Journal of Information & Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management (KM) provides a systematic process to help in the creation, transfer and use of knowledge across the university, leading to increased productivity. While KM has been successfully used elsewhere, universities have been late in adopting it. Before a university can initiate KM, it needs to determine if it is ready for KM or not. Through a web-based survey sent to 1263 faculty members from 59 accredited Library and Information Science programs in universities across North America, this study investigated the effect of individual factors of trust, knowledge self-efficacy, collegiality, openness to change and reciprocity on individual readiness to participate in a KM initiative, and the degree to which this affects perceived organisational readiness to adopt KM. 157 valid responses were received. Using structural equation modeling, the study found that apart from trust, all other factors positively affected individual readiness, which was found to affect organisational readiness. Findings should help universities identify opportunities and barriers before they can adopt KM. It should be a useful contribution to the KM literature, especially in the university context.

A framework is presented for investigating and understanding human behaviour connected with knowledge and information management (KIM), developed from a case study in the UK defence sector. Qualitative research was undertaken in three organisations within the wider defence and security sector. The research showed that particular areas of sensitivity leading to resistance to change when KIM systems were introduced include a perceived lack of usability of KIM IT systems, the length of time required to learn how to use them, their perceived lack of reliability and the users’ consequent lack of trust in them. These issues led to the widespread use of “work arounds” to cope with the demands of the job without using the KIM systems as designed. The framework’s purpose is to contribute to the current field of knowledge about how organisations can best approach and implement required KIM changes, taking these human issues into account.

This study considers an efficient way to manage different aspects of a Central Bank’s Data Warehousing project using a custom built data and project management platform. Although the key aspect of managing a Data Warehouse is of course data management, but simultaneously the management of on-going projects related to data integration, website, internal and external human resources, etc. are also important. Data Warehousing in Central Banks is strategically different with other Commercial Bank/Corporate Data Warehousing project in terms of functionality/purpose. A typical Data Warehouse of a Commercial Bank or Corporate body primarily consists of the data generated out of their business operations. On the other hand, a Central Bank collects data from such Commercial Banks, Corporate bodies or Regulatory bodies for regulatory or supervisory purpose along with data on various subject domains allied to central banking compiled within the organisation. As a result, management of such diverse data sources is a major challenge for every central bank. Further, the traditional project management concepts are not applicable as-it-is in the context of a Central Bank. Keeping in view these particularities, and the shortcomings of available commercial project management tools, a comprehensive Information Management System has been built in Reserve Bank of India. The development was done in-house and based on open source platform. The salient features of this system are:

• (1)An all-in-one monitoring platform to monitor different aspects of Data Warehousing and Data Management project through a single window.
• (2)Scalability.
• (3)Cross-platform usability.

This study presents the background, design and development of the system in detail.

In this study, we investigated strategies that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Canada employ to create, transfer, and apply knowledge, and we evaluated the importance of supporting dynamic knowledge capabilities and information systems. To examine the empirical support for a model based on the resource-based view of the firm, we conducted a survey of SMEs operating in knowledge-intensive industries. We tested relationships among knowledge strategy, information systems strategy, dynamic knowledge capabilities, and firm performance. SME performance was measured by their physical and financial capital, as well as four intangible types of capital: structural, human, innovation, and relational. We observed that dynamic knowledge capabilities only partially mediate the link between knowledge strategy and performance in SMEs. However, dynamic knowledge capabilities fully mediate the link between information systems (IS) strategy and performance in the small and medium-sized firms studied. We observed that information systems only indirectly influence firm performance, but they directly support the knowledge and innovation capital of SMEs. Further, our results indicated that, in SMEs, knowledge strategies directly influence IS strategies, and that alignment between knowledge strategies and IS strategies positively impacts dynamic knowledge capabilities, and hence firm performance.

Although attitude represents a multicomponent construct with cognitive, affective, and behavioural components, the concept of attitude has been applied to online shopping settings as a general concept without accentuating its underlying components. As a result, empirical findings reported in the literature regarding the antecedents and outcomes associated with online shopping attitude have been mixed and inconsistent. To provide better insights into online shopping attitude and its constituent dimensions, this study examines the structure of online shopping attitude and focusses on its cognitive, affective, and behavioural components. Moreover, to empirically test and validate the tripartite structure of online shopping attitude, this study examines the effects of website design characteristics on the three components of online shopping attitude. The results provide ample support for the multicomponent structure of online shopping attitude and offer valuable implications for practice and research in online shopping behaviour.

