The field of knowledge management has not adequately met its goals of transforming information sharing and collaborations in organisations. Lucier and Torsilera (1997) claim that 84 percent of KM programs fail to have any real impact. Despite these problems, knowledge management addresses a clearly perceived need for innovation, whether expressed in terms of the knowledge economy, knowledge workers, or intellectual capital management.

The Knowledge Life Cycle (Birkinshaw and Sheehan, 2002) states that knowledge progresses through 4 stages (creation, mobilisation, diffusion and commoditization) and as it develops overtime, knowledge becomes accessible to more and more people – first in the organisation and finally, to the general public – therefore, companies must use different strategies to realise the maximum value of the knowledge flows. Knowledge management in its traditional approach addresses the supply side of the life cycle process. It largely views knowledge as fungible organisational assets to be organised and made accessible through the many information and communication tools and coordinated through changes in work practices that facilitate collaboration and information-sharing.

This research in this cluster seeks to extend the focus from supply to the demand side of the knowledge flows, from management to mobilisation. We propose the Knowledge Fusion framework that aims to extend and improve the effectiveness of the knowledge flows by adding the elements of knowledge mobilisation that are centred on the individual and demand side. The framework focuses on two components - ‘Knowledge Embodiment’ and ‘Knowledge ‘Regimes of Truth’ - to provide a comprehensive and parsimonious intellectual mapping of knowledge in action in the organizations. These concepts address the philosophical, political and social forces that may be significant and, if overlooked, can impact the practicalities of knowledge management. The research seeks to build on the Knowledge Fusion framework by testing the validity of its constructs, and building a database of case studies to illustrate the findings and results, hence evolving our theory-building.