Since the early 1970s, scholars in the disciplines of economics and management have been predicting the onset of a post-industrial or information era, particularly in the g-8 countries. These predictions are largely derived from comprehensive analyses of these economies as well as those of other emerging economies such as South Korea, India, Brazil, and China. These analyses reflect that a series of significant shifts are under way from predominantly manufacturing-based economies to information, knowledge, and intellect-based economies (Leonard, 1995; Quinn, Anderson and Finklestein, 1996; Nonaka and takauchi, 1995).

It is becoming clear that, as globalization increases interdependence of various economies of the world, the importance of creating, diffusing, and absorbing scientifically and strategically important knowledge also increases. In addition, the process of successfully managing joint ventures and cross-border strategic alliances demands that effective transfer of scientific (not necessarily organization-specific) and organizational knowledge (often specific to an organization) across nations and cultures take place effectively.

Reports on the economic structure of these societies are being driven by organizations that clearly possess the advantage of having access to knowledge that have clear competitive advantages (Ruggles and Holtshouse, 1999; govindarajan and gupta, 2001). In various academic journals, such as The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, etc., there has been an outpouring of research and findings concerning the effects of organizational knowledge management on effectiveness.