1,721,048 research outputs found
The Pervasive Identity of Knowledge Management: Consolidation or Dilution?
No full textIt is a widespread opinion that knowledge management (KM) is a strongly interdisciplinary field of study. Over the years, this characteristic has become more marked, and it is now possible to identify more than one hundred different definitions of the term coming from distinct subject areas, e.g., business management, accounting, education, human resources, information, computer science, healthcare, and library science. The number of papers related to KM has grown notably, and they now amount to tens of thousands. Looking at the literature, KM appears to be a pervasive concept that can be applied to any human activity, and conversely, any dimension related to human activity affects the adoption of KM. Although multidiscipinarity is not necessrily a negative characteristic, there is a risk that the concept itself of KM becomes misunderstood or used in a generic way and may lose its original significance. In other words, the proliferation of works that refer to KM is a positive signal but also raises the question of whether the discipline is consolidating or diluting its identity. The paper stimulates a discussion on this by going a little deeper into the abovementioned pervasiveness. An analysis of various reviews of the literature on KM is done to verify if KM is conceptualized and applied in a common way or if it is splitting into different but increasingly inconsistent streams
Knowledge management and learning for innovation in smes
No full textKnowledge is commonly considered the key ingredient of innovation, and hence the effectiveness of innovation activities depends on how companies manage their learning processes. This requires that companies fill their “knowledge gaps” and reduce uncertainty regarding various innovation-related issues about technical, economic, and market aspects. Especially in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), there is evidence that companies go through learning processes and manage innovation-related knowledge, but this is often done in an informal and substantially “unconscious” way. In particular, the adoption and use of systematic knowledge management (KM) practices for collecting, creating, and exploiting useful knowledge is scarcely diffused among SMEs. This topic deserves further investigation, considering that those companies are an essential part of the economy. By investigating a sample of 12 cases of innovative projects in SMEs, this study examines the critical KM issues in innovation implementation. The goals are: a) to detect and categorize the need of companies to fill their knowledge gaps in relation to the various elements and activities that are involved in the innovation process; b) to examine what KM practices are adopted and the success or limits of these practices; and c) to investigate whether and how systematic KM approaches are or can be used to effectively perform these learning processes, and the possible problems in their adoption. The study contributes to the literature about KM in SMEs, especially in relation to innovation. From a practical point of view, it offers food for thought to SME managers about the key role played by knowledge in the innovation processes and about how to better manage it
Knowledge management processes and innovation phases: insights from metalworking SMEs
No full textThe paper analyses how SMEs manage the knowledge needed to carry out innovation, focusing on how the various knowledge management (KM) processes (acquisition, documentation, sharing, application) come into play during the different phases of the innovation process (idea generation, ideas selection, project development, launch). In fact, little is known about the KM processes and practices that SMEs employ during their innovation activities. Given the novelty of the issue, a multiple case study was carried out on 13 innovative projects implemented by as many Italian manufacturing SMEs. Empirical evidence shows that all KM processes play a role in the various phases of the innovation process, but this role changes from phase to phase. Furthermore, the study highlights that the practices used in the various processes may vary in relation to the type of innovation that is being developed. Lastly, it confirms that SMEs tend to adopt an informal and emergent KM approach
Enterprise social networks for knowledge sharing: Lessons from a medium-sized company
Full text linkThe use of Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) as knowledge management tools has been widely investigated in case of big organizations, while there is little knowledge about advantages and possible implementation problems in small and medium-sized enterprises. To fill this gap, the paper analyses the case of adoption and use of the Yammer platform by a medium-sized Italian company. Yammer is an ESN service platform owned by Microsoft which includes several Web 2.0 features and whose interface resembles a typical public social network like Facebook. The research applied a quantitative approach: A questionnaire was submitted to all users of the ESN platform in the company between January and February 2017, with a response rate of 41%. The study contributes to the literature on social media as KM tools, by providing insights into the possible barriers that can undermine the success of ESN platforms as KM tools in the context of medium-sized enterprises. Specifically, it highlights that two factors (intrinsically connected to the size of the company) are particularly crucial: The limited number of users, and a sort of naïve ("me-too") implementation strategy. An important lesson is that the success of ESNs in medium-sized enterprise is influenced by personal (individual) and organizational factors, even more than technical ones. Especially, the need to reach a minimum critical mass of users can be a challenge. A limitation of the study is that it investigated only one company operating in a sector with specific knowledge needs and capabilities
Knowledge Management Meets Artificial Intelligence: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda
No full textIn the complex mosaic of the digital age, the tactical incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) within knowledge management (KM) is revealed as a central business component of technology management. The current study aims to clarify the intersection between KM and AI in organizational contexts. Specifically, this paper represents a preliminary step to investigate the potential impacts of AI on KM research and practice. Building on a database we created from Scopus, we shine a spotlight on trends in pertinent peer-reviewed scientific articles published in the last decade (2013-2023) on the KM-AI nexus. In addition, the paper presents an extended systematic analysis of literature, which synthesizes theoretical and empirical works conducted to date on this topic. Through a review of the available studies, we strive to shed light on effective KM frameworks and strategies in the era of AI. As extant research in the literature is largely theoretical, we propose to conduct empirical research on AI technologies in core KM processes such as acquisition, documentation, sharing, and application of knowledge. In addition, we recognize that the challenges and barriers to implementing AI in KM systems are not in focus and deserve to ignite further research. The anticipated contributions from such inquiries promise not only to augment the corpus of knowledge within the discipline, but also to furnish KM practitioners with the insights necessary for the crafting of efficacious systems. This research marks the advent of a transformative scholarly epoch, wherein the harmonious integration of KM and AI emerges as the bedrock of organizational ingenuity and strategic acumen. It distinguishes itself from prior works by pinpointing knowledge gaps in the synergy between disciplines and underscores the imperative for future research to bridge these lacunae
