Knowledge Management

Preface.

Contents.

Multinational companies face a common problem: how to stimulate knowledge sharing and reuse for both individual competence development and business impact, particularly among employees in different parts of the world. A key to this process is to embed knowledge building, sharing, and reuse within both formal and informal learning. This presentation describes why and how this can work and gives an illustration of how traditional courses for professionals in a multinational oil company are being redesigned to focus on knowledge sharing and to also make use of knowledge management tools and processes.

In recent years the concepts of knowledge management and corporate culture have often been in the centre of research projects aiming at SMEs. However, this paper looks at the interface between both potential competitive advantages from a different angle. The authors argue that the extent of knowledge sharing within a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) has an impact on the corporate culture with regards to the strength of employee motivation and the tendency towards collectivism. This assumption has been tested in the framework of a case study in three small companies, the employees of which filled out a questionnaire, which then has been analysed quantitatively. Research results have shown that, with regards to the research participants, there is a positive correlation between the extent of knowledge transfer and employee motivation, as well as between the extent of knowledge transfer and collectivism.

In a world that is increasingly focused on knowledge work, there is a need to understand how information and knowledge are created, retained, and shared in organizations. Research into information sharing, incorporating theories of social interaction, creates a comprehensive framework for studying information sharing. This article reports the findings from the first stage of a longitudinal case study designed to capture the information sharing practices in a new work environment for life science researchers. Data reported in this article sets a benchmark for future measurement of collaboration and information sharing in the context of an interdisciplinary life sciences center and furthers the research about the connection between information sharing and knowledge exchange/sharing.

In this study, we will report an analysis of a large corpus of text (approximately 1.1 million words) produced by students over 6 semesters of an internship program. This study involves reconstructing the discourse about work used by students when interacting with each other about the dilemmas they experience in work and professional life. We are interested in explaining how interns, by using this discourse, frame the dilemmas they experience and approaches for handling those dilemmas. To do this we perform discourse analysis using computer aided text analysis tools. The analysis should help generate a better understanding of the way people, novices in particular, understand work. The analysis may also reveal ways to improve intervention into learning and knowledge management processes. In this way, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of knowledge management, which is an important contemporary problem for organizations and society.

The rate of change for organizations has accelerated over the last fifteen years fuelled primarily by the internet revolution. Knowledge is now an indispensable economic factor of the globalized free trade era. To maintain sustainable competitive advantage, organizations are faced with the challenge of retaining and growing intellectual capital to contend with the dynamic forces of globalization. Organizations are maintaining flexible workforces although they serve to erode loyalties between employees and employees. The availability and effective transfer of tacit knowledge is fundamental to the survival, growth and ultimate capacity of an organization to maintain its competitive advantage, exploit current available resources to the maximum, increase internal efficiencies while creatively exploring opportunities with new knowledge. This study stresses the importance for organizations to focus on the exploitation of tacit knowledge by equipping their staff, a key knowledge asset, with sufficient competencies to create relevant frameworks specific to their environment. In doing so, staff would identify initiatives, harness, develop, coach and nurture the organization to redefine its business case and maintain its competitive edge. The study findings revealed that global organizations can achieve sustainable competitive advantage by nurturing a knowledge management system for tacit knowledge capture and new knowledge generation. The success of this is dependent on knowledge management being incorporated in the organizational management process with knowledge management training and development being a key component of organizational culture. On the basis of the findings, the study offers recommendations pertaining to policy and professional practice.

Organizations are in important respect social networks, whereby knowledge is socially constructed and shared. This study employed Social Network Analysis (SNA) to investigate the strength of inter-unit ties within a financial organization. The association of these ties with the sharing of different types of knowledge was measured by a specifically created and developed web survey that was provided to twenty two units within the firm. Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure (MRQAP) was used to examine two main questions and hypotheses. First, associations between strength of business ties and the sharing of public knowledge, and second associations between strength of social ties and the sharing of private knowledge.

Results showed that strength of business relationships rather than strength of the social relationships contributed most significantly to the sharing of public and private knowledge in this organization. By using new variable configurations and dichotomies for tie strength and knowledge types, the study generated new insights concerning the effects of tie strength on knowledge sharing.

This paper examines an inter-organizational network, composed of direct competitors, where each organization has much to gain, or lose, from sharing knowledge with its competitors. The specific management problem being examined is the knowledge transfer issue. The dilemma is whether an organization should indeed share its knowledge, especially with its competitors, or should it choose to hold it privately. More specifically, how can organizations balance between cooperating and competing in terms of their knowledge assets? We employed a substantive case study to consider rich issues relative to the exchange of knowledge between competitors who were in cooperating engagements via participation in inter-organizational networks. It is believed that the paper presents useful empirical insights into decisions relating to knowledge transfer cooperation or competition.

