Inter-firm collaboration among knowledge-intensive firms is increasing as a result of accelerating competition, falling regulatory barriers and rising customer expectations. Resource dependency theory is used to position knowledge as the key resource for the knowledge-based enterprise and to examine the suitability of alliances as a mode of knowledge acquisition and exchange, contrasted particularly with merger and acquisition. The alliance and knowledge literatures are reviewed, and particular attention is paid to the critical alliance formation stage. This stage is reviewed against a research model that posits firm performance in knowledge creation arises from a number of factors, including the motivation for an alliance, partner firm characteristics (the ability to develop and sustain valuable resources; absorptive capacity; combinative capability; experience with alliances; and appropriate design for knowledge exchange), the development of operating structures and norms, and the choice of alliance structure. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Contemporary organisations struggle to develop effective responses to the complex challenge of deploying sophisticated information technology systems in an era characterised increasingly by customer demands for privacy. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework of Company Information Privacy Orientation that attempts to reconcile the differences between the organisation's information management objectives and its ethical and legal obligations to address customers' privacy. Control theory and justice theory are utilised to build an organisation‐level framework that is composed of a firm's ethical obligation to its customers, its customer information management strategy and its assessment of the risks to its business created by legal demands to provide customer information privacy. The four different types of company privacy orientation profiles that emerge from this conceptual framework are then discussed, along with implications for future research.

Potentially valuable directions for new research into the management of knowledge-based enterprises are identified in this paper. This was done by reviewing relevant literature to develop research questions, using a model of knowledge-based capabilities to focus the review. The model highlights six knowledge capabilities: acquisition, creation, capture, storage, diffusion and transfer. A knowledge-based enterprise would have to engage in (if not excel at) these activities simply to manage its key resource ± knowledge. Forty-two research questions were proposed based on the review. The focus of the research questions varies widely, representing potential opportunities for researchers from many different areas to further our understanding of managing knowledge-based enterprises.

Information privacy is an important information management issue that is increasingly challenging managers and policy makers. While many studies have investigated information privacy as an individual, sectoral, or national level phenomenon, there is a gap in our understanding of organizational approaches to developing and implementing policies and programs to manage customer information privacy. Information systems research lacks theory to explain firm level information privacy behaviors. This article argues for an expanded repertoire of theories to be applied to investigating information privacy, especially the role that the pursuit of competitive necessity versus competitive advantage plays in explaining organizational level behavior. The authors outline how the Institutional Approach (IA) and the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm offer compelling theoretical explanations for firms' behaviors and should be applied to privacy research within the information systems area.

A panel at ICIS 2004 in Washington, D.C. explored many of the information privacy issues facing management in a post 9/11 environment. The panel was composed of privacy scholars, regulators, and practitioners. The panelists examined privacy disasters as a way of exposing these management challenges, discussed government and self-regulatory approaches to information privacy, and raised opportunities for research. This paper extends and deepens the examination begun at the panel and the discussion of issues raised by the audience during the question and answer session. In addition, a list of research questions is offered. The panelists provided key privacy information sources. A privacy bibliography is included.