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The purpose of this paper is to discuss key aspects of knowledge management (KM) education in response to challenges posed by the necessity to improve KM as a discipline and an established professional field.

The paper is based on a systematic review of the current literature. This review was used as input in a recent panel held at the 2016 International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM). The paper brings together current literature with thought-provoking panelists’ presentations and subsequent debates with the audience.

KM education from the “why, what, who, where and when” perspectives were first addressed and analyzed, and the end result was a reflection on “how” to approach KM education in the future.

This paper effectively underlines that, KM being a relatively new phenomenon, there is no clear consensus about roles that KM employees should play in an organization, what KM competencies and skills are needed, and where and when these should be obtained. Broad guidelines on how to approach KM education in the future may serve as a basis for further research.

The study provides suggestions on how to place KM in adult education.

The paper tackles the research questions through an innovative combination of a systematic literature review and a panel discussion on the topic of KM and education. Overall, the paper provides a fresh view of the state of the art of knowledge and research on the topic and also shows the common vision of a group of KM researchers and educators.

Despite the strong focus on virtues in firms, humility is little recognized in the management literature and, more particularly in the literature about knowledge sharing (KS). Despite efforts to foster KS among employees in firms, the effectiveness of this process narrows down to the dyadic relationship between the knowledge seeker and provider within firm. This paper aims to investigate the role of humility in the KS process in dyadic activity.

The authors undertake an exploratory investigation to fill some of the gaps found in the literature. The paper draws insights from psychology, history, religion, current events and management literature.

The authors identify several individual propensities that help predict humility towards sharing knowledge from seeker (humble knowledge-inquiry) and provider perspectives (humble response). They propose a new conceptual process model of KS with humility as an important variable to consider. This work highlights several promising directions for future research.

As per the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that investigates the role of humility in knowledge sharing from dyadic perspective. The authors also introduce concepts of humble knowledge inquiry and humble response in a dyadic context for effective knowledge sharing process.

The aim of this paper is to improve the understanding and inter‐relationship of both the people and technical aspects of knowledge management. Studies in knowledge management indicate that there can be an over‐emphasis on technology to the exclusion of adequate people/quality planning, or, strong people/quality programmes from a knowledge perspective, hindered by inadequate enabling technologies. Understanding of these issues in practice and academia is currently hindered by a paucity of systematic empirical research, addressing the relationship between the cultural and technological aspects of knowledge management. A survey questionnaire was constructed and tested via a pilot phase. The questionnaire was then distributed to over 1,000 organizations, across three industrial sectors. The findings indicate that a strong relationship exists between KM and other organizational factors, namely organizational culture and internal technical culture. Further analysis of these elements revealed that factors internal to the organization are impinged upon by macro‐environmental elements.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how value is co-created in a many-to-many (MTM) context. The authors use a case study of a non-governmental service delivery consortium engaging multiple actors to examine how value is co-created beyond the buyer-supplier dyad.

An explanatory case study of a consortium of seven UK non-governmental organisations (NGOs) delivering public service contracts is presented. Multiple data collection methods are combined; semi-structured interviews (n=30) and focus groups with internal stakeholders (n=5), participant observations (n=4) and document analysis.

The authors use three illustrative empirical examples to show how different sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of VCC are evident during service provision activities. The findings show how different service provision activities utilise different dimensions, leading the authors to suggest that dimensions of VCC may be context dependent.

As consortia differ in their context and function, the findings may not be generalisable. Nevertheless, they provide specific examples of sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of value co-creation (VCC) that may be applicable to private, public and NGOs.

Understanding how value is co-created with multiple stakeholders can offer competitive advantages likely to lead to improved sustainability, impact and performance.

The empirical study offers a reconceptualisation of VCC in a MTM context. The paper combines disparate perspectives of VCC to offer a more holistic perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of knowledge management (KM) on three organizational sectors.

This paper undertakes a dual theory building/testing approach. Through the development of a multi‐factor KM model, known as the MeCTIP model, and subsequent survey instrument, empirical analysis is conducted on a number of UK organizations from engineering, technology and financial services sectors.