The collapse of the communist system and the economic liberalization that followed have provided new opportunities for western companies. But there were many uncertainties and risks: entering the eastern European markets at an early stage meant stepping into a different world. For this reason it was crucial for the western companies to acquire and transfer knowledge about markets, cultures, infrastructures, etc. As western companies tried to enhance the productivity of their eastern affiliates they also had to transfer knowledge from the West to the East. Transferring the Western knowledge embedded in standards and practices to the East was one approach, providing staff in the East with a great deal of training another. This paper summarizes theoretical foundations and findings from an empirical study on companies entering Eastern European markets.

We examine the Information Quality aspects of Wikipedia. By a study of the discussion pages and other process-oriented pages within the Wikipedia project, it is possible to determine the information quality dimensions that participants in the editing process care about, how they talk about them, what tradeoffs they make between these dimensions and how the quality assessment and improvement process operates. This analysis helps in understanding how high quality is maintained in a project where anyone may participate with no prior vetting. It also carries implications for improving the quality of more conventional datasets.

This paper develops a conceptual framework of knowledge transfer via personnel movement among subsidiaries to explain how managing competencies and HRM practices can enable the fulfillment and fit with certain mechanism of transfer through headquarter involvement and mediating effect of subcultures.

The primary goal of this research was to obtain understanding and valuable insight regarding the inter-organizational collaborative process. The results of this study proposed a set of stages for collaborative efforts and examining collaborative projects between museums and libraries funded by one federal agency in the United States. This research used an online questionnaire and a semi-structured telephone interview. The questionnaire investigated whether or not the proposed stages took place in collaborative projects, and the semi-structured interview requested the description of the collaborative process. The characteristics of the stages in the collaborative process were derived and conceptualized from the literature review. There were eight different stages: networking, definition, execution, relationship stage, partner's evaluation stage, common evaluation stage, conflict, 'redefinition of conditions' stage, and the end of collaboration.

This paper discusses the integration of technologies and mechanisms that would support the work of communities of practice. It is hypothesized that socialware technologies, digital libraries, ontologies and information filtering when integrated in a system, would result in an increment of social capital, that is, the benefit gained by individuals through social interaction. Socialware would support information exchange; digital libraries would maintain organized repositories of resources; ontologies would capture the semantic network of concepts and language used by the community; information filtering would create personalized profiles and would guide members to resources and discussions relevant to them. Two independent projects developed by different research groups, in two different domains (social development and tourism) are described. Both have a common goal: to support information exchange and knowledge creation in community/communities of practices. Although each project started from opposite ends, – one aimed at a digital library, the other aimed at a social network –enhancements proposed to each one of them which will lead them to a common integrated model. Proposed enhancements to the Online Network of Latin American and Caribbean Social Institutions (RISALC) include support for community of practices/communities of practice, ontologies and filtering. TRINET has experience as a virtual community of practice and it is considering adding value to their members with the provision of interactive modules of digital library and filtering, supported by ontologies.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how national (Chinese) cultural factors influence knowledge sharing behavior in virtual communities of practice at a large U.S.-based multinational organization. The data in this study come from interviews with the company's employees in China, and managers, who are involved in managing knowledge-sharing initiatives. The results from the above data showed that overall the national cultural influence is less pronounced online than what the literature has suggested. Although Chinese employees' tendency to draw sharp distinction between in-groups and out-groups and the modesty requirements were barriers to knowledge sharing online, the issue of saving face was less important than expected, and attention paid to power and hierarchy seemed to be less critical than what the literature indicated. A surprising finding was that in the initially assumed collectivistic Chinese culture, the high degree of competitiveness among employees and job security concerns seems to override the collectivistic tendencies, and are among the main reasons for knowledge hoarding. The reasons for unexpected findings could be associated with differences between face-to-face and online knowledge sharing environments; the influence of the company's organizational culture; and the recent rapid changes of the overall Chinese cultural patterns.

Reflection, the mental action that distances a person from incidents, is a central component of experiential learning. Formal opportunities for reviewing events are embedded in many organizational routines and making time to reflect is advocated as good practice for an individual's professional development. However, particularly in work settings, these occasions for reflection operate at an instrumental level, they are task-focused. This paper argues that constructing shared accounts of events in the form of video-stories tends to move reflection beyond review of particular events, giving opportunities to surface and question values and assumptions which are otherwise taken for granted. As part of professional development individuals can benefit from opportunities to make video-stories as part of personal competency development. In an organizational setting, collaboration to produce video-stories fosters knowledge transactions through which knowledge is exposed to evaluation and thus can lead to organizational learning.

Until now, the organization of information services within the public sector has reflected the original function of ICT within organizations: support for operational management. This is clear from the fact that the ICT function often forms part of the operations organization, or even technical services. That distances it from the strategic function. As a result, only limited use can be made of ICT's innovations and it is difficult to predict accurately what the repercussions of that are for the business. To enable better use of ICT, investigation is needed into how the ICT function within the public sector should be organized.

