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The knowledge‐intensive company and the economy of sharing: rethinking utility and knowledge management
Author(s) -
Styhre Alexander
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
knowledge and process management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.341
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1099-1441
pISSN - 1092-4604
DOI - 10.1002/kpm.155
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , scarcity , knowledge management , knowledge sharing , perspective (graphical) , business , knowledge economy , resource (disambiguation) , knowledge value chain , distribution (mathematics) , subject (documents) , organizational learning , economics , computer science , computer network , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematical analysis , mathematics , artificial intelligence , library science , microeconomics
Abstract Knowledge‐intensive organizations are based on their capability of making use of intangible, intellectual resources and assets. As opposed to preceding economic regimes, the post‐ industrial society is to a lesser extent dependent on production factors that are subject to scarcity. Instead, knowledge tends to grow rather than being consumed as it is shared with others. When examining the practices of knowledge‐intensive companies, an ethics of sharing underlying to the use of all knowledge needs to be recognized. Rather than conceiving of knowledge as being an organizational resource that is derived from previous economic regimes, the analysis of knowledge needs to be grounded in a different perspective. This paper is an attempt to formulate such a perspective on knowledge‐intensive organizations as being based on sharing rather than exploitation. The argument is supported by an empirical study of a pharmaceutical company wherein the distribution of knowledge across project teams, communities of practice and individuals was of key strategic interest. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.