A Brief History of Knowledge Management

1 Bob Zmud was the accepting Senior Editor for this article. 2 Much research has been done on organizational forms, particularly hierarchies, communities, and markets. A classic article that describes how firms can be organized is Ouchi, W. G., “Markets, Bureaucracies, and Clans,” Administrative Science Quarterly (25), 1980, pp. 129-141. Three more recent articles that examine the use of markets, hierarchies, and communities that are internal to the firm are Adler, P. S., “Market, Hierarchy, and Trust: The Knowledge Economy and the Future of Capitalism,” Organization Science (12:2), 2001, pp. 214-234; Barney, J. B., “Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage,” Journal of Management (17), 1991, pp. 99-120; and Conner, K. R. and Prahalad, C. K., “A Resource-based Theory of the Firm: Knowledge Versus Opportunism,” Organization Science (7:5), 1996, pp. 477-501. 3 Note that we use the term “reuse” because our focus is the knowledge management strategy rather than the user per se. 4 Alavi, M. and Leidner, D. E., “Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues,” MIS Quarterly (25:1), 2001, pp. 107-136; Conner and Prahalad, op. cit.; Grant, R. M., “Prospering in Dynamically Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration,” THREE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: KNOWLEDGE HIERARCHIES, KNOWLEDGE MARKETS, AND KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITIES