INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TOOL FOR BUILDING

KNOWLEDGE ASSETS FOR THE SMALL MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

CYNTHIA CHINTIAN LEE1, CHARLES EGBU1, DAVID BOYD2, HONG XIAO2,
EZEKIEL CHINYO2
1
School of Built and Natural Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, G4 0BA
Email: [email protected]
2
School of Property and Construction, University of Central England, Perry Barr,
Birmingham, B42 2 SU

ABSTRACT

In this knowledge driven global economy, knowledge itself can be seen as a commodity that
offers the only ‘true sustainable competitive edge’. If knowledge is effectively managed i.e.
collected, structured and disseminated, it will bring significant benefit to organisations, with
potential benefits to the wider construction industry. There are a plethora of knowledge
management tools and solutions on the market. However, the increasing attention of
knowledge management is unsurprisingly targeted at very large multinational organisations,
with little at the small medium enterprises (SMEs); and even less at construction-related
organisations. With over 99% of the construction industry in the UK made up of SMEs, these
organisations are in need of knowledge management just as much as large enterprises in order
to stay competitive. This paper presents and discusses some of the findings from an on-going
18-months project, funded by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The research
project adopts the use of IT in assisting SMEs to build their knowledge assets through
capturing their learning experiences, explicate the significant knowledge embedded in the
participants’ experiences; and transform it into knowledge accessible to a wider audience. In
addition, the challenges participants face in their knowledge capture process will be
highlighted. The paper will also reflect on the role of information technology (IT) in
knowledge capture and communication in SMEs. Conclusions and recommendations for
practice and for academia are documented.

Key Words: Knowledge Assets, Knowledge Management, Small Medium Enterprise,

INTRODUCTION

Knowledge resides in many different places such as: databases, knowledge bases, filing
cabinets and people’s head. It can be seen as the entirety of cognitions and abilities, which
are used by individuals to solve problems. This comprises theoretical perceptions as well as
pragmatic day to day rules and guidelines and is an organised set of statements of facts or
ideas, presenting a reasoned judgement or an experimental result. The construction industry
is essentially an information processing industry (Aish, 1999); where most knowledge comes
from the successful completion of projects (Conheeney et al, 2000). With the increasing
pressure for competitiveness on construction organisations, it is necessary to capture, transfer
and reuse project knowledge and use lessons learned from previous projects to improve
project performance. Given the complexity of construction-related projects and organisations,
cross-boundary knowledge transactions are of growing importance and the onus on
fragmented organisations to share knowledge to deliver solutions is necessary. The reliance
on project participants to share knowledge in order to succeed in project delivery has never
been greater (Whelton et al., 2002). Thus, the need for Knowledge Management (KM) in the
construction industry is fuelled by the need for innovation, efficiency, improved business
performance and client satisfaction.

Transferring knowledge and information across projects is a major challenge for construction
organisations. Much construction work is project-based, short-term and task-oriented,
promoting a culture where continuous learning is inhibited. Specialist and technical
knowledge is lost from one project to the next stifling an organisation’s ability to develop
knowledge and generate new ideas (Egbu & Botterill, 2002). In this knowledge driven global
economy, knowledge itself can be seen as a commodity that offers the only ‘true sustainable
competitive edge’. Success in an increasingly competitive marketplace depends critically on
the quality of knowledge which organisations apply to their key business processes.
Knowledge assets are the intangible assets of an organisation such as employees expertise,
knowledge regarding markets, products, technologies and organisations, that a business owns
or needs to enable its business processes to generate profits, add value, etc (Kroll, 1999). The
know-how and expertise of the work-force is the human capital component of intellectual
capital thus, knowledge assets are also intellectual capital that an organisation owns; it is an
important factor for the success of companies and strongly influences the effectiveness and
efficiency of the business processes and their outcome.

In the process of building knowledge assets, enterprises need to know what their knowledge
assets are and how to manage and make use of theses assets in order to get maximum return.
Knowledge assets can be built through effective management of knowledge i.e. collected,
structured and disseminated; significant benefit to organisations, with potential benefits to the
wider construction industry can be obtained through knowledge management. Knowledge
management is not only about managing these knowledge assets but managing the processes
that act upon the assets. These processes include: developing knowledge, preserving
knowledge, using knowledge and sharing knowledge. It involves the identification and
analysis of available and required knowledge assets and knowledge assets related processes,
and the subsequent planning and control of actions to develop both the assets and the
processes so as to fulfil the organisational objectives. There are a plethora of knowledge
management tools and solutions on the market. However, the increasing attention of
knowledge management is unsurprisingly targeted at very large multinational organisations,
with little at the small medium enterprises (SMEs); and even less at construction-related
organisations. With over 99% of the construction industry in the UK made up of SMEs, these
organisations are in need of knowledge management just as much as large enterprises in order
to stay competitive.
Knowledge Management and Small Medium Enterprises

Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are organisations that have less than 250 employees. The
weaknesses of SMEs as identified by Egbu (2001) are:
• Inability to fund long-term and risky knowledge management programmes
• Weakness in specialised range of technological competencies
• Weakness in investment on training and education

The strengths of SMEs on the other hand are:

• Its less formal strategies increase the communication of knowledge, speed of decision
making and improve informal networks
• Its informal network improve employee commitment and their receptiveness of
knowledge management regimes
• They are also able to react faster to changing market requirements and the requisite
knowledge to satisfy market needs.

Other weaknesses of SMEs as identified by Rothwell and Dodgson (1994) are that SMEs
have little management experience, power imbalance if they are to collaborate with large
firms, difficulty in coping with complex regulations and associated cost of compliance.

Hylton (2002) has indicated that SMEs are in need of knowledge management just as much as
large enterprises. The reasons cited are that the world has changed rapidly over the past
decade and continues to do so. There are more contenders for every dollar or profit, which
put great pressure on companies, large and small, to innovate and to develop products rapidly.
Both innovation and rapid development require accelerated use of knowledge; knowledge that
must be managed efficiently, effectively and securely. To remain competitive, companies
have to know something and then co-ordinate and use what they know, quickly. SMEs
therefore must first know what their knowledge assets are then how to manage and make use
of these assets to get maximum return.

A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

Knowledge management is defined as any process or practice of creating, acquiring,

capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever it resides, to enhance learning and
performance in organisation (Scarborough et al., 1999). Knowledge management involves
knowledge identification, creation, acquisition, transfer, sharing and exploitation. Knowledge
management is vital for efficient working in projects and for improving organisational
competitiveness (Egbu, 2000a, 2001). Knowledge management can also promote innovation
and business entrepreneurship, help managing change, and emancipate and empower
employees (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Egbu, 2000b; McAdam and McCreedy, 2000; DTI,
2000).
Much of knowledge management focuses on the role of information technology (IT) and
information systems (IS) and the tools that aid knowledge transfer and storage (Egbu, 2000;
1999). Although IT and IS are essential requirements in ‘enabling’ knowledge management,
the true asset of an organisation is its brainpower (Edvinsson, 2000). Intellectual Capital (IC)
is recognized as a key strategic asset for organizational performance and its management is
critical for the competitiveness of organizations (Roos et al., 1997, Marr et al, 2003). Three
components of IC identified are human, structural and customer capital (Edvinsson, 2000;
Bontis, 1998; Bontis et al., 2000). Structural capital is the internal structure of an
organisation, such as its strategies, core competencies and culture, which is always context
specific. Customer capital on the other hand encompasses the external intangible assets of an
organisation. Customers are the principle determinants of the market position and strength of
an organisation (Smith and Saint-Onge, 1996). Human capital is asserted as the most
important intangible asset in an organisation, especially in terms of innovation (Edvinsson,
2000; Stewart, 1997; Roos et al., 1997; Brooking, 1996). The unique tacit knowledge of
individuals is of immense value to the organisation as a whole, and is the “wellspring of
innovation” (Steward, 1997). It is essential for organisations to maintain and grow their IC
stocks and knowledge management is one way of helping them to do this (Brooking, 1997).
Few know how to use this knowledge in a systematic way in order to gain real business
benefits (Marr, 2003).

Differences between Knowledge and Information

Very often, the knowledge management is confused with information management (Sveiby,
1997). Sveiby (1997) has contended that the confusion between knowledge and information
has caused managers to sink billions of dollars in information technology ventures that have
yielded marginal results. He asserts that business managers need to realise that unlike
information, knowledge is embedded in people, and knowledge creation occurs in the process
of social interaction. Unlike information management, which in general is the conservation,
sharing and recycling of information or data for specific business use, knowledge
management is about people (Dougherty, 1999). A distinction made between information and
knowledge by Ash (1998) and Kirchner (1997) is that information has little value and will not
become knowledge until it is processed by human mind and that knowledge involves the
processing, creation, or use of information in the mind of the individual. Other definitions on
information and knowledge include knowledge is information combined with experience,
context, interpretation, reflection and perspective (Davenport et al., 1998; Kirchner, 1997;
Frappaolo, 1997). Although information is not knowledge, it is an important aspect of
knowledge (Martensson, 2000). If the process of knowledge management is led by IT,
knowledge can too easily become “information” or data only: to be stored and theoretically
retrieved, from databases (Dougherty, 1999). Thus, it is essential that the use of IT to manage
knowledge should be done ingeniously.
THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research reported herein concerns the building of knowledge assets within SME
organisations in the construction industry. This is done through the process of knowledge
generation, storing and sharing.

