The ability to manage knowledge is relevant for millions of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate in high-tech environments. They strongly depend on external knowledge about customers, technologies, and competitors because, as opposed to large companies, they have limited internal knowledge resources and little power to control their business environments. Present KM literature, however, mainly focuses on large companies and therefore does not explain, how SMEs, for example, can successfully apply groupware, data mining, semantic networks, and knowledge maps. This book addresses this problem by introducing the concept of knowledge integration (KI) that places emphasis on the identification, acquisition and use of external knowledge. Drawing from this theoretical basis, the book presents concepts and instruments specifically designed for SMEs, as well as examples of their implementation and use in practice.

The ability to manage knowledge is relevant for millions of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate in high-tech environments. They strongly depend on external knowledge about customers, technologies, and competitors because, as opposed to large companies, they have limited internal knowledge resources and little power to control their business environments. Present KM literature, however, mainly focuses on large companies and therefore does not explain, how SMEs, for example, can successfully apply groupware, data mining, semantic networks, and knowledge maps. This book addresses this problem by introducing the concept of knowledge integration (KI) that places emphasis on the identification, acquisition and use of external knowledge. Drawing from this theoretical basis, the book presents concepts and instruments specifically designed for SMEs, as well as examples of their implementation and use in practice.

Matthias Christian Freund untersucht bestehende wirtschaftsgeographische, volks- und betriebswirtschaftliche Erklarungs- und Gestaltungsansatze und entwickelt daraus ein mehrstufiges produktionstheoretisches Modell zur Erklarung der subnationalen Differenzierung betrieblicher Innovationsaktivitaten, welches unter Anwendung raumokonometrischer Verfahren empirisch uberpruft wird."

Antonie Jetter prasentiert ein neuartiges Handlungsunterstutzungssystem (HAUS) fur die fruhen Phasen der Produkentwicklung / fur das Fuzzy Front End, mit dem das System "Entwicklungsprojekt" modelliert und seine Dynamik durch Simulation erfasst wird. Die theoretische Basis fur das HAUS liefern Forschungsarbeiten der Handlungspsychologie. Methodisch stutzt sich das System auf verknupfte Teilmodelle der Entwicklungssituation, die durch das qualitative Modellierungsverfahren der Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) erstellt werden. Aufbau und Nutzung des HAUS werden am Beispiel eines realen Entwicklungsprojektes konkretisiert und auf ihre Machbarkeit hin gepruft.

Mit seinem "International House of Knowledge Management" prasentiert Michael Gehle ein leistungsfahiges Konzept fur das Wissensmanagement in wissensintensiven internationalen Unternehmen. Es ruht auf den Saulen Mensch & Kultur, Organisation & Prozess sowie Informations- & Kommunikationsmanagement."