Use of only information and control systems along with pre-defined goals, objectives and best practices may not necessarily achieve long-term organizational competence. The new world of business is characterized by high levels of uncertainty and inability to predict the future. Hence, data, information and knowledge are valuable in realizing efficient and effective performance outcomes that any organization or an individual expects. But radical changes in the business environment have been creating limitations for the traditional information processing view of Knowledge Management (KM). In the paper titled, "Competitive Knowledge and Strategy in High Velocity Environments", Chris Hall and Derek Lundberg report that while there is a correlation between the velocity of the organizational environment and managers' needs for better competitive knowledge, there is almost no relation between the rate of change faced by a firm and its competitive knowledge capability. This means higher needs of manager do not translate into higher intelligence and knowledge capacity. The paper gives a strong hint to the organizations to have strategic planning in order to survive in the dynamic environment by meeting competitive knowledge needs. Whereas in the paper, "Knowledge Sharing and Trust in Organizations", Joanne McNeish and Inder Jit Singh Mann explored the role of trust in knowledge sharing in routine operations within organizations. Based on a detailed literature review, they proposed a model consisting of several variables and linkages to show the multi-roles of trust in knowledge sharing, both as an antecedent along with organizational culture, social processes, etc., and as a consequence of knowledge sharing. The authors say that further study of the role of trust in knowledge sharing is to be carried out and that the work will be valuable to the practitioners as it provides a basis of understanding of issues in knowledge sharing and thereby knowledge transfer in organizations.

Transition of most developing and developed nations to knowledge economies has resulted in an increasing awareness of `knowledge' as a key lever for economic growth and performance. In the paper, "Internalization and International Knowledge Diffusion: Empirical Evidence from Spain", Pedro Mendi analyzes the factors that make the international transmission of knowledge more efficient within multinational than between unaffiliated parties in Spanish firms. The author developed and tested several hypotheses on transmission of tacit knowledge internally, relationship with contract duration in the context of difference in transfer costs between affiliated and unaffiliated transfers, the type of technology whether a product or a process, and the linkages between the source and host countries. The transfer of know-how has been showed to be associated with longer contract duration, only if the transfer is unaffiliated. It is also reported that linkages between the source and host countries increase the advantage of multinationals by suggesting that investment in creating institutions that provide better information on potential host markets may be beneficial in the diffusion of tacit knowledge, and hence to extend the firm's competitive advantage across markets.

Since Information Technology (IT) industry is knowledge-prone with skilled employees as assets, it uses the KM as a business strategy with main focus on technology and human resource management. In the paper, "Knowledge Management: Emerging Practices in IT Industry in NCR", Jyoti Batra carried out a survey questionnaire among senior executives chosen randomly to study the impact of using KM process, and of learning from KM process with reference to organization. It was found that if the organization is using the KM process, there will be increase in the individual's growth with relation to organizational support, and learning from KM process implementation helps to generate the new practices and ideas in problem solving, etc.

To study and analyze the KM practices in automobile industry, S K Chadha and Deepa Kapoor, in their paper, "A Study on Knowledge Management Practices of Auto Component Manufacturing Companies in Ludhiana City", selected and surveyed some auto industries in the city of Ludhiana in India. Their research indicated that although the companies acknowledge the benefits of KM, there still exist barriers in knowledge sharing. The results highlighted two important factors—training employees to share knowledge, and evaluating employees on the value and use of knowledge—which could lead to knowledge sharing. In practice, their findings revealed that information was not openly shared and that the manufacturers need to convert the implicit knowledge of the employees into explicit knowledge for all organizational levels. The results supported that knowledge along with skills possessed by the employees, is considered as one of the most critical elements affecting the work performance of the company.

Creativity and innovation, combined together, means the process of creating and applying new knowledge and acts as the cutting-edge of KM. In the paper, "Measuring Creative Work: The European Experience", Edward Lorenz and Bengt-Åke Lundvall attempted to measure the volume of creative work and link it to the national economic performance in Europe. Their results indicate that innovation may be promoted by KM strategies offering employees opportunities to implement their own ideas. The paper provides some preliminary evidence for systemic links between the level of creative work activity at the establishment level and the capacity of firms to introduce new products or services onto the market. The authors found that important strides in increasing creativity at work can be made by making appropriate changes in human resource management policies and in organizational practice. They concluded that policy efforts to improve innovation performance need to take a closer look at the effects of organizational practice on innovation.

In the paper, "Effective Factors in Technology Transfer in the Pharmaceutical Industries of Iran: A Case Study", M Mahboudi and B R Ananthan inquired into the effective factors that influence technology transfer in Iran's pharmaceutical industries. They used Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model to classify and weigh those factors under different criteria. They performed a survey covering managers and company owners and reported that organization factor is showing the highest significance in the success of technology transfer of pharmaceutical companies of Iran. After analyzing different factors, the authors finally came out with a combined model of technology transfer based on structure, behavior and technology as the most appropriate model when compared with various individual models.

-- Nasina Jigeesh
Consulting Editor