The <Emphasis Type="Italic">MinK</Emphasis> framework: towards measuring individual knowledge

Knowledge is the currency of the current economy and a vital resource for sustaining organisational performance in today’s knowledge-based intensively competitive business environment. To avoid the detrimental consequences of knowledge loss, managers are urged to identify where knowledge stocks exist and how knowledge flows within their organisations by identifying knowledge holders among their employees. Although some studies have attempted to use different methods to measure knowledge at the organisational level, very few have addressed the individual knowledge holder. Moving from a critical literature review of the existing knowledge measurement approaches, this paper proposes a novel framework that enables organisations to measure individual knowledge in the business context using a set of metrics, which are subsequently validated via a series of in-depth interviews with senior managers. A summary of the managers’ views on individual knowledge measurement is presented, and reflections on the industry application of the proposed framework and recommendations for its improvement are also discussed.     

Auditing knowledge management practices: model and application

This paper proposes a knowledge management audit model to assist organisations to obtain an accurate picture of their knowledge-based assets and the strategies used to manage that knowledge across the organisations. The model also serves as a means for assessing how well the identified assets and strategies meet organisational business goals and strategies. The practical application of the model is illustrated in the local government environment. Implications of such an audit are also discussed.     

Capturing and measuring technology based service innovation–A case analysis within theory and practice

While economies in the industrialised World have become increasingly knowledge driven and service based, much of the work on capturing and measuring business value is still constrained and steeped in the thinking of the manufacturing era. One area that is more susceptible to measurement is the field of technology based or enhanced services. This case analysis seeks to explore how a service operator, such as an international airport, can gauge value from investment into IT. We examine how the airport operator combines a variety of accounting techniques and other tools to capture value from their IT investments. We explore how the operator could improve their measurement of business value derived from their IT investment. One observation of practice is that value capturing tools and techniques are used in parallel rather than ‘in sync’. Drawing on the notion of user innovation, we argue operators should embrace a systemic approach in adapting and modifying measuring regimes to accommodate service based innovation.     

Managing knowledge assets in a complex business landscape: the relevance of emotive knowledge

In today's complex business landscape it is critical to identify and understand what are the knowledge-based value drivers affecting business value creation. This paper focuses on the relevance of the emotive knowledge as a key knowledge asset shaping organisational capabilities of 21st century organisations. The concept of emotive knowledge is analysed in accordance with a twofold perspective. On the one hand, it is considered as a driver of people's engagement, and on the other it is viewed as a key factor affecting the creation of intangible value to be incorporated into organisational infrastructures and products.     

Is it just too good to be true? Unearthing the benefits of disruptive technology

The rate of digital disruption is escalating and placing increasing pressure on organisations to adopt emerging technologies in order to improve their productivity and bottom-lines. Unfortunately, however, many organisations are often being seduced by the purported benefits of disruptive technologies often based on embellished or even falsified claims. This is particularly true in construction, where organisations are being required to embrace disruptive technologies (e.g. Building Information Modelling and Industry 4.0) to address performance and productivity issues. Unsubstantiated claims about expected benefits subvert the justification and benefits realisation process as the change management that is required is downplayed or ignored. It is, therefore, imperative that the business case as part of the process of evaluation, is based on evidence to enable the development of a change management and implementation strategy. In this paper, we present an overview of a longitudinal line of inquiry that sought to examine the benefits of disruptive technology, namely Systems Information Modelling (SIM). Our research revealed that more than a 90 % cost reduction to document electrical systems and a corresponding improvement in productivity was achieved. We suggest that engaging in the process of critical thinking, possessing a conscious awareness and healthy scepticism of technology places organisations in a position of control. As a consequence, organisations are better-positioned to understand the nature of technology and ‘how’ value can be generated from potential new ways of working.     

Digital business ecosystem: Literature review and a framework for future research

Digital innovation has radically changed how organisations collaborate and compete. Coupled with this change are new collaborative value creation networks such as digital business ecosystems (DBEs). DBE is a socio-technical network of individuals, organisations and technologies that collectively co-create value. Since the emergence of DBE over a decade ago, there have been limited attempts to critically review and synthesise the body of knowledge presented over the years. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to fill this gap in DBE research by: (1) developing a comprehensive framework that synthesises and provides an overall direction of DBE research; (2) pointing out gaps in DBE literature; and (3) providing future research directions. To address this purpose, we systematically analysed 101 research articles on DBE. The findings provide insightful revelations to address some limitations in the current DBE research. As such, this study makes important contributions and serves as a useful resource for future DBE studies and practice.     

