Defining knowledge: an epistemological foundation for knowledge management

Knowledge Management is a field of increasing popularity, within both the academic arena and the business community. However although there is an abundance of advice on how to develop and manipulate Knowledge-based systems (particularly through the medium of web sites), there is still confusion within the Knowledge Management community of what actually constitutes knowledge (this often manifests itself through poor university and business "home pages" on the Internet). This paper attempts to clarify the meaning of knowledge and thus provide strong conceptual foundations for the discipline of Knowledge Management. In doing so, criteria for knowledge will be established, together with an elicitation of different types of knowledge.