Purpose: Knowledge strategy and its planning are affected by uncertainty and environmental turbulence. This paper aims to discuss these issues and present knowledge strategy planning as an integrated approach for facing these conditions. Design/methodology/approach: Based on an extensive survey and an original re-elaboration of the literature, the paper addresses these research questions: What is the meaning of knowledge strategy, and how can it be related to concepts such as strategic thinking, business strategy and knowledge management (KM) in organizations? What are the limitations of a pure rational approach to knowledge strategy in turbulent environments and under uncertainty? and What approaches can be consequently proposed to formulate knowledge strategies? Findings: The study provides a critical reading of the current literature. Also, it proposes an integrated approach that sees planning as a continuous effort of learning and adaptation to needs and opportunities that dynamically emerge from daily practices. Research limitations/implications: The proposed framework can inspire a new research agenda to detect how knowledge strategies are planned in companies and how they are continuously adapted on the basis of a dialog between rational contributions and perceptions of reality, practical views, intuitions and emotions. This can also inspire a new agenda for company strategists and KM professionals. Originality/value: In the literature, little attention has been devoted to knowledge strategy planning. The paper contributes to fill this gap and proposes a new way to see knowledge strategy as an integration of rational thinking and dynamic learning.

During the COVID pandemic, many companies, schools, and public organizations all around the world asked their employees to work from home i.e. to adopt what are called “smart working” modalities. This has and will presumably have a serious impact on both employees and employers, which still needs to be clarified and investigated: indeed, if smart working becomes a common working modality, this may have a significant impact on both organizations and employees. This paper reports the results of an online survey of “smart workers” in Italy during the COVID pandemic, when a great number of employees suddenly moved to working from home with no or little preparation. The study offers interesting indications about the involvement and usefulness perception of smart working by the sampled people and makes it possible to single out different categories of employees based on their attitude towards this modality. Also, it points out the potential impact on socialization among colleagues, and the consequent implications for knowledge sharing and knowledge management. From the collected responses, a fully positive or negative conclusion about working from home was not possible, nor a clear indication about the efficiency and effectiveness of this working modality. The analysis, instead, highlighted the presence of different but numerically similar groups of people, i.e. those who were not satisfied at all with the experience, those who were very satisfied, and those who were “undecided”. Furthermore, respondents underlined the importance and the difficulty to maintain working contacts and the intense use of communication systems made for this purpose. Lastly, collected opinions on positive and negative aspects of working from home provided some practical suggestions about how to successfully implement this solution.

In the last decades, business competition has been increasingly among supply chains (SCs) rather than individual firms. Today, considering the challenges of environmental, social, and economic sustainability, it is becoming even more vital to coordinate and co-manage company resources, activities, and innovative efforts at the SC level. Consequently, knowledge, which is a critical resource for companies, needs to be managed properly not only in single firms but also across SCs. For the education of business managers, this implies a double challenge: first, to make students and future executives become aware of the knowledge management (KM) practices that can be adopted; second, to facilitate the assimilation of these practices for the effective management of SCs, to ensure higher economic and environmentally sustainable performances. Standard definitions and classifications can be of great help, but the current studies are very fragmented. This study contributes by exploring the literature and examining the KM practices that are proposed and defined by the different authors. A systematic review and a descriptive analysis of selected papers showed the trend and focus of papers in the KM and SC fields. In addition, based on the definitions and classifications drawn from the literature, this paper discusses a possible systematization of the key KM practices in SCs. The major contribution of this paper is the effort of re-definition and re-classification of KM practices and their potential importance for effective and sustainable SC management. This analysis can be especially useful for organizing KM courses targeted to current and future business managers.

This study seeks to explore the prospective strategic relationship between knowledge management (KM) and artificial intelligence (AI) by examining how AI technologies are currently perceived to enhance critical knowledge management processes (KMPs) in organizations. An online survey of 378 employees and managers, representing a diverse range of sociodemographic and occupational backgrounds, evaluated the perceived usefulness of AI in key KMPs: knowledge acquisition, documentation, sharing and application. It also evaluated the perceived importance of AI implementation and trust in AI tools for KMPs, inspired by established theoretical frameworks for technology acceptance. Statistical tests included ANOVA, t-tests, MANOVA, Pearson and Spearman. AI is perceived as highly beneficial across all KMPs, with varying degrees of usefulness. Specifically, managers generally see higher potential in AI for KM than regular employees. Positive attitudes toward AI were noted among knowledge managers for knowledge acquisition and graduated for knowledge application. The findings also show a positive correlation between the perceived usefulness of AI, the importance of its implementation and trust in AI tools. Surprisingly, the high-tech sector reported lower perceptions of AI’s usefulness, especially for knowledge acquisition and sharing. Gender, age, seniority and organization size showed no significant impact. Given that research on AI in KM is still in its early stages and largely theoretical, this empirical investigation is timely. The findings thus represent a pioneering effort in harnessing the potential of AI within knowledge-intensive organizational environments.

Purpose: This paper aims to categorise the approaches to knowledge management (KM) by companies. In the literature, there is no consensus on a universal or “best” approach to KM. Especially, this paper singles out and discusses the variegated features that characterise the implementation of KM by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) having different characteristics. Design/methodology/approach: A cluster analysis was used to detect the possible distinct traits of companies that have different approaches to KM. The unit of analysis is represented by small- and medium-sized knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) firms. Data were collected by means of an extensive survey of 223 companies in different European countries and sectors. Findings: Three clusters were identified: Companies showing a relative “unconscious” attention to KM and implementing KM practices without particular awareness; Companies adopting a more conscious approach and using a significant number of KM practices; and companies with a marginal propensity towards KM. Research limitations/implications: This study considers only KIBS, and future research should include other economic sectors. In addition, a convenience sample was used. Practical implications: This paper improves awareness of managers of small companies concerning different KM approaches that can be adopted. It highlights that a conscious adoption of a KM strategy involves the introduction of a set of consistent practices. Originality/value: The topic of KM approaches by small companies is still underdeveloped in the literature. Also, the paper proposes a multi-contextual investigation that makes it possible to highlight the transversality of KM approaches across different countries or sectors.

The paper contributes to the knowledge management literature by arguing how a community of practice (CoP) can react to a situation of crisis quickly, providing support to the whole organisation where it operates. This work examines a CoP of “change agents” at the University of Padova, how it coped with the emergency and the risk of disruption caused by COVID-19, and how it supported the transformation of teaching and learning in higher education. Especially, the purpose of this research is to understand the impact of a crisis on a CoP and on its functioning. Through an in-depth case study, the paper presents evidence of the evolution of the community, and the concrete support offered to faculty coping with the emergency. The crisis provided the impetus to strengthen the relationships among members, improve the sense of belonging, and empower the entire community.