Knowledge Management
Department of Computer Systems and Communications
Academic Year: 2016-2017
Francesco Caputo
fcaputo@mail.muni.cz
The pillars of knowledge
The economy builds upon a deterministic
program while the knowledge requires a
subjective approach.
Why we are discovering the relevance of knowledge in economic field
only today?
The basic assumption
ü End of Fordism Era
ü Improving in knowledge accessibility
ü Sharing of knowledge
ü Possibility to approach the knowledge as a ‘resource’
Why the knowledge era has began?
The knowledge should be considered a mediator factor because it
cannot be simple added to the the others productive factors.
The use of knowledge modify the others
productive factors by defining new
pathways and approaches.
The knowledge as mediator factor
By using the knowledge it is possible to radically change the other
productive factors through a process that define new resources and
perspectives.
The knowledge as mediator factor
The knowledge does not finish after the use. In such a line, it is
possible to outline two abnormalities:
ü The knowledge production is a irreversible process that broke the
link between past and future.
ü The value of knowledge is ‘potentially’ endless because the
knowledge can be used for different times in different contexts in
order to achieve different aims.
The knowledge abnormalities
The knowledge cannot be considered a resource because:
ü It is not poor, because it can be used in different processes.
ü It is not divisible, because its cost cannot be attribute to one single
actor.
ü It is not excludable, because it can be used by several actors at the
same time.
ü It is not instrumental, because the cognitive processes modify the
aims and the identities of involved actors.
The peculiarities of knowledge
Economy of Science
Basic Science Applied Science
Aims of involved actors
The economy of science
The economy of information
Multiplication of information
The information is everything that can be transferred without lose the
rules need to understand it (Kogut e Zander, 1997: 30).
The economy of information
ü Theory of thermodynamic entropy
ü Mathematical theory of information (Shannon e Weaver)
These theories identify the information as
an objective elements of a tangible
environment.
The objective approach to information
The economy of information is the research
domain that study an economic system in
which the actors do not have the same
information. In these conditions, the actors that
their chooses by acting on different
information (Arrow 1973, 1984).
The economy of information
The market dynamics outline the prices for the balance by showing
them to the public in order to support the discovering of new
information.
The market dynamics
Knowledge is different from information
Allee (1997: 40)
Among data, information, and knowledge
the differences refer to the semantic
contents or, in other terms, to the role of
context that is irrelevant in the data
management and more relevant in the
knowledge management (Gallouj, 2002:
257).
Knowledge vs. information
By focusing the attention on the competences
and on the capabilities it is possible to define an
action plan for the knowledge management.
More specifically, competences and capabilities
show the actors’ ability to perform a process
with an high level of confidence” (Nelson,
1994).
The action plan for the knowledge management
Questions ???