To investigate that, we opted to take a small section of reality and look at how the information services related to it are organized. As a result of that study, the research objective was defined in greater detail. We then turned our attention to twelve different programs and projects at Dutch departments of state, clustered to form three case studies, to see how they draw upon ICT's power to innovate in their own organization. In virtually none of the cases studied does the ICT function occupy a meaningful position. To change this, improvements must be made to the organization of information services in such a way that it becomes possible to conduct programs and projects in a more coordinated, multidimensional way and so allow the ICT function to assume a position of greater significance. To test this approach, we applied it at three pilot organizations. It can be stated that none of these had reached a stable final situation at the end of the work. All have made a start on the change, but none have completed it.

The approach developed thus seems to be inadequate as a solution to the research question. This may be caused by the fact that the organization of the information services should also be changed by the innovative power of ICT; improved products and processes alone are not enough. Nor is it sufficient to develop and produce a new blueprint. Rather, the right institutional conditions have to be created to enable the necessary improvements.

The paper considers the potential of a representation to facilitate the sharing of technical how-to help in workplace environments. The method uses screenshots of trails through a computer application made by others and sharable through a Knowledge Management System. A pilot study was conducted comparing this type of help both with conventional built-in application help files, and with the ad hoc individualized face-to-face help provided by colleagues in informal workplace knowledge sharing interactions. The findings indicate the potential of the method as an additional knowledge sharing resource, both as a standalone method and as a way to reduce the interaction time during informal face-to-face help interactions. The study also reveals the power of a lightweight pilot study for uncovering issues for future systems redesign and more detailed evaluations.

Business Intelligence (BI) has emerged as one of software solutions that have maximum allocated investments by many organizations for the year 2005. Among various forms and application-based business intelligence, market intelligence (MI) is viewed as a crucial factor for a company to succeed both operationally and strategically in today's' competitive environment. Capturing market intelligence data has apparently become easy, especially with the proliferation of the Web. But, this has made data collection more difficult in reality from the system's point of view, as data sources on the web are voluminous, heterogeneous in terms of structures and semantics, and some part of it may be irrelevant to a specific organizations' marketing decision-making context, which is the primary premises of market intelligence systems. To address these three specific problems, an algorithm based on similarity measures and multi-dimensional scaling (MDS), which produces hierarchical clusters of knowledge maps from a training data-source set for collecting inputs from heterogeneous sources for capturing market intelligence, is proposed in this paper. The paper illustrates that this algorithm can reduce irrelevant or highly similar data sources for inclusion in the selected data-source repository – represented in the form of clusters of knowledge maps. Therefore, it acts as a similarity-based selection and filtering tool also, with the specific purpose of data collection for MI. Incorporating more advanced techniques for Knowledge maps creation e.g. the Genetic Algorithm-based approaches can further expand this work.

This paper introduces an automatic querying technique, DocSpotter, and presents that it is an efficient tool to identify the set of documents for the extraction of a pre-defined relation from text. DocSpotter is designed to retrieve documents with more precise match to the initial query by expanding queries as it repeats the keyphrase extraction process in a given database. It utilizes keyphrase extraction in conjunction with referencing ontologies for the query expansion. We report two sets of experimental results demonstrating the performance of DocSpotter. The experiments were designed to evaluate the performance of DocSpotter on the task of protein-protein interaction extraction. The results identified that DocSpotter was able to retrieve more and more documents that contain protein-protein pairs from MEDLINE as it repeated the keyphrase extraction process. In the other set of experiments, performance of DocSpotter was compared with that of SLIPPER, a supervised rule-based query expansion technique. The results showed that DocSpotter outperformed SLIPPER from 17.90% to 29.98% in terms of accuracy in all iterations.

Event prediction is one of the main purposes in association rule mining. In this paper, we propose an approach for predicting rare events efficiently, like engine failures, stock price situations and market analysis etc. We associate a transaction as ordinal event series that occur in equal length intervals and formulate the problem of predicting rare events. Furthermore, an algorithm for discovering valuable patterns in time series is given.

This paper suggests a decision support system for tactical air combat environment using a combination of unsupervised learning for clustering the data and three well known genetic programming techniques to classify the different decision regions accurately. The genetic programming techniques used are: Linear Genetic programming (LGP), Multi Expression Programming (MEP) and Gene Expression Programming (GEP). The clustered data is used as the inputs to the genetic programming algorithms. Some simulation results demonstrating the difference of these techniques and are also performed. Experiment results reveal that the proposed method is efficient.

The rapid growth of the medical literature has increased the challenge of finding information relevant to specific clinical questions. There is an urgent need for tools to assist the discovery of best evidence. In this paper we described a knowledge domain visualization based approach to the searching of best clinical evidence in medical literature. We applied the citation-based approach to two case studies of standard evidence-based medicine. We compared the gold standard papers used in the original case studies and articles identified by the citation-based approach. The results showed that gold standard papers and highly cited papers with high co-citation centrality are closed related. The strengths and limitations of our approach are discussed. We concluded that it is more effective and reliable to use our visualization tool to extract evidence to support clinicians' decision making than the traditional EBM approach.

Knowledge integration is fraught with problems. To overcome the "knowledge acquisition bottleneck", in time critical situations, knowledge-bases are being created utilising techniques that minimise interaction with a knowledge expert. This can lead to problems where errors occur within the created ontology, either with concepts, semantics or both, and can make integration a difficult task. A further difficulty for integration is that some domains have uncertain knowledge, which most integration techniques do not take into account. The integration framework discussed in this paper provides mechanisms for capturing uncertain concepts as well as the ability to capture the ontology creator's beliefs about concepts and semantics. These probability based concepts are used to assist the user when integrating the ontology with other ontologies. The Integration framework further permits the user to assign trust values for the ontologies, this allows the user to differentiate between an ontology created by a "knowledge expert" and those created by other, possibly less skilled, people. Current integration techniques provide assistance to users in the way of suggestions. This indicates that the user is the decision maker involved in selecting the correct merges and semantic relationships between concepts. This can cause problems as it relies on the user being an expert, who in time critical situations may not be available. This framework attempts to minimise the need for an expert in the integration process by providing probable solution-spaces that provide the user with alternate possible solutions that can be filtered to provide the best solution for the current situation.

This paper describes user interface tools for the management of complex info-seeking tasks in the legal and medical domains. We provide evidence that search histories can support the planning, management, and execution of complex knowledge-intensive tasks of information seekers. In prior research (Komlodi, 2002; 2004), both user reports and researcher observations revealed that searchers need this type of historical information in managing complex, knowledge-intensive information-seeking tasks, but find it hard to remember all historical information that is necessary. To complement their memory, information seekers often create external search history representations. We carried out an evaluation of the utility of two search history tools in planning, managing, and executing complex information retrieval (IR) tasks. In this paper we present evidence that search history tools are useful for search task management. We further present certain differences between usefulness and usability of the two tools that help us identify features that are important for task management.

Citation analysis has been used to study various aspects of scholarly communication. In general, these studies have not differentiated among the multiple reasons for citations. However, authors cite other works for a number of reasons including demonstrating knowledge of the field, establishing the placement of the citing work in the field, comparing and criticizing other works, and paying homage to seminal work by pioneers in the field. In this paper, we present a number of applications in which distinguishing among authors' motivations for citations might be useful and present a machine learning approach to automatically classifying citations according to these motivations. Our approach to citation classification makes use of the structure and the argumentative nature of the scientific papers. We present the results of experiments we ran on papers in the computer science field. The results are encouraging and give us hope that we can use our citation classifier in analyzing large corpora of scientific papers.

This paper explores the use of a machine learning algorithm to automate the task of classifying learning materials into categories useful for instruction. A collection of documents was segmented manually into independent learning objects. A regularized linear text classifier was trained to recognize four topic categories and eleven instructional use categories using manual category labels as training data. The classifier was able to categorize text-based learning objects into topic categories with high accuracy, but initial performance for instructional use classification was poor. An enhanced classifier was able to distinguish between conceptual and procedural categories of instructional use with high accuracy.

Enterprise Architecture Integration (EAI) focuses on integrating the disparate application systems through a variety technologies like Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Enterprise Data Stores, and Middleware. While these technologies may overlap, the one consistent requirement is the ability to capture the information and knowledge in a metadata repository. Treating information technology components as assets opens the door to the possibility of building knowledge repositories that enable the organization to reuse technologies wherever possible. Enterprise metadata is a general term used to describe the entire collection of repositories that deliver various meta-models of information to the end user. As a standard operating practice, repositories are built with simple classifications schemes from the asset producer or broker point of view. These classifications may include an advanced taxonomy but the majority of implementations focus on a single term domain. Emerging technologies based on the consumer's perspective are opening up new opportunities to discover and understand how the asset is utilized within the environment. This paper will review the integration of two consumer based taxonomies into a fortune 500 corporate enterprise metadata implementation.

Knowledge organisation (KO) schemes affect directly the nature of knowledge states emerging as a result of their use. Basically a knowledge organisation system (KOS) may expected to fit its explicit purpose in a more or less satisfactory manner, but besides the intended application, each system is capable to fit an unknown number of implicit quasi-intended and non-intended purposes. The scope and confines of knowledge potentially emerging as a result of an application of a KO scheme is discussed here with a reference to the ecological approach introduced by Gibson.

Knowledge management (KM) as a discipline and a research area is quite broad. The complexity of what knowledge means in addition to the growing interest in KM has led to different approaches to managing knowledge. It has also led to different streams of research areas and thus multiple definitions. This paper discusses the concepts of knowledge from the perspective of various disciplines and various views are synthesized. The paper presents the position of contemporary organizations regarding knowledge and discuses how knowledge is being conceptualized in information systems and organizations and management disciplines. This clear conceptualization of knowledge could determine the focus of KM in organization and assist in the categorization of the nature of KM research.

Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of trust in KM initiatives. However, very few have been conducted to quantify its effect and its relationship with other KM factors. The purpose of this study is to start filling this gap. Data from 101 US organizations involved in KM were collected. For each organization the level of usage of different KM tools and practices was assessed and the main KM approach adopted by the organization (codification vs. personalization) was estimated. In addition, the level of organizational trust and the level of success of the KM initiative were assessed. Eight hypotheses were postulated to study the relationships between the above three factors. We present that trust and the personalization approach have a significant influence on KM initiative success.

This empirical study investigates the impact of HRM practices on organizational learning process. Based on the data obtained through a questionnaire survey of 606 employees from 18 Thai corporations in various sectors, it is found that HRM practices namely recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, as well as reward and recognition are a strong enabling driver that enhances the climate of organizational learning. The results of this study pinpoint that HRM practices can be more effectively utilized to help shape the way people behave and interact in organizational learning process during the time of change.

Application of KM framework on organizational effectiveness facilitates organization to sustain competitive challenges in the new business environment characterized by dynamic, discontinuous and radical pace of change. There is a realization that competitive advantage could be gained only through leveraging intellectual capital or knowledge residing in the mind of organizational workforce. The knowledge based business has become a major strategy of an organization in this competitive world to sustain its growth. An organization capacity to improve its existing skills offers the most defensible competitive advantage of all. The decisive competitive factor in the knowledge society will be the acquisition and application of knowledge. This paper describes the study on work practices of a medium-sized fast growing pharmaceutical organization. The practice of following knowledge management based system implemented by the company is discussed. A model in the form of "Knowledge Tree" was developed for the company that identifies the basic steps that company lays stress on while concentrating on its implementation. The general agreement amongst all participants in the present study is that knowledge management is a matter of people and culture for the organizational effectiveness.

Organizations supply a context for work that is evident in the organizational structure, tasks, roles, and language. Members can communicate efficiently because the context is shared, but sharing new knowledge and communicating with other organizations may be less efficient because contextual information must be supplied. Boundary objects can facilitate interorganizational communication and learning because they contain information in a form that has meaning in multiple environments, yet are adaptable to specific contexts. This paper examines the question of how listservs can serve as organizational boundary objects.

This paper tries to front a commonly expressed criticism towards research in organisational learning: "organisational learning does not provide 'useful' knowledge for practitioners." Activities related to organisational learning are many times accused for being performed and managed on a managerial level and thereby too theoretical and abstract. To not understand how the individual process and acquire knowledge has a negative effect upon organisations since all organisations are becoming more knowledge intensive across the service, industrial and governmental sectors. A more personalised view of knowledge is required, and we suggest instead to deliberately emanating from the individual and his or her behavioural conditions in order to influence and affect the organisation. With this perspective, individuals' actions are paid attention to earlier in the learning process. 'The Affect Based Learning Matrix' has been constructed in order to promote processes for continuous learning within organisations when taking employees automatic thoughts and emotional aspects into consideration. This is assumed to improve the organisational learning process since vague wordings and unspoken negative emotions make people passive in finding new solutions. Seven in-depth interviews have been made with people deeply involved in or responsible for learning and knowledge management activities in order to receive feedback upon the idea of introducing a cognitive approach into the organisational learning field.

Information and Communication technologies (ICT) have been used to deliver knowledge to support agriculture and rural livelihood (ARL) for over ten years now. Yet, in India today, use of ICT to support ARL remains at an early stage. Our survey in North Indian states shows that less than 10% of the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (Agricultural Science Centers) and other extension initiatives actively "use digital content" or "contribute digital content" for common use. Yet there are more than a hundred active ICT initiatives towards this end across the country. This paper investigates this intriguing gap. This research identifies the need for 'easier' knowledge flow mechanisms, information exchange, storage and retrieval mechanisms that can span language and literary barriers. This paper outlines an approach towards a self-managed knowledge organization in the ARL domain.

A conceptual model of Strategic Knowledge Management (SKM) is presented as the main result of a research concluded in 2004, which aimed to develop a conceptual model of SKM. Thus, this paper, complete its model and establish the difference between Strategic Knowledge Management (SKM) and Knowledge Strategic Management (KSM). Using the inductive and deductive methods simultaneously, the methodology consisted of integrating general models of knowledge management with different strategic perspectives. Results seem to indicate a new topic of study in the organizational context, bringing together Business, Information Science and Psychology. In this regard, the model built up comprises three basic parts, namely: management features, kinds of knowledge and strategic issues. The research results point out the difference between SKM and KSM, based on its essence.

Knowledge management is challenging because intangible assets accumulate in the organization through dynamic, unstructured, and subtle processes that are not easily captured in information systems. The purpose of this research is to determine how storytelling successfully works within the organizational environment, describe its functionality, and pull together best practices on storytelling. Storytelling has the potential to represent internalization and socialization. Storytelling is relatively easy to implement in organizations, but formalization of storytelling into an organizational knowledge management strategy opens up a wide range of academic research and practical business issues.

The aim of this article is to present a case study of a Brazilian company on which it was developed a knowledge portal linked to some motivating mechanisms and the total decentralization on the creation, dissemination and sharing of knowledge processes. The developed activities, used mechanisms, defined indicators, as well as the achieved results will be presented here.

