• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.23-42
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• 2001

Recently, knowledge management becomes a core management tool for efficient and effective organizations. However, there are little known researches on measuring knowledge management level. The objective of this paper is to develop a process capability model for knowledge management of an organization. We developed 5 stage process capability model for knowledge management. The 1st stage is the initial stage where no significant knowledge management activity is performed. The 2nd stage is the performed stage where planning and tracking activities are performed on organization level. The 3rd stage is the established, and the 4th stage is the predictable stage where processes and results of knowledge management can be predictable. Final stage is the optimizing stage where knowledge management process is continuously improved at an organizational level. We surveyed 37 korean companies to test the validity of the proposed stage model. Statistical tests show that the developed stage model of knowledge management is valid and sound in general conditions. The result of this study on process capability model can be a solid stepping stone for future works in this area.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-106
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• 2013

In the service-oriented economy, knowledge and skills are considered core resources to secure competitive advantages and service innovation. Knowledge management capability, which facilitates to produce, share, accumulate and reuse knowledge, becomes as important as knowledge itself to create service value. Along with knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability are the key capabilities related to managing service delivery processes. Previous studies indicated that these three capabilities are related to service innovation. Although separately investigate the relationship between the three capabilities. The purpose of this study is 1) to define variables that have effects on service innovation including knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability, and 2) to empirically test to identify relationship among variables. In this study, knowledge management capability is defined as the capability to manage knowledge process. Dynamic capability is regarded as the firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments. Operational capability refers to a high-level routine that, together with its implementing input flows, confers upon an organization's management a set of decision options for producing significant outputs of a particular type. The proposed research model was tested against the data collected through the survey method. The survey questionnaire was distributed to the managers who participated in an educational program for management consulting. Each individual who answered the questionnaire represented a knowledge based service firm. About 212 surveys questionnaires were sent via e-mail or directly delivered to respondents. The number of useable responses was 93. Measurement items were adapted from previous studies to reflect the characteristics of the industry each informant worked in. All measurement items were in, 5 point Likert scale with anchors ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Out of 93 respondents, about 81% were male, 82% of respondents were in their 30s. In terms of jobs, managers were 39.78%, professions/technicians were 24.73%, researchers were 12.90%, and sales people were 10.75%. Most of respondents worked for medium size enterprises (47,31%) in their, less than 30 employees (46.24%) in their number of employees, and less than 10 million USD (65.59%) in terms of sales volume. To test the proposed research model, structural equation modeling (SEM) technique (SPSS 16.0 and AMOS version 5) was used. We found that the three organizational capabilities have influence on service innovation directly or indirectly. Knowledge management capability directly affects dynamic capability and service innovation but indirectly affect operational capability through dynamic capability. Dynamic capability has no direct impact on service innovation, but influence service innovation indirectly through operational capability. Operational capability was found to positively affect service innovation. In sum, three organizational capabilities (knowledge management capability, dynamic capability and operational capability) need to be strategically managed at firm level, because organizational capabilities are significantly related to service innovation. An interesting result is that dynamic capability has a positive effect on service innovation only indirectly through operational capability. This result indicates that service innovation might have a characteristics similar to process innovation rather than product orientation. The results also show that organizational capabilities are inter-correlated to influence each other. Dynamic capability enables effective resource management, arrangement, and integration. Through these dynamic capability affected activities, strategic agility and responsibility get strength. Knowledge management capability intensify dynamic capability and service innovation. Knowledge management capability is the basis of dynamic capability as well. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed further in the conclusion section.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.39-47
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• 2019

