The 14th International Conference on Business Excellence (ICBE), organized by Faculty of Business Administration, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania and the Society of Business Excellence with the cooperation of the Romanian Academy, took place online on 11-12 June 2020. The present edition had in the Program 200 papers with contributors from 17 countries.  The members of the IAKM’s Board were invited to promote the knowledge management (KM) and its challenges for the complex business environment we live in. Professor Ettore Bolisani from Padua University, Italy was invited as a Guest Speaker in the plenary session where he presented the challenges of KM for the actual crisis generated by the COVID-19. As a Program Chair of the conference, professor Constantin Bratianu from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies organized a Workshop dedicated to KM. There were three majors topics discussed during that Workshop:

1. Learning and unlearning in organizations, presented by professor Juan Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro, Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Spain and professor Anthony Wensley, Toronto University, Canada.
2. Knowledge risks and their impact on business performance, presented by professor Malgorzata Zieba, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland.
3. Cybersecurity as a new philosophy in designing KM systems, presented by professor Alexeis Garcia Perez, University of Coventry, UK.

These excellent presentations created a stimulating atmosphere for debates, for all the 47 participants at this great event, which needed almost two hours and a half to cover the main ideas.

Finally, in the parallel session the conference organized a session of Knowledge Economy, where there were presented 15 papers, 5 of them being delivered by Juan Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro & Ettore Bolisani, Malgorzata Zieba, Constantin Bratianu, Ruxandra Bejinaru and Alexandra Zbuchea, who are members of IAKM. In conclusion, IAKM members had an important contribution to this international event dedicated to business excellence.

Prof.Dr. Constantin Bratianu
Program Chair, International Conference on Business Excellence
President of IAKM

Our Board member, prof. Ettore Bolisani has been appointed as Management Committee member (in representation of Italy) of the INDCOR Cost Action "Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations". There are cooperaton possibilities for KM researchers, so if anyone wants to join this group, please contact ettore.bolisani(at)unipd.it. More information is available at https://indcor.eu.

IFKAD Conference will be held on 9-11 September 2020 in a new venue: Matera, Italy.

There is a pssibility to attend In-Person and/or Virtually.

More details are available here.

IAKM members are invited to participate to the special track on Knowledge Economy, part of the Strategica online conference (October 15-16, 2020). Track is coordinated by Prof.dr. Constantin Bratianu and dr. Alexandra Zbuchea. The IAKM members benefit of a 20% discount. 

Knowledge Economy (KE) is increasing its contribution to GDP of most countries in an accelerated rhythm and enlarges rapidly toward the emergent economies. In KE, knowledge becomes a strategic resource, and managing knowledge becomes a driving force of achieving a competitive advantage. Suggested topics may cover, but are not limited to, the following aspects of KE:  Knowledge as a strategic resource, at individual and organizational levels; Organizational knowledge dynamics: models and processes; Knowledge workers and knowledge management; Knowledge strategies for a turbulent business environment; Intellectual capital, models, evaluation, reporting and disclosure; Organizational learning and the learning organizations; Knowledge creation and innovation; Knowledge risks in a competitive global market.

Due to these troubled times the conference will be fully online, but the participants will benefit from a special (online) Romanian-experience gala.

More details are available at STRATEGICA – International Academic Conference

Dear IAKM Members,

We are living in a global crisis generated by the pandemic of COVOD-19, a crisis with immediate dramatic effects on human life and with long term consequences on the national economies, health systems, business dynamics, social environment, and educational new challenges. We are experts and scientists, but we are people with emotions and hopes, moral values, and social responsibilities. We are afraid of what might happen to us, with our family members, with our friends and other people. But, we can understand much better what happens with this pandemic than many other people, so it is our duty to explain and help others to understand the complexity and the real dangers of this crisis.

We are experts in knowledge management, and knowledge is one of the main resources that can help us in finding solutions to all these problems. However, we have to change our thinking paradigm from stability, determinism, and deliberate strategies, to change, probabilistic approaches, and emergent strategies. We have to consider this crisis as an opportunity to create new knowledge and to accept unlearning of some old principles and procedures in favor of learning new and more adequate ones. Also, as university professors, let us think about the new ways of teaching our students and for promoting a new blending educational system based on developing efficient learning environments with the help of artificial intelligence applications and more friendly information technologies.

I would like to see this message as a message of solidarity, friendship, and hope for all the IAKM members. Let us consider our association as a community of practice and to share between us our thoughts and feelings. Let us keep in touch, and learn about our colleagues academic achievements. Let us hope for efficient solutions to end this crisis as soon as possible.

Dr Suzanne Zyngier is pleased to announce the CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS: Handbook of Research on Knowledge Management Tools in Higher Education. Institutions of Higher Education are knowledge centres for society. They pursue key initiatives for developing generations of scholars and practitioners. The teaching-learning act itself is a process of knowledge sharing with and between students. Knowledge Management (KM) principles, strategies, models, tools, and techniques have been proven in government, business and industry. More recently KM has emerged as an essential enabler for the successful pursuit of scholarly activities in higher education. This handbook of research focuses on the investigation of the adoption of KM principles, strategies, models, tools, and techniques in all aspects of higher education. The purpose of this book is to present an opportunity for both academic and practitioner-scholars to present original, unpublished research articles related to knowledge management in Higher Education. Full details can be found here: https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/4189

Important Dates: Mar 15, 2020 Proposal submission deadline, Apr 14, 2020 Notification of Proposal Acceptance, Jul 13, 2020, Full chapter submission; Sep 10, 2020 Review results returned; Oct 8, 2020, Revised chapter due from back authors; Oct 22, 2020, Final Acceptance Notification; Nov 5, 2020, Final Chapter Submission. Publication in 2021.

On 19 March 2020, before the International Conference on Business Excellence (ICBE) in Bucharest, Romania there will be organized IAKM Board meeting. Please let the President, prof. Constantin Bratianu (constantin.bratianu@gmail.com) know if there are any issues coming from our members to be discussed during the meeting.

During the ICBE conference there will also be organized the IAKM Workshop promoting KM challenges. More details about the workshop and the guest speakers can be found here.