Purpose – Ever since Sarasvathy’s (2001) seminal article, scholars have sought to test effectuation’s affect on firm performance. Although recent work has begun the arduous process of testing effectuation’s effect on entrepreneurial performance, there is still much to learn about its impact on firm performance. One such area is the relationship between effectuation and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to first, propose a scale suitable to the explication of the effectuation construct relative to innovation. Second, it proposes a more parsimonious scale for the measurement of innovation. Third, these scales are tested relative to firm performance. Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops and tests a structural model, which investigates aspects of effectuation as mediators between innovation orientation and product/service innovation. This is accomplished using a sample of 169 electronic product manufacturing-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Subjective measures of performance are used as the dependent variable. Findings – The three most widely used measures of innovativeness were found to break cleanly into two sub-constructs, namely innovation orientation and product/service innovation. Effectuation measures included means (who I know), leverage contingencies (experimentation), pre-commitments and affordable loss. Means and leverage contingencies were found to positively mediate innovation orientation and product/service innovation leading to increased firm performance. Affordable loss did not show a mediating role, but had a direct effect on firm performance. Research limitations/implications – This study establishes two distinct sub-constructs of firm-level innovation; namely innovation orientation and product/service innovation. Second, by testing an innovation-centric effectuation model, this research establishes an empirical relationship between effectuation, innovation and firm performance. Practical implications – Practical implications include establishing a relationship between means, leverage contingencies and innovation-performance, indicating that the ways through which small and medium-sized enterprises use their innovation networks may affect innovation outcomes and ultimately firm performance. Originality/value – This research establishes an empirical relationship between effectuation, innovation and firm performance, extending effectuation theory from the entrepreneurship to the innovation literature.

Phrases such as 'knowledge-intensive organizations' (KIOs) and 'knowledgeintensive firms' (KIFs), have recently found common usage, describing the distinct activities and attributes of some organizations. But a review of the literature reveals a lack of consensus among scholars and practitioners on the definition of KIOs. What is also absent from the discussion is an agreement on the factors that differentiate KIOs from non-KIOs, and how those factors affect knowledge management (KM) theory and practice. The objective of this paper is to extend a typology of KIOs as a preliminary step to conducting research on these types of organizations. With the typology of KIOs presented in this paper, we hope to provide a basis of distinguishing these organizations from other organizations, and also to allow one to perform comparative organizational analysis. The typology will also help researchers identify which of the organizations are knowledge-intense, and the nature of their knowledgeintensity, so that they help these organizations in designing appropriate KM tools.

Purpose -This study aims to empirically explore the key elements for classifying and differentiating knowledge-intensive organizations (KIOs) from other traditional organizations.Design/methodology/approach -The study's conceptual framework is based on the prevailing propositions from the literature on KIOs and is explored using a survey of knowledge management (KM) professionals, a purposely selected community of practice (CoP).Findings -The results suggest that organizations can generally be divided into two groups -KIOs and non-KIOs, and there appear to be some clear factors that differentiate KIOs from non-KIOs according to the CoP.Research limitations/implications -This study lays a foundation for the systematic development and evaluation of KIOs and their KM practices. The results from this study can stimulate issue formulation and hypothesis generation for investigation by KM researchers and academics. The study focused on a few types of organizations drawn from the literature which may limit the generalizability of the results. However, restricting the study to the core organizations identified in the literature provided the authors with leverage for an in-depth empirical exploration of these organizations' characteristics.Practical implications -To a KM practitioner this study aids in delineating the different elements to keep in mind when designing or evaluating KM practices in KIOs.Originality/value -This paper is among the early works to empirically explore KIOs. It advances a framework of how to recognize the knowledge-intense factors defining KIOs, thereby providing the required foundation for analyzing KM practices in KIOs. Also by identifying the core dimensions defining knowledge intensity, the study underscores the importance of the relations between workers, the community (organization) of which they are members, and the conceptions the workers have of their activities as presented in the theory of organizations as activity systems. While the importance of knowledge has often been demonstrated within work groups or for particular organizational processes, this study has demonstrated a useful foundation for analyzing an organization as a whole.

This study investigates the contribution of collaborative tagging to the design of user-driven vocabularies in knowledge management systems (KMS). Three metrics, tag growth, tag reuse, and tag discrimination, were used to examine the evolution of the tagging vocabulary of the knowledge management community of interest in CiteULike over a three-year period. Results indicate a steady decrease in the number of unique tags over the four years, suggesting an increasing stability in the community vocabulary over time and the establishment of domain-specific vocabulary. Members reused each others' tags over time and exhibited increasingly collaborative tagging behaviour. Tag discrimination was high, with 4.11 distinct articles per tag. The stable and discriminatory nature of the community's tags suggests that collaborative tagging may serve as a useful resource for vocabulary choice or maintenance by KMS managers.

Objectives - The objective of this project was to gain insight into the extent to which user information seeking behaviours should inform the design and development of digital libraries in an academic setting. Researchers conducted this study at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to explore the information seeking behaviours of business students. Methods - The students participating in the study were enrolled in the School of Business Administration at Dalhousie University. The study was based on qualitative and quantitative data collected through a survey, in-depth semi-structured interviews, an observational study, and document analysis. Qualitative case study data was coded using QSR N6 qualitative data analysis software (. The data was categorized using Atkinson’s Model of Business Information Users’ Expectations and Renda and Straccia‘s personalized collaborative digital library (DL) model. Atkinson’s model defines the expectations of business students in terms of cost, time, effort required, pleasure, and the avoidance of pain. Renda and Straccia’s model of a personalized and collaborative digital library centres around three concepts: actors, objects, and functionality. The survey data was analysed using Zoomerang software . Results - The study results revealed that students tend to select resources based on cost (free or for fee), accessibility, ease of use, speed of delivery (of results), and convenience. The results showed that similar to Atkinson’s findings, business students’ information seeking behaviour is influenced by the concepts of cost-benefit and break-even analyses that underlie business education. Concerning speed of delivery and convenience, the organization of the resources was paramount. Students preferred user-defined resource lists, alert services, and expert-created business resource collections. When asked about the usefulness of potential digital library functionalities, students valued a personalized user interface and communal virtual spaces in order to share information and communicate in real-time with their peers. Conclusion - This study reveals that when digital libraries are developed, user behaviours and needs should be taken into consideration. Results demonstrate that the activity as well as the “user’s orientation and motivation” (here the business student training) can directly influence the design and use of a digital tool. In other words, this study confirms a new typology of a business digital information user, one that requires the building of dedicated accredited library research systems. Providing information and information tools tailored to this specific audience is more likely to increase the appeal and use of an academic business digital library.