Abstract
Plenty has been written about the history of Knowledge Management (KM), but it has been difficult to know whether there has been much progress over the period discussed. For most authors the challenges begin with trying to define knowledge, and not much has changed here. This chapter takes a different tack, focusing instead on the firm the KM project is supposed to be supporting. If the model or ‘theory’ of the firm in mind is purely mechanical then KM is about collecting and sharing data – an IT project. KM’s deeper promise was always to reach beyond IT towards helping manage those other forms of knowing managers rate essential to economic value creation. The chapter explores the knowledge implications of some available theories of the firm and how KM approaches might support them.
I appreciate the help of the Editors and two anonymous reviewers in the development of this chapter.
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Spender, J.C. (2015). Knowledge Management: Origins, History, and Development. In: Bolisani, E., Handzic, M. (eds) Advances in Knowledge Management. Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09501-1_1
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