This paper represents a step toward a theory of knowledge reusability, with emphasis on knowledge ma nagement systems and repositories, often called organizational memory systems. Synthesis of evidence from a wide variety of sources suggests four distinct types of knowledge reuse situations according to the knowledge reuser and the purpose of knowledge reuse. The types involve shared work producers, who produce knowledge they later reuse, shared work practitioners, who reuse each other’s knowledge contributions, expertise-seeking novices, and secondary knowledge miners. Each type of knowledge reuser has different requirements for knowledge repositories. Owing to how repositories are created, reusers ’ requirements often remain unmet. Repositories often require considerable rework to be useful for new reusers, but knowledge producers rarely have the resources and incentives to do a good job of repurposing knowledge. Solutions include careful use of incentives and human and technical intermediaries.

Based on a study of knowledge transfer within more than 15 industries, across three forms of governance, and between both domestic and international R&D partners, knowledge transfer success was found to be associated with several key variables, and to hinge upon (a) both R&D units’ understanding where the desired knowledge resides within the source, (b) the extent to which the parties share similar knowledge bases, and the extent of interactions between the source and the recipient to (c) transfer the knowledge and (d) participate in an articulation process through which the source’s knowledge is made accessible to the recipient.

Examines the dynamics of knowledge sharing using the multi-person game-theoretic framework. Proposes that an individual's knowledge sharing tendency is driven by a set of contextualised concerns and interests not unlike the notion of payoff in game theory. Furthermore, the decision to share or withhold knowledge depends on that which yields a higher payoff. With this premise, submits two objectives. One is to investigate if an individual's perceived payoff of sharing knowledge is contingent on the knowledge sharing behaviour of others. The other is to analyse the perceived payoff of knowledge sharing and determine if it can be characterised by an archetypical game in the game-theoretic model. An empirical study was conducted among nearly 100 students in a local institute of higher education. The scope was confined to the students ' willingness to post asynchronous entries to an electronic discussion forum. Finds that the individual student's perceived payoff of sharing knowledge was contingent on the knowledge sharing behaviour of others. Furthermore, the perceived payoff of knowledge sharing among them could be characterised by a multi-person assurance game. In conclusion, discusses three implications for managers who aim to sustain asynchronous knowledge sharing in their organisations. Electronic access The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at

Abstract. One of the first question each knowledge management project faces is: Which concrete activities are referred to under the name of knowledge management and how do they relate to each other? To help answer this question and to provide guidance when introducing knowledge management we have developed KMap. KMap is an environment which supports a practitioner in the interactive exploration of a map of knowledge management activities. The interaction helps trigger interesting questions crucial to the exploration of the solution space and makes hidden argumentation lines visible. KMap is not a new theory of knowledge management but a pragmatic “object to think with” and is currently in use in two case studies. 1

One of the important problems in organizational memories is their initial set-up. It is difficult to choose the right information to include in an organizational memory, and the right information is also a prerequisite for maximizing the uptake and relevance of the memory content. To tackle this problem, most developers adopt heavy-weight solutions and rely on a faithful continuous interaction with users to create and improve its content. In this paper, we explore the use of an automatic, light-weight solution, drawn from the underlying ingredients of an organizational memory: ontologies. We have developed an ontology-based network analysis method which we applied to tackle the problem of identifying communities of practice in an organization. We use ontology-based network analysis as a means to provide content automatically for the initial set-up of an organizational memory.

Recently the awareness of the importance of replicating studies has been growing in the empirical software engineering community. The results of any one study cannot simply be extrapolated to all environments because there are many uncontrollable sources of variation between different environments. In our work, we have reasoned that the availability of laboratory packages for experiments can encourage better replications and complementary studies. However, even with effectively specified laboratory packages, transfer of experimental know-how can still be difficult. In this paper, we discuss the collaboration structures we have been using in the Readers ’ Project, a bilateral project supported by the Brazilian and American national science agencies that is investigating replications and transfer of experimental know-how issues. In particular, we discuss how these structures map to the Nonaka-Takeuchi knowledge sharing model, a well-known paradigm used in the knowledge management literature. We describe an instantiation of the Nonaka-Takeuchi Model for software engineering experimentation, establishing a framework for discussing knowledge sharing issues related to experimental software engineering. We use two replications to illustrate some of the knowledge sharing issues we have faced and discuss the mechanisms we are using

2. Methodology 3. Nature of knowledge flow

Building on the literature of dynamic capability and organizational learning, we examine strategy execution in hyper-competition as a problem of how organizations can re-configure their learning capability to match with their radically different learning demands. Organizations in hyper-competitive environments face an increasing gap between their learning opportunities and needs, and actual learning performance. In order to survive they must improve their absorptive capacity so that they can learn simultaneously broad, deep and fast. We define such a learning contingency as hyper-learning. To do so, the organization must systematically interlace exploration—that seeks to maximize learning breadth— and exploitation—that seeks to maximize learning depth. Unlike in traditional learning cycles, exploration and exploitation during periods of hyper-learning are not insulated from each other through time or structure. We explore seven software firms engaged in Web system development during the hey-day on dot.com frenzy and investigate how these companies were able to hyper-learn. We distinguish two mechanisms to speed up exploration: distributed gate-keeping and extended grafting of external knowledge; and two mechanisms to speed up exploitation: simple design patterns and peer networks.

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Draft, please do not cite without explicit agreement from the authors The authors acknowledge helpful conversations with and suggestions from Lotte Bailyn, Michael