Research and technology organizations : how do they manage their knowledge?

Abstract

This paper analyses the knowledge management practices of Spanish Technology Institutes (TIs). TIs are non-profit organisations that perform Research and Development (R&D) activities aimed at improving competitiveness by encouraging firms' technological and innovative capabilities. To achieve these objectives, TIs use the explicit and tacit knowledge embedded in their human resources, the technical possibilities of their technological and physical infrastructure, their relationship networks, and their ability to manage this combined intellectual capital. In other words they are required to exploit their intellectual capital as an essential part of their activities. Key to this is implementation of a system to collect, aggregate, manage, disseminate and analyse the information that constitutes its intellectual capital. This paper aims to describe how effectively TIs manage their knowledge, the processes involved and the factors that motivate their efforts.