Knowledge generation - is the processes executed to increase the stock of knowledge assets.
Knowledge can be generated through knowledge acquisition and creation. Knowledge
acquisition is the process of capturing and bringing knowledge from the external environment
into the company whilst knowledge creation is the process of developing new knowledge
assets within the company (Marr, 2003). In the context of this research, knowledge
generation shall only be through knowledge creation.

Knowledge storing - is the process of saving knowledge within the organisation so that
knowledge can be made available anytime and anywhere. Knowledge storing can take the
form of knowledge databases, in which codified knowledge is stored in appropriate
information codes. This is based on the idea that knowledge can be codified and made
available to be retrieved electronically and this approach shall be adopted in this research.

Knowledge sharing - is the process by which knowledge is disseminated across the

organisation. Knowledge sharing can be done through formal and informal process; formal
knowledge sharing shall be in the form of meetings, seminars and workshops and informal
knowledge sharing shall be in the form of informal discussions between individuals in an
organisation. Knowledge sharing can be supported by the use of information and
communication technology (ICT) for example online databases, data warehousing/knowledge
repositories and intranets. The strategy to adopt ICT is one of the most followed managerial
practices within the organisations (Marr, 2003) and ICT can be a facilitator to encourage
individuals to share their knowledge.

28 site managers from 12 SME organisations were involved in the study, coming from
organisations that included general contractors, specialist contractors and consulting
companies.

Once a week, the research participants recorded stories of problem-solving events, which they
had experienced. The participants were encouraged to select events that were useful for
learning; i.e., events that were challenging, successful, worrying, complicated, difficult,
frustrating, or annoying.

A set of structured but open questions was provided to help the participants in recording their
stories. The use of audio diaries in this task minimised disruptions to the participants’ daily
work, and encouraged their participation and cooperation. Nearly three hundred audio diary
entries were recorded and their stories yielded rich qualitative data.
After about four diary entries, the storyteller was debriefed to analyse for learning from these
stories and to provide a deeper interpretation of the events. The debriefing sessions were thus
structured to facilitate the data analysis. The structuring was done with reference to principles
discussed by Pearson and Smith (1985). Over ninety debriefings were conducted with the
research participants.

In this research, knowledge is created by the research participants when they reflect on their
experiences and record them in the event register and post project review forms. The tacit
knowledge of site managers is captured initially and inadvertently through diary entries,
whereby events which arise through daily operations of their work is recorded in the event
register and made explicit. Issues such as circumstances underpinning the event, the feeling
and actions of the participants, the reaction of other people involved in that project and the
lessons learned from the event may be discussed in the event register. Similarly, at the end of
a project, a post project review is done through the exploration of what contributes to the
successes of the project, the problems/challenges faced and the lessons learned. The recorded
knowledge in the event register and post project review is stored as knowledge database,
made available and shared throughout the organisation via the intranet. Through this process,
the organisation knowledge assets are built up.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

IT is becoming increasingly important to KM in construction organisations (Egbu & Botterill,

2002). Many organisations employ IT in one form or another to manage their knowledge and,
in general, IT is used primarily to store and transfer explicit forms of knowledge. In addition,
IT can also be used to aid collaboration and co-operation between people, and as tool to assist
the transfer of knowledge and information between project teams, enabling the development
of new knowledge for innovation. However, the construction industry has been slow to
recognise the benefits of IT as a major communication tool (Egbu et al., 2001). Research
(Egbu & Botterill, 2002) has shown that the most frequently used techniques and technologies
in construction organisations are: telephone, Internet/intranet/email and documents and
reports. These are closely followed by face-to-face meetings and interaction with the supply
chain. Although construction organisations are investing more in some aspects of IT, such as
the Internet, greater emphasis is put on the more conventional techniques for acquiring,
developing, sharing and storing knowledge. IT should be understood less in its capacity to
store explicit information and more on its potential to aid collaboration and co-operation
between people (Egbu & Botterill, 2002). Dougherty (1999) argues that IT should be seen as
a tool to assist the processes of KM in organisations. Communication is a vital part of
organisational activity and IT has a central role to play in the communications of the
organisations (Egbu et al., 2001). Although IT has been extensively used for communication
in SMEs, the use of IT as a knowledge capture tool is still in arrears. This may be due to the
lack of awareness of knowledge management in the SMEs; let alone knowledge capture, their
financial limitation and also their weakness in education and training which hinders their
skills in IT.
In this project, the building of knowledge assets is through the employment of IT. A website
using Microsoft Frontpage as illustrated below is created, whereby users are able to conduct
online recording of an event diary or do a Post Project Review. Under the event diary section,
users are given the option to listen to events recorded by their colleagues, record an event
orally using the audio diary or key in an event which they have encountered in the process of
their work.

