This paper takes as its context organisations operating in an emerging knowledge economy. It is concemed with how to research ways in which such organisations can develop the capability to regularly generate and apply new knowledge to continuous improvement and radical innovation in work processes, products and services and to customer relationships. In the paper, this capability is termed 'knowledge productivity'.

It is argued in the paper that evolving notions of knowledge in such organisations pose new research questions that require a fresh conceptual research framework and innovative research strategies. The purpose of the paper is to identify some of those questions, propose a relevant framework, and suggest three strategies that have emerged from recent studies, some utilising that framework. The strategies focus on reconstruction, development and description of improvement and innovation processes through time. It is concluded that their integrated use can reveal emerging principles for knowledge productivity in unconventional organisational forms.