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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the development of a knowledge management system. It allows the creation of new knowledge, its consolidation, distribution and combination in the field of educational innovation, in such a way that the knowledge is transferred from individuals to the organisation and from the organisation to individuals. To achieve this, the knowledge spirals of Nonaka are integrated. The epistemological spiral is used to obtain the ontologies that feed the ontological spiral.

More than 600 university teachers participated in the research and the development of the management system, in which more than 400 educational innovation experiences and 1,100 authors have been included.

The epistemological spiral is used to obtain the ontologies that feed the ontological spiral. The result is a double spiral that allows the contribution of a conceptual model and the development of an innovative tool that enables and automates the effective management of knowledge in educational innovation.

A repository about educational innovation best practices and experiences is available.

The presented model for the sustainability and evolution for an educational innovation best practices repositories has a huge impact for education innovation recognition in the professional development of university teachers. On the other hand, it is way of sharing best practices of educational innovation all over the world.

The major contribution of this research work is based on the way that the knowledge is transferred from individuals to the organisation and from the organisation to individuals. The classification schema and the proposed indicators are based on the elicitation of more than 600 experts and the study of a corpus of more than 400 educational innovation experiences that involve 1,100 university teachers approximately.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how different strengths of simmelian ties affect knowledge spirals and investigate which major factors affect the influence of simmelian ties on knowledge spirals.

The empirical data in this paper were collected through e-mail and interview questionnaires to R&D teams in high-tech manufacturing enterprises in China. The authors obtained 132 teams' valid responses. The interval decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (interval DEMATEL) method, differential evolution (DE) algorithm and Bayesian structural equation modelling (BSEM) were employed to test the theoretical framework developed for this paper.

The results show that strong simmelian ties have positive associations with high-performance work practices (HPWPs). Meanwhile, weak simmelian ties have positive associations with HPWPs. Furthermore, HPWPs and knowledge fermentation play a conducive role in the relationship between simmelian ties and knowledge spirals.

This paper contributes in three ways. First, it extends research on the relational antecedents of knowledge spirals. Second, this paper extends the study of social capital related to knowledge spirals. Third, this paper elucidates less familiar factors relating HPWPs to knowledge fermentation by testing the mediating role of HPWPs in knowledge fermentation.

Knowledge input development and innovation implementation are new features of industrial technology innovation. The purpose of this study is to find the process of coordination and ecological spiral in the ambidextrous innovation of industrial technology.

To design the model of industrial technology ambidextrous innovation based on knowledge ecology spiral, an input-output model of knowledge for ambidextrous innovation and a spiral model of knowledge ecology were constructed based on an improved Lotka-Volterra model. Then, the equilibriums in different knowledge inputs and the spiral evolution of knowledge ecology were analyzed. Finally, the ambidextrous coordination mechanism of the core organization was revealed.

By coordinating the knowledge inputs and the knowledge ecology spiral, enterprises extend the R&D investments in the innovation chain, which will facilitate the knowledge inputs of the exploitative and exploratory innovation. Implementing the ambidextrous coordination in the technology innovation chain and the knowledge ecology chain has the advantage of promoting knowledge inputs, mobility and ecological spiral. Meanwhile, it can achieve the “multi-source, integration and coordination” development of industrial technology innovation.

The two-element innovative knowledge input coordination model and the knowledge ecological spiral model based on the improved Lotka-Volterra model are constructed, which extends the modeling way of the traditional knowledge input-output profit model. It is expected to reduce the amount of knowledge input of a single member and provide theoretical reference for improving the efficiency of knowledge input by constructing the inter-dependent regenerative and inter-generative knowledge interaction.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new model for depicting organizational processes: the episodic spiral model (ESM).

On the basis of a strong process view as the orienting paradigm, the authors demonstrate the need for the ESM by discussing the shortcomings of two specific spiral types in the organizational literature – the knowledge creation spiral and the efficacy spiral.

A review of each spiral type through the lens of nonlinear assumptions reveals the treatment to date of organizational spirals as uni-directional and insufficient for understanding organizations. The authors propose that managers must undertake a paradigm shift in order to gain a greater awareness of both the environment in which they operate, as well as their process actions. To facilitate this shift, the ESM depicts choice points, chosen and rejected trajectories, and upward and downward environmental drafts, as well as a multi-dimensional environment, as a way of re-conceptualizing approaches to space, time, and change in organization studies.

