Distributed knowledge management based on product state models - the case of decision support in health care administration

Knowledge management has inspired a shift from a transaction to a distributed knowledge management (DKM) perspective on interorganizational information processing. The DKM concept structures the knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge exploitation in organizations according to a product state model (PSM) required for management of technological diversity. Each player in the network acquires specific knowledge from other players for decision support. This article shows the relevance of the DKM model in a case study of a distributed decision support system (DDSS) in heath care administration in the US.