Knowledge Management. An Overview

Globalization and fast technological innovations are changing the world markets and competition at enormous speed. The current years have shown that both production as well as employment are no longer limited to a specific geographic location. A more global workforce occurred partly caused by the desire of multinational companies to also benefit from professionals and engineers outside the domestic markets. Competition increased, supported by deregulation processes which decreased the domestic protection for many companies. With the fall of the former Soviet Union new political systems emerged. Almost all former communist states changed to capitalism opening new markets with millions of possible customers. All together, this new environment has lead to a higher degree of competition, consumer choices, complexity and uncertainty combined with many business failures and shorter product life cycles (Dessler 2002; Yaw, De brah & Smith 2000).