The Knowledge Dimension: An Alternative Approach to Innovation Management

Innovation is mandatory for organisations to survive in the high technology atmosphere of the 21st century. Most organisations are looking for ways to improve their ability to create ideas and to develop the best environment for idea creation. Organisations are turning to the practice of knowledge management for sharing experiences and expertise, integrating knowledge and generating new knowledge. What organisations need is a better understanding of how knowledge management is related to the innovation process and how it can be used to help foster innovation within organisations. This paper will examine the relationship between knowledge management and innovation to create a working model that will assist organisations in building innovative qualities and knowledge management practices into their business processes. This paper suggests that innovation management theorists have been late to embrace the theoretical progress of the knowledge management field. In the first part, the developments of the knowledge management discourse are discussed. In the second part, a discussion of innovation management, the core themes of the debate and dominant assumptions is presented. In the third part, criticisms are addressed to the innovation approaches based on the insights gained by the wider debate on knowledge in organisations. Finally, the paper concludes by underlying the theoretical and applied possibilities that insights from knowledge management could offer for innovation studies.