The authors propose that the model provides a way for scholars to enhance the study of organizations by understanding that organizations exist in a more dynamic environment than previously studied; recognizing that the organization has a wider range of choices available, and acknowledging the long-lasting ramifications of both choices made and choices discarded; and obtaining a more comprehensive look at the way the organization moves through space and time at any given moment. Taken together, the authors hope that these contributions allow organizational scholars a new approach to theorizing, exploring, and writing about the organizations they study.

This study aims to pose one major research question, i.e. why and how to use knowledge management methods in order to enhance knowledge creation in academia – at universities and research institutes?

The paper defines KM in academia as any systematic activity related to support and enhancement of the creation of scientific knowledge and achievement of research goals, including both social process and relevant computer technology tools. Two surveys and case studies were carried out to achieve the research purpose at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). The first survey focused on knowledge management in academia and investigated the current KM situations, special and diverse requirements from researchers. The second survey concentrated on supporting the creative processes of academic research and investigated which aspects of knowledge creation processes should be supported in particular. Based on survey findings, the practical solutions are further presented aimed to improve the creative environment for scientific knowledge creation.

The findings from the first survey showed that the KM obstacles reflected on various aspects: technological support, the people involved in creation activities, laboratory cultural, and so on. The seven most critical questions and three most important questions were evaluated by responders with respect to academic knowledge creation process in the second survey.

The study advances the belief that knowledge management (KM) is applicable not only in industrial and market organizations, but also in academia.

With respect to the survey results, it is suggested that a creative environment in academia should be enhanced from both “soft” and “hard” aspects under the guidelines of a systems thinking framework for KM in scientific labs. From the soft side, by using personalization strategies, a knowledge‐sharing culture has to be built in labs to facilitate scientific communication, debate and team work. From the hard side, by using technology strategies, a practical example is presented in JAIST concerning the implementation of the hard aspect of creative environment. It is hoped that the research can launch further debate and prompt practical steps to help research institutes or universities improve their management and increase the research efficiency.

An essential point is that the study is based on the feedback from knowledge creators in a typical knowledge creation organization, which makes the analyses and conclusions more comprehensive and persuasive from both the theoretical and practical points of view. The research not only explores some hidden or tacit problems existing in academic knowledge management and scientific knowledge creation, but also proposes solutions for scientific knowledge creation that were found to be valuable by university management.

This paper aims to demonstrate the existence of a relationship between the knowledge creation process and competitive advantage in the banking system. The framework of knowledge creation processes adopted in this research is the spiral of knowledge proposed by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). The concept of competitive advantage is limited to the measurement of economic value by adopting methods that compare the financial performance of the banks with related markets. The objective of this research is to answer the following research question: Which factors of the spiral of knowledge are relevant for increasing a bank’s economic value?

The sample used for this empirical research is composed of 960 banks operating in 24 countries. The sample was analyzed from 2012 to 2015 and includes 3,840 observations. Regarding the methodology, hypothesis demonstration was carried out using a panel analysis (generalized least squares regression) on a set of variables.

The results show that Nonaka and Takeushi’s spiral of knowledge has a positive influence on value creation in the banking system. However, not all factors of the four modalities of converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and vice versa have a positive influence on the economic value of banks. Therefore, by excluding factors that have a negative influence or are not significant, it is possible to formulate an empirical model that illustrates the relationship between the spiral of knowledge and the economic value of banks.

There is a lack of studies on the knowledge creation process in the banking system because most of the research is geographically limited, and empirical tests are performed on small samples. Second, generally, these studies are limited to the relationship between intellectual capital and bank performance measured by accounting ratios. However, intellectual capital is only one component of the broader concept of knowledge. This research uses a large and geographically diverse sample and studies the relationship between the spiral of knowledge and economic value, which is measured by various financial techniques.

This study aims to understand how a community of practice (CoP) facilitates the knowledge spiral of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in tourist destinations.

This case study focuses on Cantonese opera, a representative example of the ICH of Hong Kong. Narrative inquiry with eight CoP members was used in this study.

The CoP members believed that the city has unique and quality tourism knowledge. They used their professional expertise in the domains of creating, collecting and sharing both explicit and tacit knowledge. With the strategic goal of creating a sustainable competitive advantage, CoP act as a kernel in knowledge creation by converting explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge and vice versa.

