• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.57-81
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• 2008

Knowledge is an essential strategic weapon for sustaining competitive advantage and is the key determinant for organizational growth. When knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout the organization, it increases an organization's value by providing the ability to respond to new and unusual situations. The growing importance of knowledge as a critical resource has forced executives to pay attention to their organizational knowledge. Organizations are increasingly undertaking knowledge management initiatives and making significant investments. Knowledge sourcing is considered as the first important step in effective knowledge management. Most firms continue to make an effort to realize the benefits of knowledge management by using various knowledge sources effectively. Appropriate knowledge sourcing strategies enable organizations to create, acquire, and access knowledge in a timely manner by reducing search and transfer costs, which result in better firm performance. In response, the knowledge management literature has devoted substantial attention to the analysis of knowledge sourcing strategies. Many studies have categorized knowledge sourcing strategies into intemal- and external-oriented. Internal-oriented sourcing strategy attempts to increase firm performance by integrating knowledge within the boundary of the firm. On the contrary, external-oriented strategy attempts to bring knowledge in from outside sources via either acquisition or imitation, and then to transfer that knowledge across to the organization. However, the extant literature on knowledge sourcing strategies focuses primarily on large organizations. Although many studies have clearly highlighted major differences between large and small firms and the need to adopt different strategies for different firm sizes, scant attention has been given to analyzing how knowledge sourcing strategies affect firm performance in small firms and what are the differences between small and large firms in the patterns of knowledge sourcing strategies adoption. This study attempts to advance the current literature by examining the impact of knowledge sourcing strategies on small firm performance from a holistic perspective. By drawing on knowledge based theory from organization science and complementarity theory from the economics literature, this paper is motivated by the following questions: (1) what are the adoption patterns of different knowledge sourcing strategies in small firms (i,e., what sourcing strategies should be adopted and which sourcing strategies work well together in small firms)?; and (2) what are the performance implications of these adoption patterns? In order to answer the questions, this study developed three hypotheses. First hypothesis based on knowledge based theory is that internal-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. Second hypothesis developed on the basis of knowledge based theory is that external-oriented knowledge sourcing is positively associated with small firm performance. The third one based on complementarity theory is that pursuing both internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing simultaneously is negatively or less positively associated with small firm performance. As a sampling frame, 700 firms were identified from the Annual Corporation Report in Korea. Survey questionnaires were mailed to owners or executives who were most erudite about the firm s knowledge sourcing strategies and performance. A total of 188 companies replied, yielding a response rate of 26.8%. Due to incomplete data, 12 responses were eliminated, leaving 176 responses for the final analysis. Since all independent variables were measured using continuous variables, supermodularity function was used to test the hypotheses based on the cross partial derivative of payoff function. The results indicated no significant impact of internal-oriented sourcing strategies while positive impact of external-oriented sourcing strategy on small firm performance. This intriguing result could be explained on the basis of various resource and capital constraints of small firms. Small firms typically have restricted financial and human resources. They do not have enough assets to always develop knowledge internally. Another possible explanation is competency traps or core rigidities. Building up a knowledge base based on internal knowledge creates core competences, but at the same time, excessive internal focused knowledge exploration leads to behaviors blind to other knowledge. Interestingly, this study found that Internal- and external-oriented knowledge sourcing strategies had a substitutive relationship, which was inconsistent with previous studies that suggested complementary relationship between them. This result might be explained using organizational identification theory. Internal organizational members may perceive external knowledge as a threat, and tend to ignore knowledge from external sources because they prefer to maintain their own knowledge, legitimacy, and homogeneous attitudes. Therefore, integrating knowledge from internal and external sources might not be effective, resulting in failure of improvements of firm performance. Another possible explanation is small firms resource and capital constraints and lack of management expertise and absorptive capacity. Although the integration of different knowledge sources is critical, high levels of knowledge sourcing in many areas are quite expensive and so are often unrealistic for small enterprises. This study provides several implications for research as well as practice. First this study extends the existing knowledge by examining the substitutability (and complementarity) of knowledge sourcing strategies. Most prior studies have tended to investigate the independent effects of these strategies on performance without considering their combined impacts. Furthermore, this study tests complementarity based on the productivity approach that has been considered as a definitive test method for complementarity. Second, this study sheds new light on knowledge management research by identifying the relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies and small firm performance. Most current literature has insisted complementary relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies on the basis of data from large firms. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study identifies substitutive relationship between knowledge sourcing strategies using data from small firms. Third, implications for practice highlight that managers of small firms should focus on knowledge sourcing from external-oriented strategies. Moreover, adoption of both sourcing strategies simultaneousiy impedes small firm performance.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.87-106
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• 2009

