Human development and knowledge management: A fresh look

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a new approach to knowledge management and shows a relationship between human development and knowledge management in different countries. This study demonstrates the idea that the growth of countries depends on how each one manages their knowledge; investing in research and development, improving their production function and obtaining a welfare state which allows people to develop better their human capabilities. Our study includes an analysis of different organizations of countries: European Union, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), G-20, Cairns, Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Mercosur, BRIC and Next-11 (N-11). We identified five factors in the study using a rotated component matrix, which explained more than the 69.85% of the data: (1) knowledge creation potential; (2) ICT productivity; (3) knowledge internationalization; (4) research results and (5) education motorway. This paper provides an interesting focus on knowledge management and human development and our results show important links between countries which manage their knowledge correctly and efficiently and their level of human development. In consequence, countries that correctly manage their knowledge present a high human development level

Critical factors in knowledge management in countries: A global analysis about the process

RESUMEN: En la sociedad actual, el conocimiento se ha convertido en un activo muy valioso fuente de ventajas competitivas. Sin embargo aunque en el caso de las empresas esta importancia ha sido muy analizada en las últimas décadas, no se han realizado hasta el momento grandes esfuerzos en el análisis de la gestión del conocimiento en países, lo que ha motivado el presente estudio donde identificamos los factores críticos de este proceso en países a partir de un análisis factorial exploratorio: (1) Potencial de creación de conocimiento, (2) Productividad TIC, (3) Internacionalización del conocimiento, (4) Resultados de investigación y (5) Autopista de la educación. Posteriormente se propone un análisis comparativo de las principales variables relacionadas con la inversión y el resultado de conocimiento que permite conocer cómo los principales grupos de países del mundo (G-20, Unión Europea y APEC, entre otros) gestionan este activo.ABSTRACT: At present society, knowledge is a fundamental asset in order to obtain competitive advantages. However, although this asset is considered as essential in enterprises, there are not some studies about knowledge management in countries. In this scenario, we propose an interesting analysis about how countries manage their knowledge identifying five critical factors in this process: (1) Knowledge creation potential, (2) ICT Productivity, (3) Knowledge internationalization, (4) Research results and (5) Education motorway. After we propose a comparative analysis between countries using variables linked to knowledge investment and result, with the aim of know how the principal groups of countries (G-20, European Union and APEC, between others) manage their assets