The role of knowledge codification in the emergence of consensus under uncertainty: empirical analysis and policy implications

The aim of the article is to empirically analyse the main factors, which allow the emergence of consensus. Moreover, we raise the question of the nature of the codified process involved which seems to be too reducing to promote knowledge flows within the community and, therefore, to contribute to learning processes and better choices about the future. Our analysis relies on a prospective investigation based on a Delphi type study carried out by BETA in 1994.     

隐性知识和编码知识

本文从隐性知识和编码知识的内涵入手,对二者进行了详尽的对比。论述了隐性知识和编码知识之间在静态存在和动态应用时均有不可分性。探讨了这种不可分性在理解和处理知识转移和共享、隐性知识存储和搜索以及知识编码等问题时的意义。     

Business services as actors of knowledge transformation: the role of KIBS in regional and national innovation systems

Over the last years, there has been a significant increase in the attention paid to the activities of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). KIBS produce and diffuse knowledge, which is crucial for innovation processes. The paper gives an overview of the role and function of KIBS in innovation systems and their knowledge production, transformation and diffusion activities. Focusing on innovation interactions between manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and KIBS, the empirical analyses grasps KIBS position in five regional contexts. The analysis leads to the conclusion that innovation activities link SMEs and KIBS through the process of knowledge generation and diffusion.     

专家系统及其在我国农业中的应用

专家系统是人工智能领域中较为成熟的一个分支。本文阐述了专家系统的基本概念及基本要素,介绍了专家系统在我国农业中的应用和我国农业专家系统的发展趋势。     

From free to paid: Effect of knowledge differentiation on market performance of paid knowledge products

Exploring the factors that affect the market performance of paid knowledge products is of great importance for knowledge payment platforms. Drawing on the sensations-familiarity framework and social capital theory, this study investigates how knowledge differentiation between paid and free knowledge impacts market performance, along with the moderating effect of knowledge providers’ social capital. Technically, a neural network-based text mining model is utilized to transform free and paid knowledge to semantic vectors, whose dissimilarity is calculated as knowledge differentiation. Empirical analysis on a real dataset reveals the positive (or negative) effect of knowledge differentiation on sales (or eWOM, electronic word of mouth), which will be more prominent with the increase of social capital. The results are reinforced with robustness checks regarding alternative knowledge-differentiation measures, more control variables and alternative regression methods. The present study extends our understanding of knowledge payment and free-to-paid consumption, and offers practical implications for content design and product management.     

Understanding the formation mechanism of high-quality knowledge in social question and answer communities: A knowledge co-creation perspective

The social question and answer (Q&A) community provides people with an effective tool to obtain high-quality information. From the perspective of reciprocal determinism and value co-creation, this study aims to investigate the formation mechanism of high-quality knowledge in the community. We develop a model to investigate how cognitive factors and community technological factors influence users’ knowledge co-creation behavior, thereby influencing knowledge quality in the community. A survey of 382 knowledge contributors in a social Q&A community shows that knowledge self-efficacy, topic richness, personalized recommendation, and social interactivity have a positive impact on users' knowledge sharing and integration behavior, which subsequently affect the community’s knowledge quality. Moreover, users' ratings moderate the influence of knowledge sharing on knowledge quality. This research demonstrates the synergistic effect of people and technology in knowledge co-creation, thus advances literature about value co-creation and content quality in online communities.     

专家评分质量引入专家权重的一种方法

利用计算机推荐的项目或成果代替最终评审结果,用计算命中率表示专家评分质量,由此提出将本次评审中专家评分质量引入专家权重的一种方法。采用云南省科技进步奖１９９７年评审中的实际数据进行了模拟计算,验证了此方法的可行性并提供了有关数据     

How to facilitate knowledge diffusion in complex networks: The roles of network structure,knowledge role distribution and selection rule

The diffusion of knowledge within organizations provides opportunities for interpersonal co-operation, improves creative ability and therefore leads to competitive advantage. Focus of prior literature on knowledge diffusion has been on identifying factors that influence individuals' behavioral intentions to seek and share knowledge. However, knowledge diffusion as an enigmatic, emergent and organizational-level process is more than the simple aggregation of individual attributes and needs to be further investigated. Accordingly, this study focuses on three distinct system-level factors, i.e., architectures of connections among individuals, distributions of knowledge roles and designs of selection mechanisms and analyses their effects on knowledge diffusion. To be more specific, we examine three distinct knowledge roles: seekers, contributors and brokers. We also distinguish between three types of selection mechanisms: objective selection mechanisms, feedback-based selection mechanisms and random selection mechanisms. By conducting agent-based simulations on four representative networks, i.e., regular networks, random networks, small-world networks and scale-free networks, our results show that the optimal knowledge diffusion performance can be achieved on scale-free networks where all agents implement objective mechanisms and show characteristics of brokers. Moreover, our results (a) highlight the significance of brokers, (b) illustrate the superiority of objective selection rules and (c) demonstrate that scale-free networks provide an optimal framework for knowledge diffusion. Furthermore, we also find the interdependent relevance of these three factors to knowledge diffusion and propose a qualitative explanation of these findings.     

