Photocatalytic activity of nitrogen-doped TiO2-based nanowires: a photo-assisted Kelvin probe force microscopy study

The emerging industrial business partnerships, which feature cross-functional and cross-company development efforts, raise the barrier for the establishment of effective knowledge sharing practices in the larger organization. This chapter aims to highlight the role of knowledge as a key enabler for effective engineering activities in the light of such emerging enterprise collaboration models. Knowledge Enabled Engineering (KEE) is presented as an approach to enhance the extended organization’s capability to establish effective collaboration among its parts, in spite of different organizational structures, technologies or processes. KEE is analysed in its constituent parts, highlighting areas, methods and tools that are particularly interesting for leveraging companies’ knowledge sharing capabilities

The role of ICT-based information systems in knowledge transfer within multinational companies

This paper focuses on the internal network of multinational companies (MNC) and aims to investigate the role of information systems (IS) based on modern information and communication technologies (ICT) in transferring knowledge between different plants of the MNC, a subject still debated in the literature. To shed more light on this relationship, we propose that in the context of the MNC, the plant’s role in the knowledge network has to be taken into consideration. The analysis is based on a case study approach with interviews conducted at thirteen manufacturing plants. Data analysis shows that plants can have two basic roles in the knowledge network: knowledge senders or knowledge receivers. Knowledge sending plants see IS less supportive in transferring knowledge, while most knowledge receivers rely heavily on some form of IS. Furthermore, IS proved unhelpful if the quality of data entered in the system was low, or when strategic support to allocate resources to use IS was missing