Figure 1: Screenshot of the webpage created for knowledge capture

In this project, the audio diaries recorded by users are kept under three broad areas:
Relational, Technical and Operational. Users are able to click onto the relevant topic to listen
to an event recorded by their colleagues. Audio Diary can be created using Rosoft Audio
Recorder. This software can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.downloads.com.
To do a recording, the software is activated and a recording screen will appear on the
computer. Users will need to plug in their Dictaphone and press the record button on the
Rosoft Audio Recorder as well as on the Dictaphone and the events can be recorded and
saved into their company database. Upon creating the above said audio diary under different
topic, it will be stored in the database where users can select to listen to the audio diaries of
their colleagues and learn from their experiences by simply clicking the appropriate button on
the relevant topic and the audio diary will be played. Next, to key in an event and create an
event database, Microsoft Access is used (see Figure 2 for an illustration of the database). A
link is created on the website and users will need to click on the ‘ENTER’ button and
download the file to key in the event.

Figure 2: Screen shot Event database

Similar to the event database, users can also create a database for post project review which
enables users to evaluate projects and learn from them (an illustration of which is shown in
Figure 3). This will enable project information to be captured, retained, indexed so that
people external to the project can retrieve and apply it to future tasks/projects. By reviewing
projects, it will prevent ‘re-inventing the wheel’ and repeat mistakes.
Figure 3: Screen shot of Post project Review

Compared to the audio diaries created using a Dictaphone, the advantages of this web based
knowledge capturing tool are that the details of the recorded events are clear, easy to read and
can be printed out to make reference to. Listening to events recorded using the Dictaphone on
the other hand, may be difficult when the person who records the event does not speak clearly
and the listener has to listen to the event over and over again to make out the content.

CHALLENGES FACED BY PROJECT PARTICIPANTS

Along with the benefits of knowledge management many barriers exist, thus turning the
management of knowledge into a very challenging task to do. A barrier can be considered to
be ‘Everything related to human, organisational and/or technological issues that obstructs the
intra- and inter-organisational management of knowledge ….’ (Wunram et.al, 2000).
Therefore, these barriers can basically be allocated to the TOP (Technology, Organisation,
People) categories of socio-technical systems classification (Thoben, 2002).
From our research the challenges participants faced in their knowledge capture process are
identified as below:

Technology

As discussed earlier, SMEs are weak in specialised range of technological competencies. The
technologies employed in their knowledge capture process are also usually equipments used
in their day-to-day running of their tasks. Although attempts may have been made to capture
knowledge, no advanced or innovative technologies are roped in to help in the process.

Organisation

There is a lack of awareness of knowledge management strategies and instruments in the

SMEs that participated in the study. The necessary awareness for the management of
knowledge is relatively low among the responding companies. There is a lack of knowledge
capture strategy in place and no company had an explicit knowledge management strategy
implemented, nor determined corresponding responsibilities. Very often, employees are not
aware of the knowledge capture process and often look for quick fixes in their work to fight
the symptoms of a problem and not its cause, thereby missing the opportunity to record their
experiences and let alone transferring their knowledge amongst the staff. When questioning
why people tended to look for quick fixes instead of lasting solutions, efforts related to time
and costs were almost always mentioned. Although SMEs may be aware of the power of
knowledge management and the importance of knowledge capture in their organisation, they
often feel that they have other more pressing priorities and needs. In addition, knowledge
capture may be seen as a ‘big boys’ thing or even as a fad that only big companies can afford
to indulge in.

