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The purpose of this paper is to address the subject of knowledge citizenship from the perspective of citizen participation in their city's decision‐making processes. It focuses on a case study of the city of Holon, Israel.

This paper presents three distinct methods for citizen participation processes which were used by Holon: citizen‐based consensus conference, neighborhood conversations, and knowledge café sessions, all of which allow the municipality to implement citizen participation as part of its routine, fluent operations.

The story of Holon presents the methods and processes for the creation of citizen dialog aimed to allow a city to develop itself into a knowledge city.

The case study shows how the theory of knowledge cities can be transferred into actual practicality. It describes three different ways to combine knowledge sharing in a city as part of the town's development into a knowledge city. Holon's experience can serve other cities to learn what processes are more suitable and applicable for them.

The purpose of this paper is to address the importance of conversing within cities, organizations and beyond, in order to adapt to the rapidly changing environment and promote co‐operation, participation and with special reference to European cities.

This paper brings examples and case studies of how the concepts of conversing cities has been and is being integrated into existing cities focusing on the future – youth, employment, education and quality of live as essential factors for the future prosperity of cities.

With the rapid changes in society, economy and technology, not only business organizations need to adapt to the new reality but also cities. Conversing is an important part of adaptation – communicating, making contact, networking, sharing ideas, creating new knowledge.

This article shows how interactions which have been formulated for organizations (businesses) can be relevant and essential to cities as living and changing units and shows how conversing cities have benefited and prospered.

For quite a while the issues of knowledge management, innovation and performance measurement have been on the agenda of researchers and practitioners alike throughout the world. Not too long ago it was recognised that there are direct cause and effect relations between knowledge reuse and invention. The present paper therefore discusses the constituent elements of innovation from a knowledge perspective which have been identified in the context of a European Union co‐sponsored research project. The six facts of the “innovation cube” are: reuse of existing knowledge; invention of new knowledge; exploitation (i.e. turning knowledge into value); stakeholders' contributions (to the innovation life cycle); the enabling ecology or operating context in which the innovation occurs; and the performance facet, i.e. the bottom line. A toolkit based on performance measurement thinking and implementation process for better management of the balance between reuse and invention in development environments is proposed and results from their deployment in three real‐life case studies are discussed.

Among the key challenges facing today’s business organizations is that of ongoing innovation for survival. To meet this challenge, new skills for effective leadership are required: knowledge workers need to be creative and entrepreneurial. Leading them, however, can be like ‘herding cats’. The classic metaphor of the organization as a machine does not offer an effective approach to leading complex human organizations. New thinking is needed, such as complexity theory, which considers the organization as a living organism and so provides a basis for innovative approaches to organizational structure and management. In this context, performing arts organizations can be a fruitful source of leadership inspiration. Performing arts organizations have never adopted the concept of the organization as machine and have therefore managed to keep alive the passion of their people. Thus these organizations constitute a valuable example for managers in the Knowledge Age, who must replace traditional leadership approaches to attract, keep and grow talent. Here, a case study is presented in which the authors, including the conductor Maestro Roni Porat, decode the key success factors in conducting an orchestra and consider their transferability to talent management in business organizations. While setting the tone, the conductor gives each of the players a chance to shine and co-evolve with the rest, thus creating a winning harmonic orchestra.

Innovation is the process of turning knowledge and ideas into value. An “urban innovation engine” is a system which can trigger, generate, foster and catalyze innovation in the city. This paper describes the concept of the “urban innovation engine”, provides some historical and contemporary examples, and suggests a set of guidelines for turning ordinary urban institutions into innovation engines. The paper has two purposes: to trigger further theoretic and action research and exploration in the domain of urban innovation. In recent years there has been intensive research about the conditions (“ecology”) which enable and catalyze knowledge development and innovation in the business world. A second new focus area in the research of knowledge development is the role of the city as a hub for intensive flows and exchanges of knowledge among its habitants and additional stakeholders. We suggest weaving the learning from the business and urban worlds by attempting to apply the dimensions of innovation ecology models to knowledge cities. More specifically, we look at multiple traditional urban constructs, and show how they might act as significant drivers for creativity and renewal. Typically an urban innovation engine is a complex system that includes people, relationships, values, processes, tools and technological, physical and financial infrastructure. We suggest that what innovation engines really do is to create conversations – which are the foundation of most innovations. We bring some examples and snap‐shots from several urban innovation engines such as the museum, the library, the stock exchange, the café, the brownfield, the grand fair, the outlook tower, and the industrial district. The paper conceptualizes the notion of “urban innovation engines”. Based on this concept, it provides a set of guidelines for creating a knowledge city using innovation engines as its building blocks, and innovation ecology elements as an important part of its operating system.

Cities, like other ecosystems, are changing and evolving at a growing pace. Therefore, innovation has become a critical success factor in the creation of ‘smart cities’. A smart city is one that uses technology as a platform to serve its citizens’ needs and foster innovative processes that enhance their quality of life. In this chapter, the authors present two case studies of urban open innovation processes in, respectively, Haifa in Israel and Bremerhaven in Germany, which demonstrate the engagement of all stakeholders, motivated by passion, altruism and the desire to cooperate. The first case concerns open innovation with the young, and the second open innovation with the elderly. Both case studies demonstrate how passion led to altruism which encouraged citizens to volunteer to contribute and co-create a better future for all the city’s residents by enabling better communication among stakeholders in the context of a complex urban environment.

This paper focuses on the concept of Intellectual Capital (IC) of Nations and the need for a change of perspectives from financial to intellectual values. Although the paper briefly describes the concept of IC within business, the principal focus is on IC of Nations. IC of a Nation includes the hidden values of individuals, enterprises, and institutions, communities and regions that are the current and potential sources for wealth creation. It is proposed that every nation should start a process in visualising and measuring IC as a complement to traditional state finances. The present paper also examines the ongoing prototyping within Sweden, Israel and Austria that was initiated in 1996. In addition, the paper describes one of the tools — the IC Navigator for Nations — that can be used to present a pedagogical and holistic view and bring balance between intellectual and financial capital. Examples of indicators of IC for Sweden and Israel are described.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight that research on the measurement of key indicators that represent drivers of the knowledge economy still spans several different, although interrelated, directions. The results of this review call for further integration of metrics through cross‐disciplinary international, multinational and organizational partnerships that could reconcile and define de facto standards for the assessment of the drivers of knowledge‐based growth.

General review, literature review. The paper reviews extant literature and practical experiences in knowledge‐based development assessments.

The review finds that many institutions are still adopting a variety of approaches which are difficult to reconcile. Additional coordination efforts are required to overcome contextual and non‐replicable approaches and, thus, increase standardization of metrics.

While the paper discusses limitations of extant approaches, it does not build (another) alternative theoretical solution. Rather it suggests actionable strategies that require a high level of international coordination.

The paper shows the path and examples of multi‐agency approach to achieve standardization.

The value of the paper stems from its classification and review of selected approaches both at the country and organizational level. While it is motivated by a call for integration that is not novel to the field of knowledge management, it suggests that this coordination: needs to occur simultaneously both at the country and the organizational levels, whereby country approaches could inform and drive industry approaches; and needs to leverage international coordination models such as those of international standardization bodies.