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Despite the widely recognised importance of lifelong learning, there are mixed results on its causal economic impact. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how economic conditions change the composition of participants in non-formal lifelong learning and whether the business cycle is relevant for the impact of non-formal lifelong learning on employability.

Non-linear decomposition techniques and matching estimators based on multidimensional covariates are applied to the Spanish sample of the European Adult Education Survey. The analysis controls for background, human capital and personal traits and draws a distinction between unemployed and employed workers.

The results show major differences in the volume and composition of participants before and during the Great Recession. In addition, there is a business cycle dependence of the effectiveness of non-formal lifelong learning that varies with the individual labour market situation. While lifelong learning proves more effective for the unemployed in recessions, for the employed the impact is greater in expansions.

The paper provides new evidence on the scant results of the moderating effect of the business cycle on the impact of lifelong learning. The analysis is not restricted to training implemented within public programmes, but rather extends to any kind of non-formal lifelong learning undertaken by unemployed and employed workers. In this sense, the analysis provides information about the optimal moment to invest in lifelong learning from both the policymaker and individual as well as firm perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on one of the most recognized knowledge management enablers, information technology (IT), and explores how IT influences on knowledge base capabilities in product development – specifically knowledge exploitation and exploration.

The proposed hypotheses are empirically tested through the analysis of 80 product developments, and valid and reliable measures for each variable are developed. The research methodology uses a two‐step approach.

The study shows that product development processes can be categorized within three IT configurations: balanced IT configuration, convergent‐based IT configuration and divergent‐based IT configuration. These results show that differences in IT configurations in product development may lead to differences in terms of knowledge exploitation and show the advantages of the balanced IT configuration that combines both dimensions of IT.

The sample size is not large and the scope of this study is limited to firms located in the Madrid area, Spain. The measurement effort represents an advance for research but, nonetheless, they measure facts that are neither fully nor easily measurable. All data were collected from the same respondent, using the same perceptual measurement technique.

This paper suggests that product development managers would be advised to consider knowledge based goals when selecting their IT tools. It also highlights that product development efforts should not involve an excluding trade‐off between the convergent and the divergent dimensions of IT (whereby one is at the expense of the other), but a balance of both dimensions.

The paper differs from previous research in a number of important ways. First, it focuses on benefits to product development. Second, it measures the impact of IT on knowledge base capabilities. Third, it focuses on the configuration of IT and an evaluation of how different configurations impact on different types of knowledge based capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain from paradox a novel lens to elucidate the connections between knowledge management (KM) and product development as a knowledge intensive process. By focusing on the “social side” of KM, it is proposed that different KM orientations can emerge as a result of higher or lower emphasis on both cultural and structural enablers. These KM orientations generate specific potential to manage the tension and paradox of managing both knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation knowledge during product development.

Empirical evidence is provided by performing survey research with data collected from 80 product development projects developed in Spain.

Results show that product development efforts can show three different KM orientations that significantly differ in their results in terms of knowledge exploration and, specially, knowledge exploitation. Moreover, product development requires a symbiosis between both cultural and structural enablers to best manage the paradox of exploration and exploitation.

The measurement items used can realistically be thought of as only proxies for an underlying and latent phenomenon that is neither fully nor easily measurable. Together with it, replies from multiple respondents would have ruled out potential drawbacks.