Knowledge Management in Emerging Economies: Social, Organizational and Cultural Implementation

Citation

Correia, A.M.R. (2012), "Knowledge Management in Emerging Economies: Social, Organizational and Cultural Implementation", Online Information Review, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 483-484. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521211241495

Emerging economies face a highly competitive and turbulent business environment arising from technological advances, market globalisation, deregulation, liberalisation and rapid political and government change. These all require firms to be flexible, highly responsive and innovative.

The most valuable resource an organisation can possess is its knowledge, a distinctive core competency. Knowledge resides in the organisation's human resources but is incorporated in its products, services, customer relations, markets, projects and processes. Managing organisational knowledge transfer strategically can contribute to the creation of sustainable competitive advantage in today's highly competitive and turbulent business environment.

As Al‐Shammari puts it, organisational knowledge transfer management (thereafter referred to as KM) may “differ from one socio‐cultural context to another”. The author claims there are several orientations, such as Anglo‐Saxonic, French‐Nordic, Japanese, Latin, and adds a new profile of KM for the Arab region.

The value of this book is in the bringing together of studies taking place in several emerging economies. Some of these studies include cases from both developed and emerging economies, offering a spectrum of issues related to KM, touching upon social, organisational and cultural aspects that need to be taken into account.

The book consists of a preface, 20 chapters and a compilation of references. Chapters are organised in sections reflecting general themes. Section 1 (chapter 1‐7) provides examples of knowledge generation, integration and utilisation; section 2 (chapters 8‐12) focuses on knowledge sharing and transfer; section 3 (chapters 13‐16) concentrates on examples addressing knowledge management practices; section 4 (chapters 17‐20) explores cases in which knowledge management issues are highlighted. The countries and regions studied include South Africa, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, Taiwan, Oman, Brazil, Serbia, India, Peru and Mexico. A number of chapters address cases in a variety of sectors, including software development, paper and agro food, higher education, house building, public sector accounting, sports betting and the footwear industry.

Some of the references seem to be incomplete, with either the publisher or place of publication missing. Also, in several references there are discrepancies between the date of the citation and the actual date of publication. These are perhaps minor niggles, but they do suggest a less than rigorous attention to detail.

Knowledge Management in Emerging Economies: Social, Organizational and Cultural Implementation is recommended for professionals, researchers, executives and academics, policy‐makers, government executives and corporate executives – all benefit from reading about the strategies addressed here. The book is a large and diverse compilation of articles, not necessarily to be read from cover to cover; rather, it is more a reference to be consulted at the appropriate time.