Knowledge Management Processes within an Echocardiography Laboratory: the living picture.

Although knowledge processes are nowadays recognised as key assets for competitive advantage, many initiatives to develop Knowledge Management (KM) do not explicitly link processes, knowledge, organisation and innovation. They mostly attempt to capture existing knowledge within formal configurations, such as information systems. This research project, through a multiple embedded case study from ten excellence Echocardiography Laboratories (EchoLabs), provides a framework which connects all those aspects in the medical field, to improve KM processes within the real setting of an EchoLab. The whole framework is grounded on the integration of two approaches: a process-oriented view of KM, to develop a knowledge-based analysis of the three basic processes - that is, research, education and patient-care; the Theory of Planned Behaviour, in order to comprehensively address the social, organisational and technological (KM tools) issues of KM within a seminal theory. As a result, the knowledge value chain and the general value chain are strongly connected in KM strategies and practices, opening the way to significant theoretical, managerial and technological implications.