Facilitating knowledge exchange and decision making within Learning Networks
The new knowledge-based economy necessitates increasingly the collaboration between different organisations. Despite the recent upsurge in knowledge management and decision support systems, the vast majority of these systems focus on individual organisations. This article introduces the concept of the Learning Network-inter-organisational structures, formally established to increase the participants' knowledge and innovative capability - and examines the main functions and roles of a Learning Network. It presents an integrated toolkit for supporting knowledge sharing and decision making in Learning Networks that consists of a software system and a methodology. It also briefly presents how the toolkit has been piloted in an automotive cluster. Finally it provides a constructive set of recommendations for using IT to support learning and knowledge sharing in Learning Networks.
learning networks learning management system communities of practice broker