The managerial foundations of knowledge assets dynamics

The ability of an organisation to harness knowledge assets dynamics lies at the core of organisational value creation capacity. A key challenge both for researchers and for practitioners is to understand how to measure and manage knowledge assets dynamics. In this paper the managerial foundations of knowledge assets dynamics are introduced. For measuring and managing knowledge assets dynamics within organisations three processes are discussed as follows: knowledge assets identification, knowledge assets mapping and knowledge assets flow. The ability of an organisation to gain sustainable competitive advantages is related to the capacity of mastering these processes. Each process is analysed introducing the possible frameworks that can inspire both scholars investigating the microfoundations of organisational knowledge dynamics, and practitioners looking for approaches to leverage knowledge assets to improve business performance.

     

Knowledge mobilisation in communities through socio-technical systems

Enterprises in both the public and private sector undertake knowledge management (KM) initiatives through which they hope to engender a new, more adaptive and flexible culture of learning and innovation in their organisations. Creative activities involving social learning and innovation are, however, more common in less formal entities such as communities of practice at work and community service organisations in civil society. This paper presents the results and implications of collaborative research into the understanding, development and evaluation of socio-technical systems (STS) designed to mobilise collective knowledge in diverse community settings. The research concerns information and communication technologies (ICT)-mediated activities of communities in the broader civil society and also those in formal organisations. The paper describes and critically evaluates a set of three STS that have the potential to support the collective knowledge of innovative groups, teams and networks, which can all be considered forms of community. The findings could be of strategic value to business, government and community service organisations initiating KM programmes aimed at using collective learning to support innovation.     

Openness, knowledge, innovation and growth in UK business services

We explore the causal links between service firms’ knowledge investments, their innovation outputs and business growth based on a bespoke survey of around 1100 UK service businesses. We combine the activity based approach of the innovation value chain with firms’ external links at each stage of the innovation process. This introduces the concept of ‘encoding’ relationships through which learning improves the effectiveness of firms’ innovation processes. Our econometric results emphasise the importance of external openness in the initial, exploratory phase of the innovation process and the significance of internal openness (e.g. team working) in later stages of the process. In-house design capacity is strongly linked to a firm's ability to absorb external knowledge for innovation. Links to customers are important in the exploratory stage of the innovation process, but encoding linkages with private and public research organisations are more important in developing innovation outputs. Business growth is related directly to both the extent of firms’ service innovation as well as the diversity of innovation, reflecting marketing, strategic and business process change.     

论企业管理中的创新

创新是企业发展的灵魂,是企业发展的原动力。在管理活动中,最能激发管理者的创新思想的因素是目标、意志、兴趣、情感等。对于管理者来说,他的管理经验、知识水平和文化素养都是创新思想的前提。我们要从传统优秀文化中汲取创新思想的精华,总结实践经验,创造优秀的企业文化。     

面向业务流程的知识创新及其价值实现研究

知识创新是经济增长的重要因素,是加速信息化、提高知识存量的关键。本文从业务流程角度探讨知识创新,构建了涵盖知识创新平台、业务流程、知识创新活动三个层面的知识创新模型,并从这三个层面出发研究了知识创新的价值实现过程。     

Structural modeling of the value of patent

There is a considerable volume of prior research on the relationship between innovation and patents. Those research studies reveal that patents contain a great deal of noise, and unless a correction is made in terms of the value of individual patents, a simple count of the number of patents does not constitute a very useful indicator. From research that has been conducted for the purpose of finding such an indicator to show the value of individual patents (that is, research to identify the characteristics of valuable patents), many kinds of value indicators have been proposed. Nevertheless, research hitherto has focused primarily on business or private value derived from the possession of patents, and little attention has been paid to value in terms of technical knowledge or social value. In a survey of inventors conducted by RIETI in 2007, terminology describing broad concepts was used when questioning inventors about the value of individual patents, and this has provided an excellent opportunity to analyze the multiple factors lying behind the value of patents and how they impact one another.The purpose of this research is to use data from the RIETI survey of inventors and structural equation modeling methods to elucidate the relationships between the technological and business value of patents, and the latent factors that influence them. The findings show that a scientific-technological motive for inventors would have a positive effect on both the business and technological value, meanwhile, the monetary or promotion motive would not have any direct effects on the value of a patent. The model also suggests that academic linkage would have a strong positive effect on the technological value but a weak negative effect on the business value. Furthermore, these relationships differ more markedly according to technological field.     