Three steps in knowledge communication: the emergence of knowledge transformers

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the role of gatekeeper in R&D organizations through the data collected from a midium-sized machine tool firm. Although the related literature points out (1) information gathering and (2) information transmitting functions as main roles of gatekeeper, this paper further suggests (3) knowledge transforming function that has to be executed within R&D organizations. We will argue that since the latter function often requires distinctive skills that impede information gathering activities, there emerges a three-step flow of communication instead of a two-step flow of communication. We define persons fulfilling this new role as a knowledge transformer, and related testable hypotheses are derived. The latter part of this paper proposes new measuring methods that identify knowledge transformers and test these hypotheses.     

The impact of knowledge stickiness on knowledge transfer implementation,internalization, and satisfaction for multinational corporations

Improving the effectiveness of knowledge transfer from a parent firm to its subsidiary is one of the most critical issues confronting management at multinational companies (MNC). Since knowledge tends to be sticky and difficult to transfer, the success of knowledge transfer is contingent not only upon various kinds of contextual variables, but also upon the process of knowledge transfer implementation and internalization. Previous studies did not consider the process of implementation and internalization variables, and failed to provide a more comprehensive research framework for MNC knowledge transfer. This study attempts to assess the impact of knowledge stickiness on knowledge transfer implementation and internalization, as well as the performance of headquarter–subsidiary knowledge transfer. Results of this study suggest that an increase in knowledge stickiness may have a positive and significant influence on knowledge implementation, internalization, and knowledge transfer satisfaction. However, increases in knowledge stickiness beyond a certain point can also deter the success of transferring knowledge. Results also suggest a significant relationship between knowledge transfer implementation and internalization, innovation and satisfaction, and between knowledge innovation and knowledge transfer satisfaction.     

How to be a responsible slave: managing the use of expert information systems

Computer ethicists have for some years been troubled by the issue of how to assign moral responsibility for disastrous events involving erroneous information generated by expert information systems. Recently, Jeroen van den Hoven has argued that agents working with expert information systems satisfy the conditions for what he calls epistemic enslavement. Epistemically enslaved agents do not, he argues, have moral responsibility for accidents for which they bear causal responsibility. In this article, I develop two objections to van den Hoven’s argument for epistemic enslavement of agents working with expert information systems.     

Investigating effectiveness and user acceptance of semantic social tagging for knowledge sharing

Social tagging systems enable users to assign arbitrary tags to various digital resources. However, they face vague-meaning problems when users retrieve or present resources with the keyword-based tags. In order to solve these problems, this study takes advantage of Semantic Web technology and the topological characteristics of knowledge maps to develop a system that comprises a semantic tagging mechanism and triple-pattern and visual searching mechanisms. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and user acceptance of these mechanisms in a knowledge sharing context. The results show that the semantic social tagging system is more effective than a keyword-based system. The visualized knowledge map helps users capture an overview of the knowledge domain, reduce cognitive effort for the search, and obtain more enjoyment. Traditional keyword tagging with a keyword search still has the advantage of ease of use and the users had higher intention to use it. This study also proposes directions for future development of semantic social tagging systems.     

Enterprise systems knowledge,beliefs, and attitude: A model of informed technology acceptance

Fostering positive attitudes and increasing knowledge are key success factors for enterprise systems. Training can improve knowledge, but little research has investigated the effects of domain-relevant knowledge on salient cognitive beliefs and attitude in technology acceptance. We highlight the critical role of domain-relevant knowledge in the formation of beliefs and the shaping of attitude by developing a model of informed technology acceptance. We hypothesize the positive effects of multi-dimensional enterprise resource planning (ERP) knowledge on salient cognitive beliefs (i.e., ERP self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness) and general affective attitude toward an ERP system. Using survey data from gamified ERP training of 248 professionals from three different organizations, results support the proposed model, suggesting that ERP knowledge is an important antecedent of ERP self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude. We find that ERP knowledge exhibits both direct and indirect effects on attitude. Moreover, we find that gamified training is an effective means of improving ERP knowledge.     

The three facets of knowledge: A critique of the practice-based learning theory

The community of practice learning theory (Lave and Wenger, 1991) can be credited with establishing the social basis of learning, viewing it as occurring through participation in social practices and activities. However, it remains silent on the cognitive content of what is learned by participants in a community of practice. Nor does it address explicitly the role of individuals in the knowing process. Individuals are merely depicted in terms of a desire to belong to a community, progressing from a peripheral participation position to a more central one. The aim of the present paper is to assess the contribution of Lave and Wenger's (1991) practice theory for educational and other learning social settings. In a schooling context, for instance, Lave and Wenger's (1991) account of learning would imply that what students learn at school is how to relate and belong to the school community. By reducing learning and knowing to participation, and by displacing cognition from individuals to anonymous practices, the practice-based epistemology ignores the significant corpus of content knowledge (such as curriculums) and ascribes too passive a role to individuals and glosses over their differentiated access to resources for changing practices and their differentiated efforts in their social and cognitive development. The present paper suggests an approach to knowledge that takes into account the various facets of knowledge, that is, knowledge as knowledge-productive practices, as content, and as relation to a knowing subject, at the same time preserving the sociality of knowledge and learning.     

