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CAN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT BECOME GLOBAL? — CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

CHRISTIAN KOCH

Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK 2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Phone: +45 45 25 16 49, Fax: +45 45 88 55 82.

https://doi.org/10.1142/S1609945104000085Cited by:2 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

The paper presents different strategies for consulting engineering companies in the emergent global economy. It is a common assumption that players can obtain market gain through cross border mergers, acquisitions, or strategic alliances in synchronisation with internal organisation. Many big companies already have considerable international presence, but most of the small and medium-size still operate regional markets. The European market is on the edge of this globalisation. This article discusses corporate strategies and the role of knowledge management in European consulting engineering companies. In doing so, it distinguishes between strategies of super-companies, medium-sized and small companies. Two Danish cases are then presented where knowledge management strategies are intertwined with different responses to globalisation. The first has expanded internationally and has attempted to support this by IT as a lever for virtualisation and accessibility of company knowledge (an export strategy). The second company makes an alliance with a large global player in order to become stronger in its development of local innovative and knowledge intensive solutions (an import strategy).

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