Key issues in innovation and knowledge management in the finance and construction sectors

In today's dynamic global trading environment it is vital that firms develop dynamic capabilities allowing them to stay ahead of the competition. It is generally accepted that innovation can provide a firm with sustainable competitive advantage. Tacit knowledge, the type which resides in humans and organisational routines, has also been identified as a means of sustainable competitive advantage. An examination of how teams, units and organisations build dynamic capabilities from innovations through harnessing and exploiting knowledge for organisational benefits will be made. A comparison will be made between the UK construction and finance industries. The UK construction industry is often seen as underachieving in terms of meeting its own needs and those of its client. In contrast, the finance sector is perceived as being highly innovative one of the UK's most profitable industries. Current innovation and knowledge management practices in both industries will be examined, plus the relationships between Innovation and Knowledge Management in each sector will be analysed using a new conceptual framework. The key challenges likely to be faced by the researcher as well as proposed research methodology are also documented. Evidence from the literature points to innovation as a complex social process. Similarly, it is suggested that a robust research methodology for uncovering complex social processes in innovation and knowledge management will benefit from the employment of qualitative research approaches.