Knowledge is a broad and abstract notion that has defined epistemological debate in western philosophy since the classical Greek era. In the past few years, however, there has been a growing interest in treating knowledge as a significant organizational resource. Consistent with the interest in organizational knowledge and knowledge management (KM), IS researchers have begun promoting a class of information systems, referred to as knowledge management systems (KMS). The objective of KMS is to support creation, transfer, and application of knowledge in organizations. Knowledge and knowledge management are complex and multi-faceted concepts. Thus, effective development and implementation of KMS requires a foundation in several rich literatures.

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Review: Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: conceptual foundations and research issues

This paper draws on the social and behavioral sciences in an endeavor to specify the nature and microfoundations of the capabilities necessary to sustain superior enterprise performance in an open economy with rapid innovation and globally dispersed sources of invention, innovation, and manufacturing capability. Dynamic capabilities enable business enterprises to create, deploy, and protect the intangible assets that support superior long- run business performance. The microfoundations of dynamic capabilities—the distinct skills, processes, procedures, organizational structures, decision rules, and disciplines—which undergird enterprise-level sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capacities are difficult to develop and deploy. Enterprises with strong dynamic capabilities are intensely entrepreneurial. They not only adapt to business ecosystems, but also shape them through innovation and through collaboration with other enterprises, entities, and institutions. The framework advanced can help scholars understand the foundations of long-run enterprise success while helping managers delineate relevant strategic considerations and the priorities they must adopt to enhance enterprise performance and escape the zero profit tendency associated with operating in markets open to global competition. Copyright  2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance

The primary purpose of this article is to clarify the nature of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) construct and to propose a contingency framework for investigating the relationship between EO and firm performance. We first explore and refine the dimensions of EO and discuss the usefulness of viewing a firm's EO as a multidimensional construct. Then, drawing on examples from the EO-related contingencies literature, we suggest alternative models (moderating effects, mediating effects, independent effects, interaction effects) for testing the EO-performance relationship.

Clarifying the Entrepreneurial Orientation Construct and Linking It To Performance

This article applies the convergent insights of institutional and resource dependence perspectives to the prediction of strategic responses to institutional processes. The article offers a typology of strategic responses that vary in active organizational resistance from passive conformity to proactive manipulation. Ten institutional factors are hypothesized to predict the occurrence of the alternative proposed strategies and the degree of organizational conformity or resistance to institutional pressures.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/258610.pdf

Strategic responses to institutional processes

This paper reports the results of a study designed to investigate the effective strategic responses to environmental hostility among small manufacturing firms. Data on environmental hostility, organization structure, strategic posture, competitive tactics, and financial performance were collected from 161 small manufacturers. Findings indicate that performance among small firms in hostile environments was positively related to an organic structure, an entrepreneurial strategic posture, and a competitive profile characterized by a long-term orientation, high product prices, and a concern for predicting industry trends. In benign environments, on the other hand, performance was positively related to a mechanistic structure, a conservative strategic posture, and a competitive profile characterized by conservative financial management and a short-term financial orientation, an emphasis on product refinement, and a willingness to rely heavily on single customers.

Strategic management of small firms in hostile and benign environments

This paper presents a case study of the Honey Bee Network’s decentralized model for collecting, verifying and disseminating grassroots innovations and provides a road map for its replication in Africa. The Honey Bee Network brings together governmental and non‐governmental institutions, members of academia, scholars and a large number of volunteers. Through the Network’s activities, locally designed solutions and traditional knowledge with the potential to be refined and scaled up are scouted and members of the Network work with the innovators to help their ideas reach their commercial or non‐commercial potential. The Network has been involved in the sharing of grassroots technology developed in India with Kenya, notably a food processing machine, seed sowing device, and a small tractor. Through these pilot programs, actors at the grassroots had a chance to collaborate and co‐design solutions adapted to the Kenyan context. This experience revealed a willingness in Kenya to further invest in grassroots innovation initiatives, and Network members identified many conditions that would make Kenya the right choice for an African network hub, such as a rich traditional knowledge system and institutional willingness and recognition of the dynamism of the informal sector. Lessons from the Network’s experience in Kenya and its technology transfer program are collected and turned into recommendations for the development of a sister Network in Africa.

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/206968/1/1049302001.pdf

Honey bee network in Africa co-creating a grassroots innovation ecosystem in Africa

The subject of this case study is the role of intellectual property rights in the benefit-sharing arrangements concerning the "Jeevani" drug, which was developed by scientists at the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), based on the tribal medicinal knowledge of the Kani tribe in Kerala, South India. "Jeevani" is a restorative, immuno-enhancing, anti-stress and anti-fatigue agent, based on the herbal medicinal plant arogyapaacha, used by the Kani tribals in their traditional medicine. Within the Kani tribe the customary rights to transfer and practice certain traditional medicinal knowledge are held by tribal healers, known as Plathis. The knowledge was divulged by three Kani tribal members to the Indian scientists who isolated 12 active compounds from arogyapaacha, developed the drug "Jevaani", and filed two patent applications on the drug (and another patent based on the same plant but for different use). The technology was then licensed to the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, Ltd., an Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer pursuing the commercialization of Ayurvedic herbal formulations. A Trust Fund was established to share the benefits arising from the commercialization of the TK-based drug "Jevaani". The operations of the Fund with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, as well as the sustainable harvesting of the arogyapaacha plant, have posed certain problems which offer lessons on the role of intellectual property rights in benefit-sharing over medicinal plant genetic resources and traditional medicinal knowledge. This is a part of WIPO sponsored study on the role of intellectual property rights in the sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge.

Value Addition to Local Kani Tribal Knowledge: Patenting, Licensing and Benefit-Sharing

Grassroots innovations for survival

Professor Anil K Gupta championed the cause of promoting indigenous knowledge and practices in agricultural development and advancement in society. Very few like him have succeeded in promoting these practices as well as recognizing and rewarding the rural inventors. It is in the realm of anybody’s imagination the difficulties he experienced during his journey of enabling the remote rural innovators to show case their sustainable innovations in Rashtrapati Bhavan and some of them had even the rare privilege of staying in the Presidents’ palace.

Grassroots Innovation: Minds On The Margin Are Not Marginal Minds

Several motivations may guide quest of a creative person for solving real life problems either faced by oneself or by others. Honey Bee Network has been documenting and valorizing grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge practices for over two decades. In this paper, the author review some of the lessons emerging from the innovations triggered by a feeling of internalization of somebody elseâ€™s pain [samvedana] exactly as oneâ€™s own. The concept of empathetic innovations resonates with the Gandhian philosophy in a very intimate sense. Way back in 1924, Gandhiji had announced a prize of Rs. one lakh to improve the design of charkha (spinning wheel). When burden becomes responsibility and when concern triggers creativity, we encounter Gandhian spirit in action. He was a great action researcher. [W.P. No. 2010-09-02]

http://www.esocialsciences.org/Download/repecDownload.aspx?fname=Document123112010240.3332331.pdf&fcategory=Articles&AId=3207&fref=repec

Anil K. Gupta

Papers

Honey bee network in Africa co-creating a grassroots innovation ecosystem in Africa

Value Addition to Local Kani Tribal Knowledge: Patenting, Licensing and Benefit-Sharing

Grassroots innovations for survival

Grassroots Innovation: Minds On The Margin Are Not Marginal Minds

Empathetic Innovations: Connections Across Boundaries