Innovative Organizational Forms that Add Value to Both Organizations and Community: The Case of Knowledge Management

The foundation of new economies has shifted from natural resources to intellectual assets and top managers have been forced to focus on Knowledge Management that has been acknowledged as the most important resource and capability of modern firms’ advancement. Knowledge-creating companies may establish a sustainable competitive advantage in the turbulent business environment where markets shift, competitors multiply and products may be outdated almost overnight. Additionally, knowledge can help companies to enjoy improved levels of business competitiveness due to their ability to respond to their customers’ needs, create new markets, develop innovative products and finally dominate ambitious technologies. Through knowledge, conventional firms and organizations may break up their limitations, improve their national and local economic and social development and also create healthier employment chances. In this context, knowledge society can also be viewed as the society that is basically attached to knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and knowledge application in order to improve prosperity and well being of people. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ways knowledge management may increase the performance of modern firms and organizations, support the creation of more and better jobs and promote equal opportunities and gender equality in a more integrative society. Data from actual cases have been employed in order to provide an empirical support to the theoretical development of a conceptual model.