Knowledge Management and Knowledge Creation in Academia: a Study Based on Surveys in a Japanese Research University

This book aims to pose one major research question, i.e. why and how to use knowledge management methods in order to enhance knowledge creation in academia ? at universities and research institutes? Two surveys and case studies were carried out to achieve the research purpose at a Japanese research university. The first survey focused on knowledge management in academia and investigated the current KM situations, special and diverse requirements from researchers. The second survey concentrated on supporting the creative processes of academic research and investigated which aspects of knowledge creation processes should be supported in particular. With respect to the survey findings, the practical solutions are further presented aimed to improve the creativity environment for scientific knowledge creation, which were found to be valuable by university management. An essential point is that the study is based on the feedback from knowledge creators in a typical knowledge creation organization, which makes the analyses and conclusions more comprehensive and persuasive from both the theoretical and practical points of view.