Knowledge Management in Support of Collaborative Innovation Community Capacity Building

Collaborative innovation is a trans-disciplinary approach for developing the wholeness synergy through holistic, competitive and complementary interactions between and among innovation participants in a specific environment. It is a formal process of collaborative innovation community capacity building (CICCB). Much research has been done on how to make collaborative innovation work effectively, efficiently and economically. While collaborative innovation is increasingly gaining attention in both theory and practice, it is still under-explored from a trans-disciplinary perspective of knowledge management (KM) and community capacity building. This paper aims to fill in this gap by addressing the following two questions: (a) what are the roles of KM in collaborative innovation, and (b) what are the KM approaches for supporting CICCB? To effectively answer these two questions, this paper presents a comprehensive review of the related literature that identifies three demands for CICCB including (a) trust building for enhancing the effectiveness; (b) sustainability building for improving the efficiency, and (c) extensibility building for developing better economy. It identifies three roles of KM in support of CICCB including (a) reformation of KM for convergence in collaboration; (b) remediation of knowledge activities for synergy in communication; (c) reconfiguration of knowledge artifacts for integration in connectivity. To adequately meet the three demands, this paper suggests a holistic approach for effective CICCB including (a) multi-dimensional convergence and trust building in collaboration; (b) multi-directional synergy and sustainability building in communication; and (c) multi-layer integration and extensibility building in connectivity. The contribution of this paper is mainly reflected in three ways. Firstly, it provides insights into the way in which the collaborative innovation literature currently lacks attention but crucial for its success. Secondly, the paper identifies the demand for CICCB and the roles of KM in support of collaborative innovation. Thirdly, this paper proposes a holistic approach for effective CICCB. This paper is the first step of a comprehensive study on the role of KM in support of CICCB. It is therefore conceptual on the definition of the basic concept and the identification of the KM approaches in support of CICCB.