In the current diverse and dynamic business environment, customer contributions can improve the effectiveness of product innovation activities. Consequently, companies engage in numerous initiatives to get closer to their customers or involve them directly in their innovation processes. In this analysis of European high-tech companies, the author focuses on the innovation front-end, since during the early stages of the innovation process, customer consideration can greatly affect innovation success. Using specific manufacturer goals for early customer integration (ECI) as starting point, the author derives necessary customer contributions, then develops a conceptual framework for joint knowledge creation between manufacturer and customer. Four new customer roles enhance the well-known Lead User approach: opportunity sensor, complementary specialist, specifier, and selector. Using this foundation, the paper analyses the respective characteristics and managerial challenges of these ECI roles.

Managing information knowledge has been proved to be the vital factor for the success of 4^th Party Logistics(4PL) business. In this paper, the author tries to identify the factors that lead to successful knowledge reuse via electronic knowledge repositories (EKR), an important type of knowledge management systems (KMS). This is attempted through an empirical study of knowledge management in the customer service centre of a regional 4PL – VIDS Logistics in Asia Pacific. The paper also presented a proposed framework to initialize knowledge re-use in a typical 4PL environment.

This study is an effort to dive in a definition of e-business and to explore which firm processes and structures will benefit from the integration of IT. It suggests that an e-business firm needs a new model of organization design where the modularity of its process is supported by IT competence. Finally, stresses the importance of knowledge management process as a principal source of competitive advantage.

This paper examines the knowledge-sharing and knowledge-management behaviors exhibited in a field study of the eCommerce systems group of a global service firm. The study demonstrates the mixture of virtual and physical mechanisms employed for distributed knowledge management, when these cross functional and organizational boundaries. The contribution of this paper is to provide a framework for how such groups manage distributed knowledge in practice and to suggest a fifth type of boundary object in addition to the four forms originally identified by Star (1989). The findings of the study have significant implications for how we design virtual systems for distributed management collaboration, as they suggest that many knowledge-sharing forms are not amenable to support within a computer-based system environment. Formal knowledge-sharing systems must operate within a context of informal, social networking and information exchange.

Kogut and Zander (1992) have speculated that information systems simplify the replication of knowledge and by implication codify the knowledge. This leads to further speculation that information systems may be forms of organizational knowledge. The authors of this paper 1) extend the concepts of Kogut and Zander to describe knowledge and organizational knowledge, 2) identify a taxonomy of IS, and 3) offer a model of information systems as objectified organizational process knowledge surrounded by layers of human process knowledge. Areas for future research are outlined as well.

This study sequences three knowledge processing models—Info/Geo-metrical Optics (IGO), Information Genetics (IG), and Fuzzy Commonality (FC)—for mapping, constructing and managing a quality knowledge architecture. Each model is respectively illustrated, explained and tested. The interrelationship among these models is analyzed through the elaborations of the focal length, the commonality, union, change of dynamics, and the percentages of focal length and commonality applying citation data. The significant contributions of this sequencing approach are discussed. They meet information organizations' common needs of finding an operation-efficient and cost-effective approach to knowledge management.

This paper discusses the hindering factors for the success of Information Systems in Developing Countries. As such Jordan was taken as a case study for this paper at hand. The research paper found 15 hindering factors that were discussed in this paper. The research suggests six ways to elevate some of the hindering factors.

Knowledge Management (KM) has been acknowledged as an important resource in organizational studies and Information Technology (IT). But current literature efforts have thus far been channelled more rigorously to the management of tangible or explicit knowledge in the form of databases, intranet services, information systems, coded manuals etc. (Malhotra, 2005, 2004; Hansen, Nohria and Tierney, 1999; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). What is of no less interesting but more difficult to capture in terms of measurement, analysis and tangible results is the concept of tacit knowledge. Many believe that tacit knowledge residing within an individual is only observable via an individual's actions. While we agree that tacit knowledge in the form of skills and competencies cannot be captured, we think that other types of knowledge such as the "know how" and the "know who" that we refer to as "implicit knowledge" can be captured and codified. In this paper we aim to illustrate/demonstrate the importance of language in communicating implicit knowledge and how language analysis can be used a means of capturing and accessing implicit knowledge.

This paper describes an innovative Master of Science (MSc) course in Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) taught via blended learning by the Department of Information Systems at Cranfield University. This MSc is aimed primarily at the defence sector, although it has become increasingly attractive to learners across the public and private sectors. We begin by introducing the background and context under which the course was designed. The section on design outlines our syllabus and our learning design. The section on development describes how we applied knowledge management software to support the authoring process. The section on delivery describes our blended modes of teaching at workshops and via the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The paper includes a comprehensive bibliography of course textbooks, which are issued to all learners.

