Knowledge Governance and Value Innovation in the Asian Context?
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Knowledge governance in Asia is probably not as vibrant in comparison to the rest of the world. In the past, many Asians rely on the apprenticeship system and this practice is still dominant in some trades. Many Asian believes that skills and knowledge should be passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth and not widespread as it will contort the original significance. They also believe that by sharing knowledge, they will lose their personal comparative advantage hence it should only be shared among people whom they have a close relationship with. The idea of knowledge sharing is pretty much shunned for fear of losing competitiveness.
However, as urbanization infiltrates the region, many realize that proper knowledge governance system is needed to manage and market the knowledge commercially and efficiently. This is especially evident in the herbal plants sector, where many people do not have the medicinal knowledge on the vast variety of plants and the medicinal traits of the plants are only determined after years of trials and practices. Most of these herbal medicines are originated and contains features of the Chinese culture thus unique to Asias Chinese.
Consumption of herbal medicines have been a growing trend, thus we see the importance of good knowledge management in the vague and vast area of Chinese medicine. Proper documentation and evidence to back up the medicinal traits of such medicines can only be attained through managing and abstracting knowledge from the practitioners. It is only after appropriate knowledge management, that these information can be shared and value added upon.