**1. Introduction**

116 New Research on Knowledge Management Technology

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> The market situation of the European countries is the following: 99% of companies in the EU are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) – companies with a maximum of 250 employees and a maximal turnover of € 50 million. In the European Union (Europe have 23 million SMEs and 41 000 large companies) SMEs employ more than 65% of all employees. During past years, SMEs have created 80 % of the new jobs in the EU (IP/08/1003, Brussels, 25th June 2008). SMEs meet the multiple economic, technical and social functions, such as:


The SMEs research development activities, products development, new technologies implementation (see figure 1) presupposes knowledge and assumption of multiple risks. As a result of a new product development paradigm, there is a greater need for software tools to risk estimation.

The risk evaluation sustains SMEs in the uncertainties elimination in the development strategy and management policies (see figure 2).

Estimation, evaluation and control of the occupational risk represent prerequisites for grounding and for a continual support of the decision that has been previously taken on occupational safety in a working system (Vasilescu et al., 2008; Tint et al., 2009).

However, in the last time, a lot of research in the field of knowledge management is dedicated to large companies or international concerns and the small and medium-sized

A Knowledge Management Framework as Knowledge Bases

**2. The SMEs knowledge** 

identified (presented in figure 3) are:

rapid retrieve and complete.

safely to be accessed in the future.

the organization.

covering all the basics in a certain area.

memory, intranet, documentation, etc.).

separate knowledge in order to increase their value.

Development Support to Professional Risk Assessment in SMEs 119

determine the personalized preferences of all potentially customers, than rich them with relevant information, wherever they may be (Dragoi et al., 2010). Nowadays, enterprises tend to differentiate themselves from what they know (intellectual capital) and from how they use knowledge. The interest for knowledge within enterprises begins with identification that the value of market of several enterprises is much larger than the value of

Knowledge is power and knowledge has value, but knowledge value is still a challenging topic that has not been completely clarified, whether it be in engineering science or philosophy, economics, etc. (Xu and Bernard, 2011). Over the past 15 years, knowledge management (KM) has progressed from an emergent concept to an increasingly common function in business organizations (Zach et al., 2009). Understanding knowledge management within SMEs is fundamental to economic advancement, particularly if priorities and practices transferred from large organizations are sub-optimal or counterproductive (Sparrow, 2011). Knowledge exists in the mind of people and circulates within organizations (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). For all companies KM and innovation plays an important role (Porter, 2001). Many of KM initiatives are implemented in large companies but in the last years there is a shift towards small and medium-sized enterprises (Fink and Ploder, 2006). Lately, there is increasing realization of need and significance of KM for sustainable competitiveness for SMEs (Pillania, 2008). According to some studies SMEs need a simple framework to organize their key knowledge processes: knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge distribution and knowledge preservation (Fink & Ploder, 2007; Ploder & Fink, 2007). The *key knowledge processes* (KKPs) for SMEs (Rosu et al., 2009b)

 *Knowledge identification* - this process consist in identifying a collection of data, information, text, technical documentation, laws, standards, questionnaires, etc.., thus

 *Knowledge acquisition* - represents the transfer of knowledge from a source of knowledge (e.g. experts, documents, procedures) at a warehouse of knowledge (e.g. organizational

 *Knowledge evaluation* - referring to the interpretation of the acquired knowledge using the techniques, methods and measuring instruments developed in accordance with the objectives and type of assessment, depending on the content and intended purpose, the

*Knowledge structured* - involves knowledge organization and classification in order to

*Knowledge combination* - should be viewed as a combination (union, alignment) to

*Knowledge shared* - is the process by which knowledge is exchanged (distributed) within

 *Knowledge utilization* – means the use of scientific and technical knowledge to decision makers and by other members of the organizations in professional practices. *Knowledge preservation* – is a process of storage (preservation) of knowledge over time

purpose of issuing value judgments that underlie a particular decision.

their own physical patrimony (equipments, facilities etc.) (Rosu et al., 2010b).

enterprises were forgotten. This is the main reason why in this paper analyze the SMEs knowledge and knowledge management, the risk management process and the professional risk assessment as essential part of SMEs business, the knowledge bases built and use to assess the risk at the SMEs level.

Fig. 1. The SMEs market strategy matrix

Fig. 2. The SMEs risk assessment matrix

The SMEs product development process has become an intensive process of knowledge application and it consists of a process of transformation of information. The knowledge creation is the major resource of organizational innovation and it, therefore, plays a more crucial role in developing a sustained competitive advantage for organizations, especially in a dynamic environment (Huang, 2009). The business advantage in having knowledge application, lies in the ability to analyze large amounts of data from any business model, determine the personalized preferences of all potentially customers, than rich them with relevant information, wherever they may be (Dragoi et al., 2010). Nowadays, enterprises tend to differentiate themselves from what they know (intellectual capital) and from how they use knowledge. The interest for knowledge within enterprises begins with identification that the value of market of several enterprises is much larger than the value of their own physical patrimony (equipments, facilities etc.) (Rosu et al., 2010b).
