Resources - Knowledge goes on the move. David Tebbutt tackles a theoretical book that relates its findings to the bigger picture of knowledge usage in organisations and its impact on business and academia.(Book Review)

If you are interested in the theories of how knowledge spreads among regional as well as international communities, then Knowledge Spillovers and Knowledge Management is for you.

The editors have brought together a collection of papers that look at how commercial and social benefits can be spread with knowledge. In the knowledge management section towards the end of the book, it considers the relative downsides of pooling knowledge, and suggests how you might exercise control over what your organisation chooses to share.

The spillovers in the title refer to the knowledge which is shared, by accident or design, beyond its original source. Competitive organisations may see this as a threat, while more collaborative organisations might view it as a positive opportunity.

Certain cultures are more disposed to a co-operative approach while others are not. As a sweeping generalisation, you might conclude from the book that, in these terms, Nordic countries are culturally quite different to the UK and the US. The issues this raises are clearly quite profound for an ever-widening European Union, ...