Web2.0 refers to a new service models based by a community oriented philosophy. This creates new opportunities for technology providers and service. The agricultural technology information service in the base of open source technology provide opportunities for increased distribution and visibility to farmer and general user. We would like to find out vest service models and platform that will find new ways of agriculture technology information service. This study suggests that these new agriculture information service strategy in new paradigm of web 2.0. should be revised and adapted to Open API and new applied strategy in agriculture should be developed considering the impact of web 2.0.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.353-379
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• 2020

This study developed a user experience factors for the evaluation of knowledge and information resource system from the user experience perspectives, which is emerging as a new analysis standard in the field of information media and information service research. Based on the analysis criteria selected through literature analysis, 'system perception factor' and 'user experience factor' were derived as factors influencing the use of information systems through an experimental study based on the user experience sampling method. As a result, the user experience factors of final knowledge and information resource system includes nine user experience factors, 55 detailed user experience factors, and 138 system perception factors. This study is significant in that the abstract concept 'user experience' was derived and presented as a practical, concrete, measurable factor through experiments. The derived user experience factors should serve as a basis for measuring user experience perceived by users of the knowledge and information resource system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.20 no.4 s.50
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• pp.277-301
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• 2003

Knowledge Management is presented as the management method having the survival and competition of enterprise under variously changing management environment. Knowledge Management is introduced recently as successful survival strategy of advanced enterprise. Scientifically, however, the definition. study model and propulsion method of KM leave much to be desired, and now it has become the subjects of active study among scholars. To creation of the competitive power of the company have to be important knowledge based continuous innovation. That is to say, the knowledge management means a lot to knowledge assets included knowledge, knowledge creating, sharing, and acting This study aims to propose models on the research result based a case study of the financial industry in knowledge creating processes(SECI) and deriving knowledge management styles in the flied works of the bank.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.493-513
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• 2014

With the development of related technologies, Location-Based Services (LBS) are growing fast and being used in many ways. Past LBS studies have focused on adoption of LBS because of the fact that LBS users have privacy concerns regarding revealing their location information. Meanwhile, the number of LBS users and revenues from LBS are growing rapidly because users can get some benefits by revealing their location information. Little research has been done on how LBS affects consumers' information search behavior in product purchase. The purpose of this paper is examining the effect of LBS information filtering on buyers' uncertainty and their information search behavior. When consumers purchase a product, they try to reduce uncertainty by searching information. Generally, there are two types of uncertainties - knowledge uncertainty and choice uncertainty. Knowledge uncertainty refers to the lack of information on what kinds of alternatives are available in the market and/or their important attributes. Therefore, consumers having knowledge uncertainty will have difficulties in identifying what alternatives exist in the market to fulfil their needs. Choice uncertainty refers to the lack of information about consumers' own preferences and which alternative will fit in their needs. Therefore, consumers with choice uncertainty have difficulties selecting best product among available alternatives.. According to economics of information theory, consumers narrow the scope of information search when knowledge uncertainty is high. It is because consumers' information search cost is high when their knowledge uncertainty is high. If people do not know available alternatives and their attributes, it takes time and cognitive efforts for them to acquire information about available alternatives. Therefore, they will reduce search breadth. For people with high knowledge uncertainty, the information about products and their attributes is new and of high value for them. Therefore, they will conduct searches more in-depth because they have incentive to acquire more information. When people have high choice uncertainty, people tend to search information about more alternatives. It is because increased search breadth will improve their chances to find better alternative for them. On the other hand, since human's cognitive capacity is limited, the increased search breadth (more alternatives) will reduce the depth of information search for each alternative. Consumers with high choice uncertainty will spend less time and effort for each alternative because considering more alternatives will increase their utility. LBS provides users with the capability to screen alternatives based on the distance from them, which reduces information search costs. Therefore, it is expected that LBS will help users consider more alternatives even when they have high knowledge uncertainty. LBS provides distance information, which helps users choose alternatives appropriate for them. Therefore, users will perceive lower choice uncertainty when they use LBS. In order to test the hypotheses, we selected 80 students and assigned them to one of the two experiment groups. One group was asked to use LBS to search surrounding restaurants and the other group was asked to not use LBS to search nearby restaurants. The experimental tasks and measures items were validated in a pilot experiment. The final measurement items are shown in Appendix A. Each subject was asked to read one of the two scenarios - with or without LBS - and use a smartphone application to pick a restaurant. All behaviors on smartphone were recorded using a recording application. Search breadth was measured by the number of restaurants clicked by each subject. Search depths was measured by two metrics - the average number of sub-level pages each subject visited and the average time spent on each restaurant. The hypotheses were tested using SPSS and PLS. The results show that knowledge uncertainty reduces search breadth (H1a). However, there was no significant correlation between knowledge uncertainty and search depth (H1b). Choice uncertainty significantly reduces search depth (H2b), but no significant relationship was found between choice uncertainty and search breadth (H2a). LBS information filtering significantly reduces the buyers' choice uncertainty (H4) and reduces the negative relationship between knowledge uncertainty and search breadth (H3). This research provides some important implications for service providers. Service providers should use different strategies based on their service properties. For those service providers who are not well-known to consumers (high knowledge uncertainty) should encourage their customers to use LBS. This is because LBS would increase buyers' consideration sets when the knowledge uncertainty is high. Therefore, less known services have chances to be included in consumers' consideration sets with LBS. On the other hand, LBS information filtering decrease choice uncertainty and the near service providers are more likely to be selected than without LBS. Hence, service providers should analyze geographically approximate competitors' strength and try to reduce the gap so that they can have chances to be included in the consideration set.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.135-145
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• 2001