Innovation intermediaries and collaboration: Knowledge–based practices and internal value creation

This paper analyses how knowledge-based practices adopted by innovation intermediaries enable them to generate value for themselves when collaborating with their clients. While the literature focuses on value creation for their client organisations, little is known about how innovation intermediaries create internal value even though this is essential for ensuring their long-term survival and sustaining their key facilitating role in the innovation system. This understudied issue is explored using empirical evidence from a sub-set of innovation intermediaries, Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs). The results indicate that by capitalising on existing knowledge vested in employees and collaborators as well as understanding and shaping the knowledge base of the innovation ecosystem, innovation intermediaries generate internal value from their involvement in collaborative innovation, which range from different financial to non-financial types of value. Implications for intermediaries, their collaborators and for policymakers are then discussed.     

个体知识共享研究：基于心理学的分析

本文从心理学的角度对当今知识共享研究成果尤其是个体知识共享的研究成果进行了系统分析。结合当今知识共享研究的最新成果,提出了个体知识共享是一种沟通、交流与学习过程的主张,初步构建了基于个体认知发展的知识共享发生机制,并对未来知识共享的研究提出了思考。     

基于价值观表达法的MBA商业道德教学模式研究

价值观表达法是一种新出现的价值观驱动的领导力开发教育法,它弥补了传统商业道德教育方法的不足,重在培养学生的道德执行力。为改变我国现有MBA商业道德教育重理论、轻实践的现状,本文从教学方式、教学材料、教学方法三个方面探索了基于价值观表达法的MBA商业道德教学模式,以培养未来商业领袖的商业道德实践技能和知识。     

网络环境下的开放获取知识共享机制——基于科学社会学视角的分析

开放获取知识共享机制的本质是构建全球范围内开放共享的知识获取平台,其目的在于打破科学信息的商业垄断。本文指出,科学信息的商业垄断是知识资本化的产物,但它区别于市场模型下科学知识合理的保密行为。同时,开放获取知识获取范式中的“开放性”要求也不完全等同于传统的“公有性”规范,两者存在价值判断、实现路径、制度保证以及约束对象等四个方面的差异。     

Knowledge-intensity as an organisational characteristic

The sector of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) has a central role in modern economies. However, there are no explicit and generally acknowledged criteria for characterising KIBS or other knowledge-intensive organisations. In addition, the concept of knowledge-intensity has no significant managerial use. This paper aims to widen the existing understanding about the concept of knowledge-intensity and take a step towards its operational application and managerial usefulness. Methodologically, two steps are carried out. First, a conceptual study based on intellectual capital literature and literature on knowledge-intensive firms is carried out. Second, an interview study (n=8) is carried out to empirically examine the role of knowledge assets in selected KIBS organisations. This paper contributes by tackling the vagueness of the concept of knowledge-intensity: the paper demonstrates that there are different types of ‘knowledge-intensity profiles’ among KIBS companies and that knowledge assets can be used as an analytical framework to identify the sources of value creation.     

Development of a holistic model for the management of an enterprise’s information assets

Organisations increasingly realise that they must transform into true digital enterprises to create competitive advantage and ensure corporate survival. However, many organisations do not realise that successful digital transformation (DT) requires much more than technology; it can only succeed if they manage their data, information and knowledge as true business assets. This paper describes collaborative research conducted by academic and industry partners, a mutually beneficial journey spanning the past ten years. The aim was to develop a Holistic Information Asset Management (HIAM) model indicating the important areas of information asset management (IAM) that support the DT journey. Interviews were conducted with C-level executives in organisations from all industries on three continents to investigate their IAM practices, the barriers to good IAM and the benefits of managing information assets (IAs) well. This paper proposes that organisations should focus on ten domains in their quest for effective IAM: i) business benefits, ii) business environment, iii) executive awareness, iv) leadership and management, v) information environment, vi) information systems, vii) information behaviour, viii) information attributes/quality, ix) information performance and x) justification.     

Unpacking task-technology fit to explore the business value of big data analytics

Understanding how the application of big data analytics (BDA) generates business value is a persistent challenge in information systems (IS) research. Improving understanding of how BDA realizes business value requires unpacking theories to study the phenomenon. This study unpacks the task-technology fit (TTF) theory toward generating new and improved insights into the business value of BDA. Extant studies on TTF have mainly focused on traditional IT which is different from digital technologies like BDA that are malleable and dynamic. While TTF has primarily focused on how the technology meets task requirements, this study contends that tasks can also be structured to fit the functionality of technology. This study proposes a 2 × 2 matrix framework to explain how BDA and tasks interact. The framework indicates how the reconfigurability of tasks and the editability of BDA impact the fit between tasks and BDA. Future research should explore how the fit between tasks and BDA changes over time.