People

Communication barrier was mentioned to be a problem when dealing with people. A

common problem in this context occurs when two colleagues of the same company and are
involved in the same project but belong to different domains. The understanding of what they
are talking about can be significantly different. Although SMEs may have a less formal
communication channel, the barrier of idea robbery still exists; the fear that the idea of an
individual employee could be taken by another who then gets the acknowledgement and
rewards for that idea. Thus, there is a need for the protection of proprietary knowledge
among employees and this hinders knowledge transfer and capture. Another barrier that
SMEs faced is finding the time to capture knowledge. People are overstretched and the
knowledge capture process may impact too much in their activities.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Knowledge is rapidly becoming the most important asset of virtually all organisations and
organisations in the construction industry are no exception. The ability to manage and exploit
knowledge will be the main source of competitive advantage for the construction industry of
the future. Knowledge management may help SMEs develop for the future and have more
sustainable business practices, making them less vulnerable to the economic cycles of the
industry.

Knowledge sharing will minimise the knowledge loss that will result in the event of a
straightforward transfer of tacit knowledge to explicit forms. McDermott (1999) argues that
IT tools alone cannot effectively perform knowledge conversion, unless certain other
conditions such as trust, face-to-face contact, time to interact between participants and
creation of a common language are in place. Outlined above are the challenges faced by
SMEs in knowledge capture. In order to bring knowledge management to its next lap, SMEs
need to look into their work procedures and incorporate the knowledge capture process into it.
In addition, SMEs also need to be able to identify their sources of knowledge in order to be
able to capture it. For SMEs to implement knowledge management system, investment on
education, training and infrastructure need to be increased. Like large companies, SMEs
should take action to capture and store the existing tacit knowledge within the company.