In recent environment of dynamic management, there is growing recognition that information and knowledge management systems are essential for efficient/effective decision making by CEO. To cope with this situation, we suggest the Data-Miming scheme as a key component of integrated information and knowledge management system. The proposed system measures business performance by considering both VA(Value-Added), which represents stakeholder’s point of view and EVA (Economic Value-Added), which represents shareholder’s point of view. To mine the new information & Knowledge discovery, we applied the improved genetic algorithms that consider predictability, understandability (lucidity) and reasonability factors simultaneously, we use a linear combination model for GAs learning structure. Although this model’s predictability will be more decreased than non-linear model, this model can increase the knowledge’s understandability that is meaning of induced values. Moreover, we introduce a random variable scheme based on normal distribution for initial chromosomes in GAs, so we can expect to increase the knowledge’s reasonability that is degree of expert’s acceptability. the random variable scheme based on normal distribution uses statistical correlation/determination coefficient that is calculated with training data. To demonstrate the performance of the system, we conducted a case study using financial data of Korean automobile industry over 16 years from 1981 to 1996, which is taken from database of KISFAS (Korea Investors Services Financial Analysis System).

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.121-141
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• 2002

In this paper, I presented that transformation of library from the collection management to knowledge contents management along with paradigm shift under the web-based multimedia information environment is required. Effective web contents management call maximize users'satisfaction with personal customizing services for library users. Especially, contents customizing service using the metabrowsing service contributes to maximize the user'satisfaction by supplying core contents that the user seeks. In this paper, I studied the scheme of knowledge contents management to increase of user'satisfaction, concentrating on the management factors of web-based multimedia knowledge contents and service strategy.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.51-69
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• 2011

Security has been considered one of the most critical issues for managing IT resources in many organizations. Despite a growing interest and extensive research on security at various levels, little research has focused on the comparison of security knowledge levels between different cultures. The current study investigates and compares the security knowledge level between Korea and the U.S. Based on the literature review of spyware, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, and security knowledge, this study identifies three constructs (i.e., security familiarity, spyware awareness, and spyware knowledge) to examine the difference of security knowledge levels between Korea and the U.S. Six hundred ninety-six respondents from Korea and the U.S. participated in the survey, and an in-depth analysis based on analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was carried out. The results show that the levels of security familiarity, spyware awareness, and spyware knowledge are significantly lower in Korea than in the U.S., as expected. These findings present a significant association between national culture and security knowledge, and the degree of individualism (or collectivism) plays an especially critical role in the perception of security. A number of implications for academia and practitioners emerge. Limitations and future research directions are discussed in the conclusion.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.131-153
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• 2010