The results indicate that for KM implementation common issues exist for people issues across organizational sectors, while cultural and technological differences are evident.

As the survey population consists of UK companies only, the findings presented may not be representative of all companies, within the three identified sectors, on a global scale. Secondly, only three industrial sectors are included in the study, therefore the results cannot be applied to all organization types.

While the area of KM is eclectic in nature and covers the systematic management of knowledge, of all kinds, within all levels and types of organizations there is a paucity of empirical studies focusing on key variables within the field. Such studies are needed to increase understanding and to examine the applicability of KM across a range of organizational contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the theoretical understanding and practical application of lead benchmarking and performance measurement as a way to achieve organisational change.

The paper combines a theory building/theory testing approach. Based on literary findings a conceptual model has been postulated to identify constructs associated with upstream performance measurement and lead benchmarking. A selection of research questions are posed and tested via empirical study. The survey instrument was distributed to 800 UK organisations which resulted in 157 responses.

Results from the empirical research indicate that new lead, forward looking, predictive benchmarks need to be developed to support lead benchmarking and performance measurement activities. Furthermore, it was found that currently larger organisations are more likely to adopt these practices, with considerable variation across organisational sectors.

The empirical research achieved a 19.6 per cent response rate. While this is adequate to report statistical representation, further data collection would be beneficial for industry generalisations.

Many organisations struggle to grasp metric measurement for lead benchmarking. This paper may provide insight into key factors to be considered for lead benchmarking uptake.

This paper builds on current literature and develops a conceptual model which is then tested via empirical research. This is a novel approach in the area of lead benchmarking.

Purpose: This chapter explores the strategic role of human resource development (HRD) as a function of talent management (TM) and discusses how HRD activities can help to facilitate more creative behaviours, in the international hospitality industry.

Approach: We focus on TM and HRD research exploring how these lenses are conceptually positioned given our current knowledge on creativity. We draw on the system-based approach to creativity and reconceptualise the creativity components by levels of flexibility/plasticity and outline how such approaches can help creative practice development.

Findings: We rationalise the existing conceptual approaches to creativity and propose a simplified model considering the developmental aspects of creativity. First, we theorise the TM/HRD strategies, such as training and development via learning, as a mechanism to connect TM/HRD to creativity in the organisational setting. We inform the current literature on whether and how creative processes emerge at work and affect creative flow in the bottom-top and top-bottom directions. Second, we advance the development of creativity theory by reconceptualising the established creativity components by degrees of flexibility/plasticity. Such re-conceptualisation allows for more nuanced examinations of organisational stimuli (i.e. training and development) on developmental conceptions of creativity.

Originality: This is the first piece of work that has investigated the fit between TM/HRD and creativity research. Our conceptual model illustrates that creativity can be promoted and developed at work by incorporating developmental initiatives such as TM/HRD.

This paper focuses on the university science park incubator element of the technology transfer process where knowledge in a variety of forms needs to be retained and maintained. The aim is to investigate the networking competencies of stakeholders involved in the university technology transfer process using absorptive capacity theory to explore how knowledge is externally retained and maintained through these network relations.

This paper undertakes an inductive theory building approach using in‐depth multiple stakeholder interviews (n=30). The transcripts and results were analysed using open coding and NVivo. Six technology transfer meetings were also observed.

The findings show that developing and maintaining network relationships can significantly aid the development and retention of knowledge within the university technology transfer process. It was found that conscious effort is made to retain relationships with network stakeholders. Prior knowledge, partner knowledge complementarity and reciprocity, resulting in collective learning, were found to motivate stakeholders to engage in external knowledge retention strategies. The results also supported suggestions in previous literature that relative capacity is an antecedent for absorptive capacity within organisations.

The paper helps in establishing a research agenda for knowledge retention in technology transfer where traditionally the emphasis has been on development of knowledge. The absorptive capacity framework provides a consistent theoretical basis for exploring the role of stakeholders in this area.

The paper focuses on how knowledge can be retained in technology transfer settings rather than being restricted to that of development. The use of the absorptive capacity framework has also enabled the concept of relative capacity to be developed within the research giving much needed empirical investigation into its relevance and feasibility.