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The purpose of this special issue s to cover a substantial range of approach to knowledge management penetrating inquiry that goes beyond intra-organizational learning processes to include inter-organizational perspectives.

As pointed out by the literature on various aspects of the knowledge processes within and between organizations, the work has been organized coherently with two “strains” of topics: the first one focused on managerial practices and operative directions of knowledge management, the other one pointed out on applications of knowledge management to inter-firm networks. Qualitative as well quantitative papers have been welcomed.

Opening up the idea of pluralism as a driving force in the knowledge economy pushes the organizations in a permanent cumulative process of adaptation and re-creation through innovative means of social interaction in global environments.

The dynamic nature of the field is reflected in the fact that this project expanded to encompass emerging works on knowledge models and concepts that grew from conversations within the network.

This special issue aims to extend the current understanding on how diversity of approaches enhances the process of discovery: the authors convey the sense of where the stimulating challenges lie.

This paper aims to investigate, inside the private sector of transport, a model for the diffusion of knowledge-sharing technologies with non-uniform internal influence that has been developed by Easingwood et al. (1983).

The authors performed an empirical evaluation of the performances of the model by Easingwood et al. (1983) by analyzing data gathered from almost 230 taxi drivers joining two of the biggest taxi brokers operating in the Southern Italian city of Naples.

Such an analysis reveals that the model by Easingwood et al. (1983) provides an excellent agreement with the empirical data and allows to obtain interesting predictions on the future evolution of the sector performances in terms of increasing use of knowledge-sharing technologies within the taxi drivers’ community of practice (CoP).

In particular, the authors show that a unique solution always exists, which is defined on the whole (positive) set of times and, in the long run, tends to a steady-state equilibrium. A first limit of the present research is certainly the use of a sample restricted to the taxi companies from only one city: future investigations should consider a larger sample by interviewing taxi companies from multiple regions as well. Another limit is that the model performed does not take into account all the factors influencing the diffusion of knowledge-sharing technologies within the CoP. Finally, the research design is not considering the impact of the diffusion of knowledge-sharing technologies on the customer relationship management.

The research shows the application of a valid model both for evaluating the diffusion of technologies for sharing knowledge within a CoP and for estimating its development trend. It represents the first original study in Italy that empirically investigates the diffusion of technological innovations for the knowledge management in an industry typically dominated by tacit codes of knowledge-sharing: the taxi companies.

Starting from the premises that Internet of Things (IoT) applications can be used in museums as an aid to visiting systems, the purpose of this paper is to see how recommendation systems can be developed to provide advanced services to museum visitors.

The research methodology employs a qualitative exploratory multi-case study: the method used has consisted in crossing the information currently known on the most advanced communication technologies (ICT) with the requirements of enhancing museum services, in order to determine the possible trajectories of applying the former to the latter.

The implementation of recommender system outlines the main implications and effects of an advanced market-driven digital orientation, as the system’s users are the starting point for innovation and the creation of value. For a museum, it will be possible to access to an additional system of knowledge alongside that of its scientific staff. This process has profound implications in the way in which a museum presents itself and how it is perceived by its visitors and, in a wider sense, by the potential demand.

The paper consists in an exploratory effort to introduce an analytical framework for an evolved adaptive museum orientation system; the empirical investigation can be structured in the inductive-predictive view of assessing this promising debate further.

Implementing the IoT blueprint entails introducing a plethora of new products, services and business models, opening new routes to guide and direct cultural events. Now, more than ever, sustainable development involves an intrinsic balancing act between the pluralism of data and that of customer needs, which is achieved through the elaboration of digital data.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the organizational change management that characterizes the transitional moments of family businesses may open a transcendental horizon from which a business model arises that is built around the sovereignty of the family institution and must necessarily share the solution of agency problems which emerge as the overlapping between ownership and management recedes, and a management style oriented towards the evolution of the relations between family and business.

Taking its starting point from recent research, the proposed study aims at finding empirical validation of research hypotheses formulated through the development of a factorial analysis and the construction of an innovative model of structural equations able to provide an empirical solution to processes, up to now, left unresolved by management literature on the subject.