REFERENCES

Aish R., (1999), Migration From An Individual To An Enterprise Computing Model And Its
Implications For AEC Research, Berkeley-Stanford CE & M Workshop: Defining A
Research Agenda, Stanford
Ash J., (1998), Managing knowledge gives power, Communication World, Vol.15 No. 3, pp.
23-26
Bhatt, G.D., (2001), Knowledge Management in Organisations: examining the interaction
between technologies, techniques and people, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 5
No. 1, pp. 68-75, MCB University Press
Bontis, N., (1998), Intellectual capital: An exploratory study that develops measures and
models, Management Decision, vol.36, no.2, pp.63-76
Bontis, N., Chau Chong Keow, W., Richardson, S. (2000), Intellectual capital and business
performance in Malaysian industries, Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol.1, no.1, pp.85-100
Brooking, A. (1996) Intellectual Capital – Core Asset for the Third Millennium Enterprise,
London, International Thompson Business Press
Brooking, A. (1997) The management of intellectual capital. Journal of Long Range
Planning, vol.30, no.3, pp.364-5
Conheeney K., Stephenson P. And Griffiths A. (2000), Issues In Knowledge Transfer Within
A Construction Training And Learning Organisation, Proceedings Of The International
Conference On Construction Information Technology (CIT2000), G. Gudson Ed.,
Reykjavik, Iceland, 28-30 June, Vol. 1, pp.229-240
Davenport T.H., De Long D.W., and Beers M.C., (1998), Successful knowledge management
projects, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 43-57
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), (2000), Excellence and opportunity, a science and
innovation policy for the 21st century, The Stationery Office, London
Dougherty V., (1999), Knowledge Is About People, Not Databases, Industrial And
Commercial Training, Vol.31 No. 7 pp. 262-266, MCB University Press
Edvinsson, L. (2000) Some perspectives on intangibles and intellectual capital 2000. Journal
of Intellectual Capital, vol.1, no.1, pp.12-16
Egbu C., and Botterill K., (2002), Information Technologies For Knowledge Management:
Their Usage And Effectiveness, Electronic Journal Of Information Technology In
Construction, Vol. 7 Royal Institute Of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden (Cited 22 October
2003), <http://www.itcon.org/2002/8>
Egbu, C. O., (1999), The Role of Knowledge Management and Innovation in Improving
Construction Competitiveness, Building Technology and Management Journal, Volume
25, pp. 1 - 10.
Egbu, C. O., (2000), The Role of IT in Strategic Knowledge Management and its Potential in
the Construction Industry, UK National Conference on Objects and Integration for
Architecture, Engineering, and Construction. 13 - 14th March 2000, BRE, Watford, UK, pp.
106 - 114
Egbu, C., Gaskell, C. and Howes, J., (2001), The Role Of Organisational Culture And
Motivation In The Effective Utilisation Of Information Technology For Teamworking In
Construction, IN: Proceedings of the 17th Annual Conference of the Association of
Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM), pp. 91-100, 5-7 September,
University of Salford, UK.
Egbu, C.O., (2000a) The role of IT in strategic knowledge management and its potential in
the construction industry. UK National conference on Objects and Integration for
Architecture, Engineering and Construction, 13-14th March 2000, BRE, Watford, UK
Egbu, C.O., (2000b) Knowledge management in construction SMEs: coping with the issues
of structure, culture, commitment and motivation, ARCOM Sixteenth Annual Conference
2000, Glasgow Caledonian University, pp 83-92
Egbu, C.O., (2001) Knowledge management in small and medium enterprises in the
construction industry: challenges and opportunities. Managing Knowledge: conversation
and Critiques, Proceedings of an international conference convened at the University of
Leicester, UK, 10-11th April 2001
Frappaolo C., (1997), Finding what’s in it, Document World Vo. 2, No. 5, pp. 23-30
Hylton, A., (2002), A KM Initiative is Unlikely to Succeed without a Knowledge Audit,
<http://www.kmadvantage.com/docs/km_articles/KM_Initiative_Unlikely_to_Succeed_Wit
hout_a_K_Audit.pdf >
Ingirige B., Sexton m., and Betts M., (2002), The Suitability of IT as a Tool to Facilitate
Knowledge Sharing in Construction Alliances, International Council for Research and
Innovation in Building and Construction, CIB w78 conference 2002, pp. 1-8, Aarhus School
of Architecture, 12-14 June 2002
Kirchner S.R., (1997), Focus on: database integration and management for call centres,
Telemarketing, Vol. 16, No. 2 pp. 22-24
Kroll, K (1999), Calculating knowledge assets, Industry Week, Vol. 248, Issue 13, Cleveland
(http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~blev/industryweek.htm cited 8 Nov 2004)
Marr, B., (2003), Understanding Corporate Value: Managing and Reporting Intellectual
Capital, CIMA
Marr, B., Schiuma, G., and Neely, A., (2003), Intellectual capital: defining key performance
indicators for organisational knowledge assets, Business Process Management Journal, Vol.
10, No 4
Martensson, M., (2000), A Critical Review of Knowledge Management as A Management
Tool, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 4(3), pp. 204-216
McAdam, R. and McCreedy, S., (2000), A critique of knowledge management: using a social
constructionist model, New Technology, Work and Employment, 15:2, pp 155-68
McDermott, R., (1999), Why Information Technology Inspired But Cannot Deliver KM,
California Management Review, Vol. 41(04), pp. 103-117
Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H., (1995), The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese
Companies Create The Dynamics Of Innovation, Oxford University Press: New York
Pearson, M. and Smith, D. (1985) Debriefing in experience-based learning, Reflection:
Turning Experience into Learning (Edited by Boud, D., Keogh, R. and Walker, D.),
Kogan Page, London, 69-84
Roos, G., Roos. J., Edvinsson, L. and Dragonetti, N.C. (1997), Intellectual Capital -
Navigating the New Business Landscape, New York, New York University Press
Rothwell, R. and Dodgson, M (1994) Innovation and Size of Firm, in Dodgson, M. (ed)
Scarbrough, H., Swan, J. And Preston, J. (1999), Knowledge Management: A Literature
Review. London: Institute Of Personnel And Development.
Smith, P.A.C. and Saint-Onge, H. (1996), The evolutionary organization: Avoiding a titanic
fate, The Learning Organization, vol. 3, no. 4
Stewart, T. A., (1994), Your company’s most valuable asset: intellectual capital, Fortune
Stewart, T. A., (1997), Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Nations, London, Nicholas
Brealy Publishing
Sveiby K., (1997), The New Organisational Wealth: Managing and Measuring Knowledge-
Based Assets, Berrett Koehler, Brisbane
Thoben, K.D. & Wunram, F.M., (2002), Barriers in Knowledge Management and Pragmatic
Approach, <http://www.ici.ro/ici/revista/sic2002_1/art01.htm>
Whelton, M., Ballard, G. & Tommelein, I.D., (2002), Knowledge Management Framework
For Project Definition, Electronic Journal Of Information Technology In Construction, Vol.
7 Royal Institute Of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden (Cited 22 October 2003),
<http://www.itcon.org/2002/13>
Wunram, M.; Foster, G.; Mottaghian, S, Deliverable D06 – Identification Of Barriers. Result
From The Project Corma - Practical Methods And Tools For Corporate Knowledge
Management. Projekt Nr. Ist-1999-12685. Unpublished. 2000