KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: A REWARDING CHALLENGE FOR SME’s?1

In contemporary knowledge-based society, where organizational environment is changing at a rapid pace, information and knowledge to promote innovation are the keys to competitiveness and success. This was recognised in the conclusions of the Lisbon European Summit [Lisbon … 2000], which were then extended in the Barcelona European Summit [Barcelona … 2002]. The latter state that one of the goals of Europe is to attain a “competitive knowledge-based society ” based on education and training systems, adapting quickly to the “demands of the knowledge society and the needs for an improved level of quality of employment”. Furthermore, every citizen must be equipped with the skills needed to live and work in this rich information environment. These goals would be attained, for instance, by improving the “mastery of basic skills, development of digital literacy and lifelong learning ” [Barcelona … 2002:18-20]. The same concerns ar