Deploying knowledge management in R&D workspaces

The active and effective management of valuable knowledge is widely believed to be a core competency for solidifying the competitive advantage of an organization. Whether knowledge management (KM) is a new idea or just a recycled concept per se both managerial and academic campuses have sought a vast array of KM strategies, solutions, frameworks, processes, barriers and enablers, IT tools and measurements over the past decade. Although there are many KM studies for both public and private sectors, most of them focus on the practice of international companies and western experiences, relatively few cases are reported on KM deployment and implementation in the Chinese community, especially for knowledge intensive research and development (R&D) institutes whose missions are to serve traditional industries. To reveal some of the accomplishments gained in the Asia-Pacific region, this chapter presents and discusses the lessons learned from a particular case study in fostering the KM initiative and system in a research-oriented institute serving the metal industry.