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Information and communication technologies have became pervasive in people's lives and in this changing world education cannot remain anchored in old‐fashioned models which ignore the evolution through which society is going. This paper seeks to present the gamble made by the University of Alicante (Spain) on the promotion of open knowledge.

The educational environment cannot continue to be fixed, closed and isolated, where students – assuming a basically passive role – receive standardised teaching. It must consequently experience a fast and decisive transformation which allows it, amongst other things, to respond to the new challenge posed by society: the need for all of us to share the knowledge we generate, so that further progress can be made.

The Institutional Repository (RUA) and the OpenCourseWare of the University of Alicante (OCW‐UA) were conceived from the very beginning as related projects that could constitute consecutive phases in the open publication of knowledge. In this way the aim of presenting the promotion of open knowledge not as a series of discrete projects but as a global strategic gamble of the institution was achieved. In addition to the most visible educational benefits, this policy has had the virtue of favouring the assumption by the University of its role as an online provider of quality (scientific and teaching) content.

RUA is the storage place of all the teaching materials published by the University of Alicante's teaching staff, which are retrieved from OCW‐UA, while OCW‐UA serves as an organisational model of teaching content self‐archived by the teaching staff in RUA. The connection between the projects has allowed the presentation of the promotion of open knowledge as a global strategic gamble of the University, which has contributed to a greater acceptance by the teaching staff. This work is original in that it shows a successful experience of involvement by one university and its members in the promotion of open knowledge.

The main objective of this study is to understand the role that family council and protocol can have in the planning process of family companies.

To reach this general objective, the qualitative approach was used using multiple case studies: seven Portuguese family companies. Data collection techniques, interviewing, direct observation and documentary analysis were used.

Based on the empirical evidence, it is concluded that the family council and family protocol help succession planning and favour the continuity and survival of the family business. However, other working groups also support the entire planning process, such as the cousin generation meeting and the New Generation Monitoring Committee (or Mentoring Committee). The development of future personal plans for the younger generations may lie in this Committee, which assists and guides the younger family members.

This study is pioneering in Portugal because it analyses the use of new instruments that helps the succession planning process in family firm context: the family council and family protocol. These managerial mechanisms allow to achieve the success, allowing family conflicts to be minimized, the continuity of family firms and avoiding their mortality.

The study contributes to increasing knowledge about the family council, the family protocol, family firm succession and its planning. It is important and innovative by studying those topics in depth, their connection being little explored in the literature. This study can be seen as a benchmarking for governance practices in other countries.

This article seeks to study the implementation of an intellectual capital model in a network of cities.

This article provides a case study consisting of 25 key development institutions from six different border cities in Spain and Portugal.

Using the SWOT methodology, a set of strategic criteria was established to guide local authority decision making. An internet‐based technology platform, with a registered brand, has been set up and is currently functioning (www.redkognopolis.org). One of the main findings of the case concerns the use of key organizations. Certain aspects have been identified which need to be improved in the future.

Although the interpretations offered are plausible in the context of the case studies, it may not be correct to generalize to other situations.

The proposal has introduced several innovative elements: it is a network, where the city entities work together by sharing knowledge; it consists of small cities; and it involves cross‐border interaction among Spanish and Portuguese regions. Formulas have been found to increase cooperation.

The internet is becoming increasingly important in the communication between local governments and citizens, which makes the usability of municipal web sites a critical factor in government‐citizen communication. The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model for evaluating the potential of municipal web sites.

In this work an objective investigation of the issue has been conducted by manually accessing and evaluating 84 European municipal web sites. Quality of web home pages was determined using an original Web Assessment Index, which focuses on four categories: accessibility, speed, navigability and content.

A detailed report of the results arising from this investigation is presented and systematically analyzed.

The most valuable output from this paper is not the ability to identify the best sites, but to see how each municipal site is compared to related sites and to spot ideas and practices that can improve city sites. These findings will be useful for both researchers and practitioners who seek to understand the issues relevant to municipal e‐government.

The purpose of this study was to understand how the family system plays a role in knowledge sharing (KS) within family firms. The authors argue that the family’s influence can occur through two routes. An external route in which the family affects the culture of the organization and through an internal route in which family leadership within the firm affects the practices and behaviors within the business.