By empirically linking stewardship behaviours to capacity to keep the dynastic myth for generations, the authors have demonstrated that stewardship behaviors act as an effective governance mechanism for family businesses in specific change management situations related to the process of generational turnover. Further, the authors provide an important first step in linking theory building with theory testing and conclude the stewardship scale is positioned to play an important role in establishing alignment between the representation of consciousness of family business, in the realization of the self, and extra‐psychological symbolic dimension, in the realization of family history and destiny.

These discussions need to be validated and rendered more generalizable through extensive empirical research. First, though this study drew from cross‐sectional industrial data for the pilot test and then from a more focused industry‐specific sample (validation study), the generalizability of the construct could be a limitation of the stewardship scale. Second, we acknowledge the criticisms associated with a single country sample bias in our sample. A third associated limitation relates to the difficulty of developing a scale to tap individual and firm level behaviors.

Despite much progress, the extant literature on the psychology of strategic management has emphasized the behavioural and cognitive aspects of strategy formulation and implementation at the expense of emotional and affective ones, leading to an inadequate portrayal of strategic management as a series of rational and dispassionate activities. The originality of this empirical study has been to retrace, through the analysis of specific phenomena such as the multigenerational transition which characterize family businesses, the unconscious decisions within the decisional processes, which may transmit the original entrepreneurial dream into an organizational pathway, even in the case of a non‐family succession.

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among a firm’s industrial cluster involvement, organizational learning and its ability to successfully adapt to external environment.

Field survey research method was used, and data were collected from 943 high-technology companies in the USA, China, Taiwan and Sweden. Multiple regression analysis, as well as mediation test, was conducted to analyze the data.

The study finds that being positioned in an industrial cluster enhances a firm’s learning and further leads to a firm’s desired adaptive outcomes.

Using self-reported data could be a potential limitation of this study. It would be preferable to have other forms of data for a study. Further, cross-cultural comparisons are needed to enhance our understanding in this multicultural setting.

The findings provide business executives, as well as policymakers, a new way of thinking in respect to how to develop holistic learning practices and improve inter-firm trust to appropriately adapt to the fast changing environment.

The major contribution of this study is an initial attempt to provide a comprehensive approach in analyzing a firm’s industrial cluster involvement. Further, the study attempts to empirically examine learning and cluster involvement in relation to organizational adaptation.

The purpose of this article is to analyze how learning occurs in inter-organizational online communities, despite highly diverse even conflicting knowledge claims among participants.

We compared two inter-organizational communities in the domain of development aid through inductive qualitative case study.

We found that diverse communities proved more likely to yield conflicting knowledge claims in terms of expertise, value consensus and formal position. However, they were also better positioned for enabling mutual learning, than communities with a more uniform representation.

We provide theoretical insights for knowledge management by showing how the negotiation of knowledge claims facilitates mutual learning in inter-organizational online communities.

The findings are practically relevant for managers of knowledge-intensive organizations by showing how knowledge is shared in diverse online communities. The research also shows that the recognized challenges which diverse communities can yield are likely to be outweighed by their benefits: enabling mutual learning, generating useful expertise and a stronger negotiating position.

The paper conceives of a development approach that is more inclusive of non-dominant perspectives and solutions in decision-making processes, contributing to improved participation of marginalized people in decision-making processes.

We add a new dimension to knowledge management literature, showing how conflict and learning can be a mutually reinforcing process. Contrary to prior knowledge-based views, we found that a diverse community, with a higher concentration of conflicting knowledge claims, facilitated mutual learning more adeptly than a more uniform community. This is important for knowledge management theory and practice because it shows how inter-organizational communities can benefit from heterogeneity, and how conflict can enable and even strengthen mutual learning.

The purpose of this study is to identify key factors that facilitate knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures and further help better understand knowledge management in the international context.

Using a survey method, this study collected data from over 200 managerial employees in knowledge management-based project teams from China. Regression analysis was then conducted to analyze the impact of individual differences and environmental factors on the willingness to share knowledge among team members to identify key factors for successful knowledge retention in the constantly changing organizational environment in a collectivistic context.

The results show that incentives are very important in individual’s decision to share knowledge in project teams even in a collectivistic culture like China and both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated individuals tend to share more knowledge with their team members. Individuals with high altruism are also found more likely to share knowledge with others. Moreover, a trusting environment and explicit knowledge will facilitate knowledge sharing for better retention.

