Extending the “knowledge advantage”: creating learning chains

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to develop a synergy between the approaches of knowledge management in a learning organisation and supply chain management so that learning chains can be created in order to unleash innovation and creativity by managing knowledge in supply chains. Design/methodology/approach -Through extensive literature review, commonalities between knowledge management and supply chain management were elicited. Knowledge Advantage framework, which was developed as a part of CRC for Construction Innovation Australia, research project "Delivering improved knowledge management and ICT diffusion in Australian construction industry", has been proposed to extend across the supply chain in order to develop learning chains. Findings -The paper provides a conceptual grounding for future research in the area of knowledge management and supply chain management and suggests that, as unit of competition changes from organisation vs organisation to chain vs chain under supply chain management, learning organisation itself will not be an answer to the complex and dynamic business environment. The learning chains are to be created instead, through managing knowledge in supply chains that will facilitate innovation and creativity essentially required to thrive in the unpredictable business environment of today. Originality/value -The paper explores the role of knowledge management to serve as such a vehicle in the emerging paradigm of supply chain management through which innovation and creativity can be unleashed by a collaborative effort of all the members of the supply chain. This paper explains how the benefit derived from a KM initiative termed as "knowledge advantage framework (K-adv)", originally developed for a certain single organisation, can be extended across the supply chain partners, which helps creating a culture of knowledge sharing through which a knowledge advantage for the whole supply chain can be developed. It can then be used to unleash creativity and innovation in the construction projects.

Pursuing “relational integration” and “overall value” through “RIVANS”

“…Similarly, the 'network learning' group deliberations at the 2 nd Workshop benefited form Prof. Derek Walker's key-note presentation on 'Developing human capital value from relational procurement strategies -projects as learning organisations', which in turn drew upon previous findings (Maqsood et al, 2007). Specific outputs on 'network learning' included 'knowledge sharing' and 'network evaluation' covering hard and soft indicators expanded upon in CICID (2008).…”

Theory to practice: A typology of supply chain management in construction

“…Notwithstanding the growing popularity of supply chain management ), a universal definition remains elusive (Tan, 2001, Maqsood et al, 2007. It is frequently easier to gain agreement about what supply chain management is not than lament about what supply chain management is (Stock andBoyer, 2009, Skitmore andSmyth, 2009).…”

“…The functional school of supply chain management, with its origins in manufacturing, places considerable emphasize on logistics, purchasing and operations (Saad et al, 2002, Maqsood et al, 2007, Croom et al, 2000. According to Spekman et al (1998) and Cox et al (2006) the 'function' of supply chain management is to purchase and distribute goods and services at the lowest transactional cost whilst simultaneously securing supply.…”

“…The second classification context draws on distinct project features that arguably differentiate construction activity from industry practices adopted elsewhere, most notably the automotive sector, retail sector and aerospace sector. Key characteristics include (5) project timescales (Briscoe and Dainty, 2005), (6) work stream (Morledge et al, 2009), (7) technology and (8) supply chain learning (Green et al, 2005, Maqsood et al, 2007.…”

An Exploratory Study on Knowledge Management Process Barriers in the Oil Industry

“…In the literature, other cultural barriers include lack of willingness and sharing spirit [94,96,99], lack of trust and commitment [60,96,[100][101][102] or insufficient empowerment [101], lack of motivation and reward [99] or different values, cultural and linguistic environment [39,94,103].…”