This study uses the knowledge spiral model to understand knowledge creation, and it contributes to the sparse literature on knowledge management in the field of tourism, especially the role of CoP. It addressed a gap in the literature pertaining to knowledge creation and ICH.

The evolution of capitalism has gone through four major epochs, from the first tangible exchanges of goods and resources, to the generation of wealth by entrepreneurs held personally accountable for their actions, to cost-cutting measures for increasing efficiencies and maximizing wealth for the few, and finally to a socially irresponsible form. The fourth epoch dispatched the last remaining shards of capitalist responsibility to anyone but investors, as the basis of wealth appropriation shifted to manipulating the speculative future worth of intangible or fictitious capital. This evolution through four epochs has sadly been a process of diminishing value creation (Boje et al., 2017).

We are trapped in an era of socially irresponsible capitalism with little respect for humankind. But, it was not always this way. The earliest references to entrepreneurial behavior emerged in the east during the Han Dynasty and in the west in the eighteenth century. Somewhat like the fourth epoch of the twenty-first century, these global beginnings of early capitalism were also directed by opportunistic desires to pursue wealth generation by taking advantage of people’s needs and wants. Although capitalists have consistently been the prime directors of resources and the distributors of wealth, in the early epochs of capitalism they were different. The early epoch entrepreneurs bore personal risks of business failure, consequences that might impact them for a lifetime.

The antenarrative generative mechanisms, or spirals, help us understand the interconnectivities of “real” and “actual” domains of reality (Bhaskar, 1975; Boje, 2016). Socially irresponsible capitalism is pulling global societies into a downward spiral toward an addiction of speculative destruction and dehumanization, transforming “real” into “actual” realities. We need a force to pull us back up toward a revitalized form of socially responsible capitalism. This force is called the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM), and in the responsible entrepreneurial spirit of earlier epochs, the path to recovery can be accomplished by accountably working with one organization or entity at a time.

This chapter first investigates the historical double-spiral-helix footsteps of socially irresponsible capitalism in the making. Then through a SEAM project example, we discuss how the micro-societal perspective of an organization places it at a deeper level of reality, deeper within the double-spiral-helix meta-reality of macro-societal capitalism. Finally, we demonstrate how the socioeconomic approach can help diagnose the deeper realities with an organization, beyond the evident narratives, to reveal the third spiral of deficiencies. This third spiral disenables the organization’s ability to activate the micro forces of socially responsible capitalism.

This paper explores how great ideas become “great works”. The paper explores the process used by Frederick Taylor to “spread the gospel” of scientific management – one of management's great works. The paper takes this example, dissects it and applies current theory and models to explain how the concept of scientific management was created, refined, disseminated and ultimately used throughout the world in diverse industries and both public and private organizations. Ideas must be created, tested, evaluated, modified, and put back through the process of what Nonaka and Takeuchi call the “spiral of knowledge”. Once an idea becomes great, it needs an evangelist to spread the good word – this person is a knowledge activist. The knowledge activist uses his/her social networks to reach a wide variety of groups. This illustration and explanation demonstrates that both academia and the popular press are essential for great works to happen.

Despite the importance of evidence-based practice, the translation of knowledge into quality healthcare continues to be stymied by an array of micro, meso and macro factors. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a need to consider different – if not unconventional approaches – like the role of positive emotion, and how it might be used to promote and sustain knowledge translation (KT).

By reviewing and coalescing two distinct theories – the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and the organisational knowledge creation theory – this paper presents a case for the role of positive emotion in KT.

Theories pertaining to positive emotion and organisational knowledge creation have much to offer KT in healthcare. Three conceptual “entry points” might be particularly helpful to integrate the two domains – namely, understanding the relationship between knowledge and positive emotions; positive emotions related to Nonaka’s concept of knowledge creation; and the mutual enrichment contained in the parallel “upward spiralling” of both theories.

This is a conceptual paper and as such is limited in its applicability and scope. Future work should empirically explore these conceptual findings, delving into positive emotion and KT.

This is the first paper to bring together two seemingly disparate theories to address an intractable issue – the translation of knowledge into quality healthcare. This represents an important point of departure from current KT discourse, much of which continues to superimpose artefacts like clinical practice guidelines onto complex healthcare context.