More studies should be conducted in other collectivistic cultures to explore cultural barriers in knowledge management in the international context and comparative studies using samples from different cultural backgrounds are also encouraged to help extend the theories on knowledge management.

While it is well-known that knowledge sharing is essential for organization to maintain competitive advantage, relatively few studies have examined knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures, and even fewer have done so in China. This study adds values to the literature by identifying key factors for knowledge sharing in China, and thus helps refine the knowledge management theories and provides insights for multinationals on knowledge management in the Chinese market.

This paper aims first to identify key interorganisational partnership types among non-profit organisations (NPOs) and second to determine how knowledge sharing takes place within each type of partnership. Results explore the value of social media specifically in facilitating external relationships between NPOs, firms and the communities they serve.

Empirical qualitative analysis of exploratory interviews with 16 Canadian NPOs generates a non-exhaustive classification of partnership types emerging from these organisations, and their defining characteristics in the context of interorganisational knowledge sharing.

Overall eight categories of partnerships from the sampled NPOs emerged from the analysis of the data. These include business partnerships, sector partnerships, community partnerships, government partnerships, expert partnerships, endorsement partnerships, charter partnerships and hybrid partnerships. Using examples from interviews, the sharing of knowledge within each of these partnerships is defined uniquely in terms of directionality (i.e. uni-directional, bi-directional, multi-directional knowledge sharing) and formality (i.e. informal, semi-formal or formal knowledge sharing).Specific practices within these relationships also arise from examples, in particular, the use of social media to support informal and community-driven collaborations. Twitter, as a popular social networking tool, emerges as a preferred medium that supports interorganisational partnerships relevant to NPOs.

This research is valuable in identifying the knowledge management practices unique to NPOs. By examining and discussing specific examples of partnerships encountered among NPOs, this paper contributes original findings about the implications of interorganisational knowledge sharing, as well as the impact of emerging social technologies on same.

The aim of the paper is to identify the different directions of external knowledge search and to investigate their individual effect on performance at the firm level.

The empirical study is based on survey data gathered from two distinct informants of 248 large- and medium-sized high-tech manufacturing Spanish firms. In dealing with concerns on simultaneity and reverse causality, perceived time-lags among dependent and independent variables were introduced. Quantitative methods based on questionnaire answers were used.

Findings reveal six distinct external search patterns and indicate that, while market sources such as customers and competitors are positively associated with performance, knowledge acquired from general information sources, other firms beyond the core business and patents and databases have no significant effect. Moreover, knowledge obtained from science and technology organizations and from suppliers displays an inversed U-shaped effect on firm performance.

Conclusions can only be generalized to high-tech manufacturing firms from developed countries and, although well-established methodological procedures were followed, the nature of the study remains cross-sectional. Yet, an important implication emerges from this work: more openness to external knowledge is not always better. It is necessary to carefully evaluate the potential gains and pains of each type of partner and source.

This research provides guidance to managers about how to shape their companies’ inter-organizational networks, i.e. the specific external agents on which they should focus, as well as the efforts they should devote to each of these key partners.

By considering distinct directions of external knowledge search instead of a single dimension, the paper contributes to shed some more light to the mixed results reported by the scarce empirical studies that have investigated the effect of openness towards external knowledge on performance at the firm level.

This article aims to investigate how R&D employees use their social networks to acquire user information and how this information is used in the development of new products.

A single case study was conducted within a business unit at a multinational medical technology company. Data were collected through a mixed method.

The results show that many R&D employees lack social networks through which they can acquire information about the users’ needs. However, some R&D employees establish cost-efficient relationships to people with a direct experience of using the company’s products. These relationships are established over time and are often used in a rather informal way to acquire user information. Moreover, the results show how R&D employees are purposefully complementing these relationships with more occasional interactions with people who hold direct and indirect use experiences.

As with most single-case studies, it will be important to replicate this investigation in other contexts to clarify the generalizability of the findings.

The article shows how important it is that management provides R&D employees with opportunities to establish, nurture and utilize relationships conducive to information about the users’ needs. The article provides some advice on how this can be accomplished.

This is one of the first articles that clearly explain how R&D employees use their social networks to acquire user information for the development of new products.