Why should we investigate knowledge risks incidents?: Lessons from four cases

Abstract

In a knowledge-based economy, knowledge has become the most important source for competitive advantage. Thus, organizations spend more attention on the protection of knowledge and also research on knowledge protection has gained increasing attention in the past years. However, knowledge protection research mainly focuses on the design of preventive measures and little is published about real incidents or reactive measures. Learning from failure and from incidents is important to improve current practice. This paper reflects on four cases of real knowledge risk incidents. We discuss ways to prevent or delay knowledge spillovers and the importance of knowing the threats in order to prevent them. In addition to preventive measures, we highlight that companies need to have reactive measures in place. Finally, based on our insights we discuss why analyzing incidents in addition to identified threats is important for practice as well as academia.