Knowledge cities: the answer to the needs of knowledge‐based development
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720610667381 |
| Published date | 01 January 2006 |
| Pages | 67-84 |
| Author | Kostas Ergazakis,Kostas Metaxiotis,John Psarras |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Knowledge cities: the answer to
the needs of knowledge-based
development
Kostas Ergazakis, Kostas Metaxiotis and John Psarras
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Abstract
Purpose – In the new era of knowledge economy, knowledge and the processes to generate it and
manage it are considered to be the most valuable assets of an organisation in the competitive business
environment. Over the last years, intensive discussions have taken place about the importance of
knowledge management for the whole of society, except for the business world. Today, there is a
consensus among researcher and practitioner communities that the challenges facing modern societies
call for development strategies that are knowledge-based. Such strategies could enable humankind to
pursue the vision of a global society in which all the basic human needs can be satisfied, while
maintaining a healthy and physically attractive environment. However, general agreement has not yet
been reached on which type of knowledge-based development (KBD) strategy is the most
advantageous and should be followed. This paper attempts, on the one side, through the study of
current literature, to demonstrate the needs that should be fulfilled by KBD strategies and, on the other
side, to justify why the relatively new concept of knowledge cities is the one that fully corresponds to
these needs.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors attempt to review and analyse in a coherent way
the current trends regarding KBD policies as well as to examine the needs to be addressed by
successful KBD strategies, based on a wide range of published works, including papers, books, reports
and web sites.
Findings – The main finding is that there are many issues that contemporary KBD policies should
address and that the new concept of knowledge cities fully corresponds to these needs.
Research limitations/implications – Recommended directions for further action research are
presented.
Originality/value – The distinguishing feature of this study is that it shows that the concept of a
knowledge city is the most appropriate and advantageous model for a KBD strategy, fully complying
with and satisfying their needs.
Keywords Knowledge management, Cities
Paper type General review
1. Introduction
In the business world, knowledge management (KM) is considered as the process of
creating value from the intangible assets of an organisation. Knowledge is considered
as one of the most valuable assets of an enterprise that has to be managed efficiently
and effectively in order to gain a competitive advantage in the knowledge economy era
(Nonaka, 1991; Wiig, 1993; Wiig, 1997; Wilkins et al., 1997; Milton et al., 1999;
Ergazakis et al., 2005a, b).
The need for inventing and implementing efficient and effective approaches so as to
manage knowledge became apparent primarily in the world of enterprises and
business in general. However, over the last years, KM has been evolved into a strategic
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Knowledge cities
67
VINE: The journal of information and
knowledge management systems
Vol. 36 No. 1, 2006
pp. 67-84
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720610667381
management approach finding application not only in business but also in other
human organisations. Intensive discussions have taken place about the import ance of
KM for the whole society, except from the business world. In this way, KM processes
and methods are today considered generic and applicable to all kinds of organisations,
and finally to the society as whole.
There is a consensus among researcher’s and practitioner’s communities that the
challenges facing m odern societies, cal l for development stra tegies that are
knowledge-based. Many researchers and practitioners are emphasising in the
literature the imperative need for the adoption of such development strategies (Carrillo,
2002, 2004; Malone and Yohe, 2002; Laszlo and Laszlo, 2002; Mansell, 2002a; Gonza
´lez
Ovalle et al., 2004; Chatzkel, 2004; Garcia, 2004). It is true that all major international
development agencies and nations with the highest levels of overall development have
adopted knowledge-based development (KBD) policies. However, there are still a lot of
issues to be addressed. If we want to speak about successful KBD policies, one major
challenge is to democratise the processes through which knowledge is created, store d,
shared and used in order to ensure the broad participation of the global population in
these KM processes. One other challenge is to take into account the fact that for
contemporary companies to survive in the context of the knowledge-based economy
there is need to operate in an environment that fosters innovation and favours the
acquisition and dissemination of knowledge as well as learning. Moreover, in the
context of a contemporary KBD approach, the “digital divide” should be replaced with
“digital inclusion” and the benefits of technology should flow to all members of the
community. Finally, another critical need that new KBD approaches should addre ss is
that the present industrial capitalist model of development of urban regions is not
sustainable.
In this direction, the authors introduce the relatively new concept of a “knowledge
city”. After a short reference to basic definitions and to the pattern of recurrence of
significant features of knowledge cities, the authors justify why they consider that this
concept is the most appropriate and advantageous model for a KBD strategy, fully
complying and satisfying the above mentioned needs.
The remaining part of this paper is structured as follows: section 2 of this paper is
devoted to present the link between KM and KBD, in the context of the knowledge
economy era, as well as the advantages of KBD approaches. In section 3, curren t KBD
strategies as well as the research agenda related to them, is presented. Finally, section
4, is referring to the concept of knowledge cities and it is justified why the authors
consider that this concept fully corresponds to the needs of new KBD policies and
models and in section 5 we present some basic conclusions and future research trends.
2. The knowledge economy era and the link between KM and KBD
2.1 Knowledge economy era
The knowledge economy is an emergent reality for many organisations and countries.
According to OECD (Smith, 2000) a knowledge economy is “an economy which is
directly based on the production, distribution and use of knowledge and inform ation”.
The role of knowledge (as compared with natural resources, physical capital and
low-skill labour) has taken on greater importance. Although the pace may differ, all
OECD economies are moving towards a knowledge-based economy (Smith, 2000).
Moreover, Drucker (1998) suggests that “knowledge is now becoming the one factor of
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