Extending the Concept of Knowledge Management into Innovation and New Business Creation

Knowledge management (KM) is a widely-used term in management science of 2000’s. The key essence of KM can be coined e.g. as a “purposeful management of activities and processes for leveraging knowledge to keep and improve competitive positioning by using well individual and collective knowledge resources of the firm and its stakeholders” (CEN, 2004). Majority of the KM discussion and research has focused on recognition, expression and dissemination of knowledge as it manifests itself in the present day of an organization. Research has focused on tangible knowledge artefacts such as Patents, Utility models, Trademarks, Licenses. The processes of creation and maintenance of knowledge are use…

Impacting Mindset and Innovation on Sustainability via Global Thematic Hackathon

Innovations related to social, economic and environmental grand challenges are common targets not only for societies as a whole, but also for the universities and business schools in them. This paper studies an example of how an intensive intervention via a local implementation of a global 3-day design hackathon (IFTP= Invent for the Planet) on global needs has impacted participants' understanding and motivation towards sustainability issues and solving them. The paper approaches the research objective by studying via a qualitative research approach the motivation letters that the participants submitted when applying for the event, learning outcome -report immediately after the event and th…

Entrepreneurs and Growth : An Option, Obligation or Obsession?

“Growth” as a word carries a positive tone in it; human beings grow and mature, gaining new knowledge and resources, and so do companies. Growth, however, has never been for all. In competitive markets, some grow and others do not—or grow at slower pace than others. Furthermore, growth is a process that strains the capabilities and resources of an individual, company, and its acting entrepreneurs to their extreme. Growth means also learning and leaving behind something learned of possessed before. Growth disrupts the history and path of a single company and its entrepreneur. The text synthetizes the scattered literature in growth and entrepreneurship. A case study shows how growth is viewed…

Robotic Process Automation as a Change Agent for Business Processes : Experiences and Expectations