A social recommender mechanism for improving knowledge sharing in online forums

Nowadays, online forums have become a useful tool for knowledge management in Web-based technology. This study proposes a social recommender system which generates discussion thread and expert recommendations based on semantic similarity, profession and reliability, social intimacy and popularity, and social network-based Markov Chain (SNMC) models for knowledge sharing in online forum communities. The advantage of the proposed mechanism is its relatively comprehensive consideration of the aspects of knowledge sharing. Accordingly, results of our experiments show that with the support of the proposed recommendation mechanism, requesters in forums can easily find similar discussion threads to avoid spamming the same discussion. In addition, if the requesters cannot find qualified discussion threads, this mechanism provides a relatively efficient and active way to find the appropriate experts.     

Green Technologies and diversity in the knowledge search and output phases: Evidence from European Patents

The aim of this study is to investigate technological diversity in the knowledge search and the knowledge output stages of the green inventive process. Exploiting a large sample of European patent data, from 1980 to 2013, the paper explores the degree of diversity in green inventions, comparing the recombinant features of green technologies with a control sample of non-green technologies selected through propensity score matching techniques. Empirical results suggest that green technologies show a higher degree of diversity of the knowledge sources and a higher technological diversity in how knowledge is effectively recombined. We further find that the green diversity premium is higher in the knowledge output phase than in the knowledge search phase. We conclude that the assessment of the role of technological diversity along the different phases of the invention process may improve the appropriate organization of innovative activities and policy design necessary for stimulating green technological developments and support a feasible sustainable transition.     

Making knowledge visible: Using expert yellow pages to map capabilities in professional services firms

Professional services firms survive by exploiting the skills and knowledge of their employees to deliver a range of projects for clients. As a result of working on these projects, an organization's capabilities evolve in unpredictable and often divergent ways. In order to help their staff conduct these projects, services firms have invested heavily in knowledge management systems. To date, few attempts have been made to use the information contained in these knowledge management systems to understand the nature and evolution of capabilities in professional services firms. Using the expert yellow pages of Arup, one of the world's leading engineering consultancies, we develop a new approach based on co-word and proximity analysis to map the knowledge and skills of professional services firms. This approach provides a mechanism to allow such firms to better understand what they know and help them to deploy their skills in new and potentially lucrative ways.     

Facet analysis: The logical approach to knowledge organization

The facet-analytic paradigm is probably the most distinct approach to knowledge organization within Library and Information Science, and in many ways it has dominated what has be termed “modern classification theory”. It was mainly developed by S.R. Ranganathan and the British Classification Research Group, but it is mostly based on principles of logical division developed more than two millennia ago. Colon Classification (CC) and Bliss 2 (BC2) are among the most important systems developed on this theoretical basis, but it has also influenced the development of other systems, such as the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and is also applied in many websites. It still has a strong position in the field and it is the most explicit and “pure” theoretical approach to knowledge organization (KO) (but it is not by implication necessarily also the most important one). The strength of this approach is its logical principles and the way it provides structures in knowledge organization systems (KOS). The main weaknesses are (1) its lack of empirical basis and (2) its speculative ordering of knowledge without basis in the development or influence of theories and socio-historical studies. It seems to be based on the problematic assumption that relations between concepts are a priori and not established by the development of models, theories and laws.     

Managing technology alliances: The case for knowledge management

Organizations need to form alliances with external entities in order to acquire or access resources outside ones bounds. In recent times, we have seen an increased number of alliances geared towards acquiring technology capabilities. Alliances for technology capabilities include software application licensing agreements, access to technological infrastructure, and accessing technological know-how. While a lot of attention has been paid to the financial, economic, legal, and architectural issues of such arrangements, one dimension has been under debated and discussed—the knowledge component. Knowledge is the critical resource that is exchanged, managed, and integrated, in technology alliances. Managing knowledge in and around technology alliances is of utmost importance if we want to reap the strategic and operational benefits of such engagements. In this case study analysis, we share crucial knowledge management concerns to bear in mind while constructing, governing, and terminating technology alliances.     

面向知识经济时代的农业科研

知识经济已初现端倪,并将成为２１ 世纪的经济主流。随着知识经济时代的来临,农业和农业科研将发生深刻的变化。本文分析了未来农业的可能特征和农业科研的发展趋势,讨论了农业科研单位面临的战略任务