The fusion of learning, information, and technology presents dynamic challenges for all librarians, educators and students in 21st century libraries and schools. At the heart of this fusion is the growth of a pervasive, integrated information environment characterized by vast quantities of digital content, open choice, collaborative and participatory digital spaces, and the transition of the web environments from consumption of information to creation of information. This environment heralds important opportunities for librarians and teachers to rethink, re-imagine and recreate a dynamic approaches to information literacy instruction. Drawing on an extensive body of research undertaken through the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL), and published research on both information literacy and constructivist learning, this paper provides a critical examination of the current status of information literacy: its multiple conceptualizations, competing models, viewpoints, and its operationalizations in educational and library environments. The paper will challenge information literacy practices which center on simplistic, reductionist approaches to information literacy development, and the separation of information process and knowledge content. In particular it will address apparent contradictions in espoused conceptions of information literacy which revolve around "knowledge": knowledge construction, critical thinking, problem solving and the development of knowledgeable people; and information literacy practices which revolve around "information": a predominant focus on skills of access and evaluation of resources and with less attention given to engaging with found information to develop deep knowledge and understanding. The paper will present a series of challenges for moving forward with information literacy agendas in libraries and schools.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.111-123
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• 2013

Semantic similarity/relatedness measure between two concepts plays an important role in research on system integration and database integration. Moreover, current research on keyword recommendation or tag clustering strongly depends on this kind of semantic measure. For this reason, many researchers in various fields including computer science and computational linguistics have tried to improve methods to calculating semantic similarity/relatedness measure. This study of similarity between concepts is meant to discover how a computational process can model the action of a human to determine the relationship between two concepts. Most research on calculating semantic similarity usually uses ready-made reference knowledge such as semantic network and dictionary to measure concept similarity. The topological method is used to calculated relatedness or similarity between concepts based on various forms of a semantic network including a hierarchical taxonomy. This approach assumes that the semantic network reflects the human knowledge well. The nodes in a network represent concepts, and way to measure the conceptual similarity between two nodes are also regarded as ways to determine the conceptual similarity of two words(i.e,. two nodes in a network). Topological method can be categorized as node-based or edge-based, which are also called the information content approach and the conceptual distance approach, respectively. The node-based approach is used to calculate similarity between concepts based on how much information the two concepts share in terms of a semantic network or taxonomy while edge-based approach estimates the distance between the nodes that correspond to the concepts being compared. Both of two approaches have assumed that the semantic network is static. That means topological approach has not considered the change of semantic relation between concepts in semantic network. However, as information communication technologies make advantage in sharing knowledge among people, semantic relation between concepts in semantic network may change. To explain the change in semantic relation, we adopt the cognitive semantics. The basic assumption of cognitive semantics is that humans judge the semantic relation based on their cognition and understanding of concepts. This cognition and understanding is called 'World Knowledge.' World knowledge can be categorized as personal knowledge and cultural knowledge. Personal knowledge means the knowledge from personal experience. Everyone can have different Personal Knowledge of same concept. Cultural Knowledge is the knowledge shared by people who are living in the same culture or using the same language. People in the same culture have common understanding of specific concepts. Cultural knowledge can be the starting point of discussion about the change of semantic relation. If the culture shared by people changes for some reasons, the human's cultural knowledge may also change. Today's society and culture are changing at a past face, and the change of cultural knowledge is not negligible issues in the research on semantic relationship between concepts. In this paper, we propose the future directions of research on semantic similarity. In other words, we discuss that how the research on semantic similarity can reflect the change of semantic relation caused by the change of cultural knowledge. We suggest three direction of future research on semantic similarity. First, the research should include the versioning and update methodology for semantic network. Second, semantic network which is dynamically generated can be used for the calculation of semantic similarity between concepts. If the researcher can develop the methodology to extract the semantic network from given knowledge base in real time, this approach can solve many problems related to the change of semantic relation. Third, the statistical approach based on corpus analysis can be an alternative for the method using semantic network. We believe that these proposed research direction can be the milestone of the research on semantic relation.