Dynamic Knowledge Creation Through Value Management Teams

With the intention of introducing unique and value-added products to the market, organizations have become more conscious of how to best create knowledge as reported by Ganesh Bhatt in 2000 in 'Information dynamics, learning and knowledge creation in organizations'. Knowledge creation is recognized as having an important role in generating and sustaining a competitive advantage as well as in meeting organizational goals, as reported by Aleda Roth and her colleagues in 1994 in 'The knowledge factory for accelerated learning practices.' One of the successful ingredients of value management (VM) is its utilization of diverse knowledge resources, drawing upon different organizational functions, professional disciplines, and stakeholders, in a facilitated team process. Multidisciplinary VM study teams are viewed as having high potential to innovate due to their heterogeneous nature. This paper looks at one of the VM workshop's major benefits, namely, knowledge creation. A case study approach was used to explore the nature, processes, and issues associated with fostering a dynamic knowledge creation capability within VM teams. The results indicate that the dynamic knowledge creating process is embedded in and influenced by managing team constellation, creating shared awareness, developing shared understanding, and producing aligned action. The catalysts that can speed up the processes are open dialogue and discussion among participants. This process is enhanced by the use of facilitators, skilled at extracting knowledge.

Structure and dynamics of a confined ionic liquid. topics of relevance to dye-sensitized solar cells

The behavior of a model ionic liquid (IL) confined between two flat parallel walls was studied at various interwall distances using computer simulations. The results focus both on structural and dynamical properties. Mass and charge density along the confinement axis reveal a structure of layers parallel to the walls that leads to an oscillatory profile in the electrostatic potential. Orientational correlation functions indicate that cations at the interface orient tilted with respect to the surface and that any other orientational order is lost thereafter. The diffusion coefficients of the ions exhibit a maximum as a function of the confinement distance, a behavior that results from a combination of the structure of the liquid as a whole and a faster molecular motion in the vicinity of the walls. We discuss the relevance of the present results and elaborate on topics that need further attention regarding the effects of ILs in the functioning of IL-based dye-sensitized solar cells.

The Cost of Sustainability Capital and the Creation of Sustainable Value by Companies

We develop and apply a valuation methodology to calculate the cost of sustainability capital, and, eventually, sustainable value creation of companies. Sustainable development posits that decisions must take into account all forms of capital rather than just economic capital. We develop a methodology that allows calculation of the costs that are associated with the use of different forms of capital. Our methodology borrows the idea from financial economics that the return on capital has to cover the cost of capital. Capital costs are determined as opportunity costs, that is, the forgone returns that would have been created by alternative investments. We apply and extend the logic of opportunity costs to the valuation not only of economic capital but also of other forms of capital. This allows (a) integrated analysis of use of different forms of capital based on a value-based aggregation of different forms of capital, (b) determination of the opportunity cost of a bundle of different forms of capital used in a company, called cost of sustainability capital, (c) calculation of sustainability efficiency of companies, and (d) calculation of sustainable value creation, that is, the value above the cost of sustainability capital. By expanding the well-established logic of the valuation of economic capital in financial markets to cover other forms of capital, we provide a methodology that allows determination of the most efficient allocation of sustainability capital for sustainable value creation in companies. We demonstrate the practicability of the methodology by the valuation of the sustainability performance of British Petroleum (BP).