create new knowledge and what aspects of information systems can facilitate that creation. The framework and maturity model can serve as guides in that process.