Response surface methodology (RSM) is a group of statistical modeling and optimization methods to improve the quality of design systematically in the quality engineering field. Its final goal is to identify the optimal setting of input variables optimizing a response. RSM is a kind of knowledge management tool since it studies a manufacturing or service process and extracts an important knowledge about it. In a real problem of RSM, it is a quite frequent situation that considers multiple responses simultaneously. To date, many approaches are proposed for solving (i.e., optimizing) a multi-response problem: process capability function approach, desirability function approach, loss function approach, and so on. The process capability function approach first estimates the mean and standard deviation models of each response. Then, it derives an individual process capability function for each response. The overall process capability function is obtained by aggregating the individual process capability function. The optimal setting is given by maximizing the overall process capability function. The existing process capability function methods usually use the arithmetic mean or geometric mean as an aggregation operator. However, these operators do not guarantee the Pareto optimality of their solution. Moreover, they may bring out an unacceptable result in terms of individual process capability function values. In this paper, we propose a maximin-based process capability function method which uses a maximin criterion as an aggregation operator. The proposed method is illustrated through a well-known multiresponse problem.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.105-126
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• 2014

Knowledge integration is becoming a primary function of improving organizational capabilities and performance in today's convergence paradigm. The knowledge integration capability of employees has increasingly been regarded as a critical source for developing new products and services. This study investigates the influential factors of employees' knowledge integration capability and its effects. A theoretical research model was developed based on the socio-technical perspective and information processing theory. The model includes teamwork quality, expertise, IT support, and knowledge complexity as the primary influential factors of employees' knowledge integration capability. A large-scale survey was conducted for gathering data (a total of 316 samples from 141 organizations) to test the proposed model. The test results of the hypotheses show that expertise and knowledge complexity are the significant influential factors of employees' knowledge integration capability, and also the capability has a positive effect on the knowledge creation performance of employees. Our findings contribute to the development of initiatives for promoting employees' knowledge integration capability, especially in knowledge intensive organizations focusing on convergence products and services.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.209-225
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between IT human capability and knowledge transfer and the role of absorptive capacity between them. From the test of both measurement and structural model using Partial Least Squares (PLS), IT human capability is found to be significant to absorptive capacity and knowledge transfer. Absorptive capacity is also significantly related to knowledge transfer. The interesting result found in this study is that the path of absorptive capacity drawn from IT human capability to knowledge transfer is stronger than the direct relationship between IT human capability and knowledge transfer, indicating that absorptive capacity plays an important role in knowledge transfer. This result indicates that IT personnel with stronger technical skill, interpersonal skill and management capability are more likely to acquire and learn knowledge effectively from outside expertise. Moreover, this study shows that absorptive capacity, the individual’s ability to utilize external knowledge is derived from IT human capability and strongly effects on transferring knowledge from outsourcing vendors. This study suggests IT related managers that the development of IT human capability and absorptive capacity should be recognized for a successful exploitation of outside knowledge within a firm. It is also a necessary condition for a successful IT implementation and maintenance independently and economically from outside vendors.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.67-89
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• 2015

Improving productivity of knowledge workers is an important issue in the 21st century referred as knowledge-based society. The core key word is knowledge sharing among constituents of an organization. The purpose of this study is to combine the social network position factors with attitude and behavior factors, and develop an integrated research model for the knowledge sharing among members of an organization. This study adopted the integrated theoretical framework based on social capital, self-efficacy, transactive memory, and knowledge sharing. Surveys were conducted to 42 organizational members from a department in a leading IT outsourcing company to empirically test the proposed research model. In order to validate the proposed research model, social network analysis tool, UCINET, a structural equation modeling tool, SmartPLS, were utilized. The empirical result showed that, first of all, organizational members' familiarity network position had significant influence on knowledge self-efficacy and transactive memory capability. Second, knowledge self-efficacy and transactive memory capability affected knowledge sharing intention. Third, knowledge sharing intention also had an impact on the job performance. However, organizational members' expertise network position had no significant influence on knowledge self-efficacy and transactive memory capability. This finding reveals the importance of the emotional approach rather than the rational approach in knowledge management. The theoretical and practical implications on the research findings were discussed along with limitations.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.97-113
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• 2010

