Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy

It is now widely recognized that the effective management of knowledge assets is a key requirement for securing competitive advantage in the emerging information economy. Yet the physical and institutional differences between tangible assets and knowledge assets remain poorly understood. In the case of knowledge, the ownership and control of assets are becoming ever more separate, a phenomenon that is actually exacerbated by the phenomenon of learning. If we are to meet the challenges of the information economy, then we need a new approach to property rights based on a deeper theoretical understanding of knowledge assets. Max Boisot writes clearly and in accessible language providing some of the key building blocks which are needed for a theory of knowledge assets. He develops a powerful conceptual framework, the Information-Space or I-Space, for exploring the way knowledge flows within and between organizations. This framework will enable managers and students to explore and understand how knowledge and information assets differ from physical assets, and how to deal with them at a strategic level within their organizations.

Table of Contents:
1: Introduction 2: The Information Perspective 3: I-Space: The Information Space 4: The Paradox of Value 5: Neoclassical versus Schumpeterian Orientation to Learning 6: Culture as a Knowledge Asset 7: Products, Technologies, and Organizations in the Social Learning Cycle 8: Competence and Intent 9: IT and its Impact 10: Applying the I-Space 11: Recapitulation and Conclusion

About the Author :
Max Boisot is Professor of Strategic Management at ESADE in Barcelona. He is also Poh Seng Yeoh Research Fellow at the Sol Snider Entrepreneurial Center, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Senior Associate at the Judge Institute of Management Studies; and Visiting Fellow at the Management School, Imperial College in London. From 1984 to 1989 he was the first dean and director of the China-EC Management Programme in Beijing, which has now become the China-Europe International Business School (CEIBS).

Review :
`this is a most original and thought-provoking analysis of the factors which create value and promote organisational viability in the knowledge economy. I recommend it heartily.' Blaise Cronin, Journal of Documentation, Vol. 57, No. 2 Don't judge this book by its phosphorescent cover or cookie-cutter title. What may seem like yet another voguish volume dealing with knowledge management is, in fact, a fiercely intelligent treatise which seeks to lay out the foundations for a political economy of information. Max Boisot is a gifted scholar, ... extremely widely read, well-informed and blessed with an unusual ability to theorise intelligibly for a wide audience. ... He doesn't just make arguments; he crafts them with the sensitivity of a true artisan, layering and linking a latticework of ideas. Knowledge assets is a serious book which warrants close reading because of the tightly coiled thesis. It is neither pretentious nor condescending. Boisot, an economist, writes with lucidity and not without humour.