Purpose – The objectives of this study are two-fold. The first is to examine the peculiarities of KM processes that are unique in SMEs from three perspectives, namely knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse. Secondly, to identify enablers and impediments of these KM processes that influence the competitiveness of SMEs. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a case study approach involving 21 participants comprising management staff and front-line employees from four Singaporean SMEs. Findings – The SME owner, rather than the employees, was found to be the key source and creator of knowledge and the sole driver of the KM processes. In SMEs, knowledge creation takes the form of innovative customized solutions to meet customers' needs; knowledge sharing occurs through cross functionality, overlapping roles, and facilitated by close physical proximity in open workspaces; and knowledge reuse is often made tacitly, where common knowledge is prevalently embedded within the KM processes of SMEs. The enablers of knowledge creation process rested largely on the owner's innovativeness, creativity and ability to acquire knowledge of the industry. Knowledge sharing processes are enabled by the awareness of roles, mutual respect and the level of trust among employees within the SME while knowledge reuse is fostered by close proximity of employees and the willingness and openness of the owner to impart his knowledge. The lack of the above enablement factors mentioned will hinder these KM processes. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited by the fact that data was collected from four SMEs in Singapore. Furthermore, only a small sample of staff from these SMEs was interviewed. Hence the findings need to be interpreted in light of such a scope. Practical implications – For SMEs, this research provides perspectives on the factors influencing KM processes, in particular, the importance of the owners' knowledge and leadership, the flexibility and adaptability of the organization, and open culture to enable the capitalization of its knowledge assets to survive and stay competitive. For practitioners, this paper reinforces the importance of the management owners' innovativeness, initiatives and support, and the level of social interaction and high level of trusts among employees in the SMEs to as enablers to effective KM processes in SMEs. Originality/value – To deepen on-going knowledge management research on SMEs, this paper provides insights and rich context to the distinctness of KM processes in SMEs.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify motivations that drive communication of IC (CIC); and second, to investigate content and format used in CIC from three perspectives, namely, human capital information, relational capital information and structural capital information. Design/methodology/approach – A global survey was conducted with 200 banks’ senior executives responsible for annual report (AR), followed by content analysis of each bank’s AR. Findings – The study found four motivations of CIC, namely, management responsibility to stakeholders, collective behavior, corporate responsibility and compliance. Content analysis of banks’ AR found structural capital information most prevalent, followed by human capital and relational capital. Five types of formats were analyzed to show the different presentation used in the CIC. Research limitations/implications – Current data source was limited to banking and focussed on English language publications. Practical implications – The study provides regulators insights to forces that either compel or hinder CIC, and updates literature on management’s thinking and priorities in CIC. Originality/value – This study is possibly the first paper that investigates the motivation of CIC for reporting, where IC is an important asset to organizations. The findings on the content and format used in CIC extend existing studies to a wider, global scale.

The study examines the communication of intellectual capital (CIC), defined as information disclosure of an organization's intangible assets through annual report and supplementary corporate disclosure (ARS). Three research gaps were identified: (1)There is insufficient understanding of the drivers behind corporate disclosure of IC in the ARS; (2) How IC is communicated for corporate reporting, particularly content and formats used; and (3) The relationship between CIC and organizational performance (OP) has not been established.The study of CIC draws from three theoretical perspectives. Stakeholder Theory ascribes management responsibility to report to multiple stakeholders and interests.Thus the need to explore factors underlying CIC (RO1). Legitimacy Theory highlights management's discretion in reporting based on perceived importance to stakeholders, which questions what and how CIC is reported (RO2A). Finally, Impression Management Theory suggests possible influence of CIC in enhancing perception of respectability and importance, thus the examination of the relationship between CIC and OP (RO2B).To gather empirical evidence, data was collected from surveys, 1-to-1 interviews and ARS. Two global surveys were conducted with 200 senior executives of banks responsible for ARS, supplemented with 1-to-1 interviews from a smaller subset of executives. To address RO1, factor analysis was applied on the survey results, supplemented with 1-to-1 interviews. For RO2A, ANOVA analysis and content analysis was undertaken on ARS, supplemented with 1-to-1 interviews. For RO2B, Negative Binomial Regression was used to investigate the relationship between CIC and OP.In RO1, four factors were found to drive organizations in CIC, namely compliance, management responsibility to stakeholders, corporate leadership and collective behavior. Stakeholder Theory applied in the context of CIC uncovered four main groups of stakeholders to focus -regulators, community-at-large, investors, stockbrokers and analysts, and peers. In RO2A, structural capital information (SCI) guidance and good advice. I am eternally grateful to him, as he has opened up a whole new world of academic research and publishing, building on my passion for research. I have made the right choice in choosing Wee Kim Wee School of Communications & Information (WKWSCI) at Nanyang Technological University for my Masters and Doctorate pursuits, as the school has built an amazing team of professors to learn from.