The organisational structure of hybrid organisations is affected by multiple institutional influences, considering power flows and organisational processes from the public and private sectors. Given this dynamic, the process of knowledge creation presents some particularities. This article aims to understand the specificities of knowledge creation in large hybrid organisations characterized as large structures with multiple institutional influences, based on a case study of a Brazilian organisation — SESC. Data collection was based on four sources: (i) documental research; (ii) questionnaire with evocative phrases; (iii) structured interviews; and (iv) direct observation. The content analysis technique was used to codify and interpret information. The results offer significant contributions for these hybrid organisations, indicating that they need to access how the bureaucratic model inhibits their knowledge creation, while restricting tacit knowledge sharing, causing the lack of sense of urgency and reducing autonomy and creativity.

The exploratory study presents the role of individual cognition and immersion in individual knowledge development. Mediation effect of knowledge essence on the role is also examined. Data from 296 valid subjects from elementary and junior high school teachers are analysed and reveal several findings. Knowledge essence alternates the effect of individual cognition on knowledge development. Consistent cognition is significantly associated with knowledge development in richness and metacognition in usefulness. Similarity in knowledge context mediates the effect of metacognition on knowledge development in usefulness, but alternates the effect of cognition consistency on richness. Knowledge explicitness mediates the effect of situational immersion on rich and useful knowledge development, but alternates the mediation effect of context similarity on useful knowledge development. Implications and suggestions are also addressed.

Our aim is to reflect our experience of developing and implementing of an integrated Hospital Information Management System (HIMS), its financing contributions, technical and managerial challenges and key designing and planning factors. Following the strategic planning stage, HIMS was implemented into the hospital. Key issues were observed, total training hours and satisfaction levels of staff were followed year by year. Number of patients, surgeries and total income of the hospital were analysed. Cessation of printing radiology films, paper and manpower earnings were calculated. After the implementation of HIMS, total income of the hospital increased 37% in the first year. Total financial savings (paper printing, radiology films and manpower) as a result of HIMS implementation were approximately US$ 1.34million. HIMS prevents losses and leakages of medical materials, medicines and unnecessary processes in healthcare institutions. For an appropriate implementation of HIMS, healthcare managers should lend priority to seven critical design and implementation issues: (1) effective accessibility, (2) interoperability and integration, (3) ease of use (4) improvement of the quality of processes (5) centralised administration, (6) privacy and digital security, (7) precautions against resistance to IT.

Reference management software (RMS) is the most important aspect that is essential for all levels of researchers. They are established as research tools to help scholars in organising their work, improving workflows, and ultimately saving time. Choosing an appropriate RMS for managing records and utilising the bibliographic citation has been a challenge among researchers. They always seek for the features of an appropriate RMS prior to making an investment to buy the software. In this paper, a fuzzy logic approach is adopted for assessing the features of RMS from the researchers’ perspectives. Accordingly, a web-based survey was conducted and data collected from the researchers who had experience with different types of RMS. Then, we analyse the effects of RMS features on researcher perception in selecting an appropriate reference management program and find the importance level of those features. This study provides a toolset for RMS developers to identify the importance level of RMS features and accordingly consider these important features in developing the next generation of citation management software.

Growth and success of an organisation are primarily dependent on its ability to develop, leverage, and utilise its knowledge base. This study developed a model to test the impact of antecedents of knowledge Sharing (KS) on team performance. The antecedents were classified as organisational characteristics (structure, learning culture, employee training, reward system, top management support) and individual characteristic (emotional intelligence). The study is based on data collected with the help of structured questionnaires from 582 team members working under 69 teams in 26 surveyed organisations in India. Results suggest that high emotional intelligence increases the extent of KS and hence, has positive impact on team performance among cross-functional team members. Moreover, mutual trust among team members moderates KS behaviour and team performance. Thus, findings confirm the applicability and predictive power of the proposed model. Furthermore, this model contributes to the literature of predicting KS practices in cross-functional projects.