Conclusion

Since very ancient times, not only philosophers but also savvy religious and political leaders have recognized that knowledge is critical to economy and society. The first universities in Europe were built on this assumption. But while the diffusion of knowledge was supposed to bring people to wisdom in a supposedly stable world, what may well have changed in modern times is the awareness that the world is continuously changing as knowledge is created, and this changes world views. By definition (see Ughetto’s in the Introduction), knowledge creation is critical in R&D, both for sowing the seeds of change and for new discoveries, and as a way of measuring one of its major positive outcomes. The more radical innovations require greater knowledge transformation, while also depending on more mundane knowledge transfer and translation processes (Carlile, 2004). R&D and product innovation are thus fundamentally tied to various knowledge-exchange/integration processes that play a central role in modern economies, and therefore in IT itself.