Knowledge Management for Adult and Higher Education: Mapping the Recent Literature
No full textThe recent literature shows that the field of knowledge management (KM) has a potential importance for the education area. It has been argued that KM concepts, models, and practices may be beneficial to teachers, learners, and university managers. An open issue, however, is whether and how the research and practice in these two distinct fields—education and KM—are really converging. This chapter proposes a systematic analysis of the literature to shed light onto the intersection between the fields of KM and adult and higher education. The main research trends are detected and highlighted. The analysis shows that there are promising applications of KM to higher education and university management. However, there is still the need to carry out more theoretical or applicative research with the purpose to facilitate the effective incorporation of KM notions, concepts, or practices into the education field
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Knowledge Management
No full textProceedings della 19^ edizione della Conferenza ECK
The continuous recombination of codification and personalisation km strategies: A retrospective study
Full text linkIt is increasingly considered important to understand how companies plan their Knowledge Management (KM) strategy. The literature provides evidence that there may be different possible approaches to KM strategy. A significant distinction has been made between "codification" and "personalization". Sometimes, these two approaches have been seen to be alternative to one another. In other cases scholars argued that a company can follow a strategy that mixes the two approaches depending on diverse intertwined factors. Still, on this topic, the literature provides various and sometimes contrasting results that need clarification and confirmation. Especially, there is the need to understand if changes in internal and external conditions may induce modifications in a firm's KM strategy.The goal of the study is to analyse how the mix of codification and personalisation can vary over time in the same company, due to changing organizational and environmental conditions. With this purpose, the evolution of KM initiatives of a multinational company was investigated. The findings of the study confirm that the strategic mix can change over the years due to modifications in the factors of the company's internal and external context. Furthermore, the case shows that the different factors have different weight and play a different role in influencing such changes. Specifically, in the investigated case, the factors related to the competitive context affected the evolution of the KM strategy more significantly than internal factors (which were just enablers or constraints of the evolutionary path). In addition, the study shows that this classic distinction between codification and personalization may not be easy to use in practical terms, due to the complexity of KM activities and needs in a company: This point can represent a fresh start of a future research agenda
Collaborative knowledge building: The case of iakm as a scientific community of practice (cop)
No full textThis study addresses the special context of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in the case of scientists and academics, which is still a little studied environment. The paper considers the case of Scientific Associations and, particularly, the International Association for Knowledge Management (IAKM). As will be examined in the paper, IAKM (www.iakm.net) can be considered as a sort of CoP for the international community of KM researchers. It was established in 2012 with a mission to address existing challenges in knowledge management (KM) research, and to contribute to a unified view of KM. This study analyzes the structure and collaborative processes of IAKM members to better understand the community's knowledge development behaviour and performance. It combines a qualitative representation of the "history" of IAKM and its salient characteristics and milestones as a CoP and a quantitative analysis of data on collaborative activities, collected from all IAKM members via email. Members were asked to fill in a spreadsheet form with the following data for each of their collaborative activities carried out in the period 2011-2020: (a) collaborating members, (b) type of collaboration, (c) year when carried out and (d) short description of collaborative activity. The initial analysis was performed by simple frequency count. A follow-up social network analysis (SNA) was used to provide deeper insight into the community dynamics. The initial analysis revealed some interesting points, in particular concerning the kind of collaboration, the distribution of interactions across the community, and the dynamic patterns of these interactions over time. Overall, these findings contributed to our enhanced understanding of the nature of a scientific association as a CoP, and how it informed KM-related scholarship over the past decade. Specifically, the study found that IAKM exhibited a cohesive and active core membership that contributed significantly to the development of the field. The study also pointed to areas for further improvement that could serve as a basis for future planning of scientific associations as CoPs
Developing a Model of Knowledge Transactions: A Critical Review of Background Theories
No full textInteractions between companies, crucial for economic success and knowledge advancement, involve significant exchanges of information and knowledge beyond mere economic transactions. Understanding how businesses can leverage these knowledge transactions (KTs) with trading partners is vital for both Knowledge Management (KM) research and practice. This entails identifying the knowledge essential for fruitful trading relationships, determining how to derive value from these exchanges, deciding what knowledge should be protected or shared, and developing value-adding strategies for knowledge exchange. To address these questions, this paper critically examines possible theoretical foundations for a KT model. It reviews nine notable KM models to assess the insights they provide (or do not provide) into knowledge exchange mechanisms both within organizations and between trading partners. These models provide some fundamental insights, but also have limitations, especially in addressing the "economic value" of knowledge exchanges. The study highlights the need for a comprehensive and effective KT model that positions knowledge exchanges in trading as a core, value-adding component of economic activities and business strategies. After this preliminary review of existing KM models, it suggests a new KT model, and indicates the need for further development towards a more encompassing approach
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