Knowledge Management (KM) can perhaps best be described as the strategic process through which an organization maximizes value from its intellectual and knowledge-based assets. It involves creating effective methods for building relationships and trust among employees so knowledge will be recognized, captured, organized, evaluated, shared, applied and reused in the most productive manner possible to fulfill the organization's goals. Because of the importance of using and reusing this knowledge base, a growing number of public and private sector organizations are implementing KM programs to increase efficiency, productivity, and their competitive advantage. To help meet the demand for educated KM professionals, California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is offering an innovative, integrated master's degree program in KM through the Roland Tseng College of Extended Learning. This paper outlines CSUN's unique curriculum development process to create a practical KM master's degree program.

The global information glut, and rapid developments in electronic media and the World Wide Web (Web) within the last couple of decades, have brought about numerous changes to every society and economy. Recognizing this, the Singapore government envisaged a dire need for Singapore to be Information Technology (IT) equipped and skilled in every industry, beginning most importantly with education in schools. Specifically, the Ministry of Education (MOE) implemented rigorous plans for both schoolteachers and students to be outfitted with the necessary competencies. As a result, there ensued several educational reforms in schools. This paper gives an insight into the changes that have been taking place in the education system in Singapore with regard to the new policies on IT; an overview of the consequent challenges that teachers face and the changing roles that they have to assume; and finally a brief discussion on how these changes can be adopted more readily.

The field experiences of pre-service teachers are considered to be critical in teacher preparation. Many universities use a paper-based approach in tracking student experiences. This type of system is both cumbersome and inefficient and provides no method for aggregating data. In order to address this challenge at the University of Missouri-Columbia, a Web-based tracking system was developed. The purpose of the system is to provide students, host teachers, instructors, and administrators with tools to track time spent in the classroom, record the types of experiences, and review the reflections of students. This system will further the students' opportunities to learn from their active experiences in the classroom by providing them with tools to support reflection on their experiences and will reduce the paperwork needed for tracking the students' experiences. In addition, the system will provide instructors and program administrators with access to aggregated data about the students' experiences.

Knowledge management measurement has the key objective to evaluate the value of knowledge workers and their relationship to the company strategy as well as on the knowledge flow between the key knowledge workers. From a theoretical point of view, this article presents the transformation of the Uncertainty Principle of Heisenberg through analogical reasoning into the knowledge potential measurement method. The knowledge potential research focuses on the measurement process of highly uncertain knowledge of the experts who have a high importance to the organization. The knowledge potential view expresses the knowledge of a knowledge worker in a nine-dimensional measurement system. Case studies conducted by the authors show that the interviewer bias has a high impact on the measurement quality. Future research will focus on the design of a multi-functional stakeholder information system for knowledge potential measurement.

Knowledge Management (KM) has proved its ability to promote innovation and gain the competitive edge in business, particularly in the knowledge intensive service sectors. Nevertheless, the instrument for performance measurement of KM has not been fully developed, owing to the complexity involved in variable selection. There are some instruments available for KM performance measurement but their validity is yet to be established. The main thrust of this paper is on the development, validation and application of the KM performance measurement instrument in the educational and the IT sectors through empirical means. The instrument chosen for the empirical study has eight dimensions, which measure the KM performance. The instrument is validated for content, criterion and construct validity, which includes the factor analysis. The empirical study has been performed using this instrument through random sampling technique. A hypothesis is tested to study the perceptional difference in two knowledge intensive service sectors. The result of this empirical study is the development of a valid instrument that can be used for KM performance measurement in service sectors.

This study tries to find out that leads to build trust among individuals and groups throughout the Organization, up- and- down hierarchy, to create an open, open problem solving climate throughout the Organization – where problems are confronted and differences clarified, both within groups and between groups. This is done considering the utilization of the Knowledge Management and to locate decision – making and problem solving responsibilities as close to the information sources and the relevant resources as possible, rather than in a particular role or level of the hierarchy. The present analysis is an attempt to decompose the concept of Organizational Effectiveness and to expose and examine contradictions inherent in the concepts and its applications. The purpose is to provide a sound basis for research, theory and practice. The analysis will be more than administrative – technical and be informative for individuals concerned with altering the directions that Organizations take.

Knowledge Management (KM) and Competitive Intelligence (CI) are two fields that have evolved independently both in theory and practice. Despite the fact that CI and KM share a strong focus on strategic importance, and both rely heavily on the processing of various types of data, information and knowledge resources, the links between KM and CI have not been extensively explored. This paper seeks to explore the relationships that exist between the two fields both at the conceptual and empirical levels to better delineate the differences and intersections between these two fields and to develop a more integrated approach to information and knowledge processing.

Today, there are different techniques and tools to guide the process for wrapper generation and automated web knowledge extraction. For the purpose of this research work, we decided to use the innovative Lixto tool [1].

Lixto has the ability and the performance to generate wrappers through the extraction of chunks of information from HTML pages into XML format Lixto is a user-friendly tool that is assisting the wrapper generation process in an semi-automatical way providing a fully visual and interactive user interface.