Data for this project came from the survey responses of 93 Spanish family firms.

The findings expand previous understanding about KS in family firms by outlining the two routes through which the family can have positive effect on KS within family firms. Results show that family system characteristics (i.e. next-generation commitment, family trust and intergenerational relationships) affect KS through their impact on the participative culture of a family firm. Additionally, when a family has been in control of the business for more generations, they place higher importance on family legacy and continuity, which is likely to strengthen the relationship between participative culture and KS in family firms.

Given the important role that the family system plays within the family business, this paper explored how family characteristics can influence KS in family firms. The authors contribute to the literature by highlighting the importance that the owning family can have in creating an environment that can facilitate KS in family firms.

The purpose of this article is to introduce the 2006 annual special issue on knowledge‐based development, focusing on the progress of this emerging field and on the direction it seems to be taking.

From this viewpoint, a brief outline of the volume contributions is provided.

A number of characteristics of the contributions along this and the two preceding special issues are identified: multidisciplinarity, theoretical and methodological variety, systems approach, empirical bases and particularly a growing strategic perspective.

This volume may contribute to stimulate further research into the full potential of knowledge‐based social value systems

Apart from the challenges related to vehicle technology, the wide-scale deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in cities is linked to unprecedented opportunities and unforeseen impacts. These refer to mobility conditions, infrastructure, land use, wider socio-economic factors, energy use and environmental and climate effects. AVs may affect all these in positive or negative ways, promoting or obstructing the promotion of specific aspects of sustainable urban development. An integrated planning framework is needed to maximise the positive impacts and mitigate the negative ones. The main obstacle in the process of developing such a framework is the absence of empirical data and experience from the implementation of this emerging technology. This chapter outlines the possible impacts of AVs and discusses their uncertainty and trade-offs in relation to sustainable urban development. The categorisation of impacts derives from the priorities of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The chapter also highlights the lack of data for the development of an evidence-based planning approach and suggests relevant recommendations to planners. In contrast to the current lack of data, the future abundance of Big Data collected by autonomous road transport systems is discussed in the context of future urban planning purposes. Based on the above, the chapter concludes by stressing the importance of an integrated urban transport planning approach that ensures a positive contribution of AVs to sustainable urban development. Hence, it offers valuable recommendations for policymakers in a range of fields.

The purpose of this paper is to present and compare some of the most recent and significant contributions from European researchers to the field of the measurement and management of intangibles.

The analysis was carried out on two different levels. First, how the guidelines were developed was examined. Second, the recommendations derived from these guidelines were evaluated.

The first conclusion drawn in this paper is the lack of a unique Conceptual Framework to carry out Intellectual Capital Reports – even though there are no significant differences among the analysed guidelines.

The paper shows that, in line with the increasing importance of the intangible economy in the last few years, a significant number of models has been published. Unlike previously published papers, the main original contribution in the measurement of Intellectual Capital relates to the comparison and assessment of the various existing guidelines.

This research proposes to study the connection between knowledge management practices and knowledge‐based results.

Theoretical relations are tested through an empirical study carried out on Iranian firms in the car manufacturing industries.

This paper shows how the firms that adopt knowledge management practices obtain better results than their competitors.

The main limitation of this research is the lack of literature about knowledge productivity.

As limited studies have been carried out on knowledge productivity, the findings of this study will be useful in assessing the learning ability to create knowledge‐based results or innovation in organization.

The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the value of intangible resources and, consequently, the importance of their integration into performance measurement systems applied in the hotel industry.

Based on a thorough literature review, arguments draw on relevant theories in performance measurement in the hotel industry and the concept of intangible resources. Merging these two different concepts reveals new research areas.

The literature review shows that even those integrated performance measurement systems that aim to include non‐financial measures do not necessarily capture intangible resources. Based on this finding, suggestions for extending performance measurement systems are made.

This paper has significant implications for hotel managers, as it will allow them to broaden their perspective and include important performance drivers (i.e. intangible resources such as knowledge, motivation and social capital) in their performance measurement systems.

The paper highlights the need for a comprehensive performance measurement approach that comprises indicators for measuring intangible resources and suggests tools that better capture the contribution of these important performance drivers.