Value Creation in Knowledge Networks:Five Design Principles

Knowledge networks enable businesses to enhance their levels of innovation and market competitiveness. In this paper, we propose five principles for designing IT tools that can support the facilitation and improvement of knowledge networks. We also introduce a new value proposition that constitutes a nascent design theory in the domain of knowledge network improvement. The design principles are derived from an iterative process applied in three different case settings. In each case, we apply and evaluate the network nexus tool to determine whether the knowledge network provides value to its participants