Given the large investment and prevalence of knowledge management (KM) in organizations, it has become important to analyze the effects of KM activities on organizational performances. A theoretical framework is proposed to investigate the impact of KM activities on innovation capabilities in the IT service industry. This study considers KM activities as the major determinant that enhances absorptive capacity. KM activities enhance employees'ability to obtain external knowledge, resulting in increasing intellectual capital. Thus, this study proposes that absorptive capacity plays a mediating role between KM activities and innovation capability. Additionally, this study investigates the key antecedents of KM activities that promote employees' knowledge sharing. Based on prior studies on KM, this study posits KM team activities and top manager support as KM activities. The proposed research model was tested by using survey data collected from 556 employees in the IT service industry. PLS (partial least squares) was employed for the analysis of the data. The findings of this study showed that KM activities and absorptive capabilities play a significant role in enhancing service innovation and process innovation in the IT service industry. The results also shed light on the mediating role of absorptive capacity between KM activities and innovation capability. Moreover, both KM team activities and top manager support serve as the salient antecedents of promoting employees' knowledge sharing.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.93-114
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• 2009

This paper presents a knowledge-based view of the multi-business firm. The multi-business firm has advantages in technological innovation and knowledge creation to the extent that it embodies various ideas and resources, and recombines them more effectively and efficiently than market contracts. The purpose of this paper is to identify how to organize the multidivisional form (M-form) structure to realize such advantages. We first differentiate within-division innovation and cross-division innovation, and explain why cross-division innovation, despite its higher performance potential, would be more difficult to achieve, compared to within-division innovation. Then, we offer the propositions about how to promote cross-division innovation with references to resource capability and coordination capability that is, in turn, composed of structural and control system, social capital, and human resource management system. We conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.719-732
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• 2010

This study assessed knowledge-based environments for knowledge management in hospital dietetic departments. This study categorized the current knowledge management environment into routine habits, capability, culture and system. A questionnaire was conducted on dieticians in general hospitals with 400 beds in Seoul and Gyeong-in areas. Excluding responses with significant missing data, 160 usable questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS package programs for the study. The result of the study is summarized as follows. The average number of licensed beds in the hospitals was 717.5 and the average number of meals provided daily was 1,626.3. 53.2% of dieticians were aged between 26 and 35. Of the maximum score of 5 points, habits scored $3.65{\pm}.44$ points, capability scored $3.38{\pm}.44$ points, culture scored $3.21{\pm}.46$ points and system scored $2.77{\pm}.74$ points. Hospitals with a high ratio of occupied beds also had significantly higher points in capability, culture and system. The older the group the higher points it scored in habits and culture. The married group scored higher points in habits while the higher educated group scored higher points in habits and capability. The dietitians in charge of clinical nutrition scored higher points in habit, capability and culture while the higher salaried group scored higher points in habit, culture and capability. Therefore this study would provide useful information for the introduction of knowledge management in hospital dietetic departments.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.25-39
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• 2012

According to knowledge-based view, knowledge is an essential strategic resource for a firm to retain sustainable competitive advantage. As knowledge is created and disseminated throughout the firm, the firm can enhance its capability to respond to new and unusual situations. Thus, a lot of companies actively manage their knowledge and intellectual capital. Especially, knowledge management (KM) activities in R&D organizations play a critical role in enhancing R&D performances such as innovation capability. In this regard, this study develops a theoretical model to examine the effects of R&D KM activities on R&D performance. The research model posits KM participation, knowledge management system (KMS) use, and community of practice (CoP) as the main activities of R&D KM. This study proposes that R&D shared knowledge quality and R&D KM satisfaction play a mediating role between R&D KM activities and its performance. The proposed research model was tested by using survey data collected from 248 employees in an R&D department. PLS (partial least squares) was employed for the analysis of the data. The findings of this study showed that R&D KM activities play a significant role in enhancing R&D performance. The findings revealed that R&D shared knowledge quality is not significantly related to R&D performance, while R&D KM satisfaction significantly influences R&D performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings were described.