The Internet offered a new media for establishing communities of practice in knowledge management (KM) in the late 1990s. This paper describes a case study of how a business organization applied the spreadsheet as a framework for establishing KM in a large community of software engineering and development teams. The focus was to process information by communicating the status of complex software projects from multiple locations in order to meet quality criteria for in an international telecommunications corporation. Project status and consistent process assurance had to be tracked effectively, even if the projects integrated code from across the globe. This paper describes the stages of KM shown by the evolution of a process checklist into a web-based spreadsheet framework for project managers, systems engineers and process engineers to use when sharing data and information to improve procedures. Information management evolved without formal application of the discipline of KM. Perhaps because of its learning environment and KM, future process improvements and quality certifications will continue successfully with a focus on the development of quality knowledge as well as products.

This paper reviews collaborative technologies from cutting-edge research projects that support the intelligence analysis. Using the collaboration in knowledge management literature as reference point, a content analysis of representative documents of intelligence collaboration systems reveals three major components of collaborative technologies (knowledge discovery, decision-making tools, and collaborative environment), together with the dimensions of agents and time. The empirical-based taxonomy applied to intelligence collaboration work is demonstrated. The potential areas of application of question representation in information retrieval and knowledge-based systems, and the applicability of a collaborative information retrieval search tool as inputs to decision-making tools are discussed.

If any organization wants to persist forever and raise its competitiveness, it must possess a decent knowledge management mechanism, so that it can efficiently utilize knowledge, share knowledge, create knowledge, and absorb new knowledge to enhance a continuous growth, As far as an enterprise is concerned, the primary objective of knowledge management is to boost the efficiency and efficacy of knowledge utilization, to motivate the knowledge of employees, and finally to gain the profit. However, government organizations are different from enterprises, because the meaning of its existence is not for profit, but to satisfy the needs of people, to provide people with fast, effective and high quality services. A government organization should be highly sensitive to needs of the people and respond immediately to them. The experiences gathered by government organizations are very abundant and diversified, hence only through a fine knowledge management strategy, it will be able to assist in increasing the efficiency of administration, and to become a knowledge type of government.

Before implementing or developing a knowledge management system, it's necessary to begin with a well planning process. Because different types of tasks demand different types of knowledge resources, it is essential to first familiarize with the source of knowledge, the knowledge flow, and its way of being provided within the organization, in order to establish a knowledge management system that would truly fit the needs of the organization. Therefore, researchers conducted a need assessment of the Council of Indigenous People, Executive Yuan in Taiwan, investigating the current status of its knowledge flow and knowledge sharing, and finally proposed a customized KM system structure.

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While professions require distinct bodies of recognized knowledge for identification, the identity and its respective capital of the Nursing profession is confounded by other healthcare professions whereby multiple professionals often work as a team in providing care to the patient. The Nursing profession, whose roots formed through the development of medicine, is not currently designed to be a medical tributary, but a unique patient-oriented doctrine with its own educational programs and licensing requirements. How Nursing manages the representation of this unique body of knowledge is fundamental to their 'Professional Capital'. An initial review of informational artifacts yields at best, inconsistent professional representation of Nursing. This exploratory study intends to examine solely informational artifacts utilized by and for Nursing as being potentially socially representative of their image, reputation, and in effect, 'Professional Capital', a term not currently found in the literature, thus the exploratory nature of this study.

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In order to capture the full fledge semantic of complicated product data model, the expressive language ALCNHR+K(D) is introduced. It cannot only be able to represent knowledge about concrete domain and constraints, but also rules in some sense of closed world semantic model hypothesis. Also the paper investigates an extension to description logic (DL) based knowledge reasoning by means of decomposing and rewriting complicated hybrid concepts into partitions. We present an approach that automatically decomposes the whole knowledge base into description logic compatible one and constraints solver one. Our arguments are two-fold. First, complex DLs with powerful representation ability lack effective reasoning ability. Second, we are concerned with how to reason effectively with the combination of inferences from distributed heterogeneous reasoner.

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Knowledge sharing has been widely recognized as a key factor contributing to teams' performance and success in project settings. Although the literature on knowledge sharing is rich and still evolving, personal factors that affect knowledge sharing among team members have not been explicitly addressed, especially in information systems (IS) teams. Based on organizational behavior, knowledge management, and IS literatures, this study hypothesizes that trust among team members, group cohesion, and group self-efficacy have positive effects on attitude toward knowledge sharing and perceived social loafing will have a negative effect on knowledge sharing. In turn, attitude toward knowledge sharing is hypothesized to have a direct effect on intention to share knowledge. Consistent with past studies, we expect the results to provide support for the hypothesized relationships. Practical and research implications can be drawn from this research and its results.

Knowledge and its transfer are the core resources and products of institutions of higher education and research. For this reason it appears to be obvious that managers of such organizations should take into account the specific criteria of intellectual capital and should be enabled and encouraged to use relevant methods. The Intellectual Capital Report (ICR) is an important example for such a method. One main function of ICRs is to provide key figures enabling the management of the intellectual resources. The other important function is to communicate the status and development of the organizations intellectual capital to internal and external stakeholders.