Knowledge Intermediation: New Business Models in the Digital Economy

The development of Internet and e-commerce strengthens the idea of knowledge as the key resource for economic value. Internet-based technologies offer opportunities to acquire and share knowledge with no geographical or temporal limits, but the experience shows that the practical implementation of new business models, grounded on the “explicit” exploitation of knowledge though the Internet, is a complex process that requires managerial guidelines and tools. This paper examines and discusses the emerging businesses that can be referred to as “knowledge intermediaries” online, whose aim is to provide services for transferring knowledge between sources and users. After characterising the conceptual characteristics of such models, based on an analysis of the literature on Knowledge Management and e-commerce, the findings of a preliminary case-study research are discussed.