Knowledge Management Using Information Technology: Determinants of Short‐Term Impact on Firm Value*

The importance of knowledge management (KM) processes for organizational performance is now well recognized. Seeking to better understand the short‐term impact of KM on firm value, this article focuses on public announcements of information technology (IT)‐based KM efforts, and uses cumulative abnormal return (CAR) associated with an announcement as the dependent variable. This article employs a contingency approach, arguing that the KM announcement would have a positive short‐term impact on firm value in some conditions but not in others. Thus, it pursues the following research question: What are the effects of contextual factors on the CAR associated with the announcement of an IT‐based KM effort? Specific hypotheses are proposed based on information‐processing theory, organizational learning theory, the knowledge‐based theory of the firm, and the theory of knowledge creation. These hypotheses link CARs to alignment between industry innovativeness and the KM process, alignment between firm efficiency and the KM process, firm‐specific instability, and firm diversification. The empirical study utilizes secondary data on 89 KM announcements from 1995 to 2002. The results largely support the hypotheses. Overall, this article provides empirical support for the theory‐based arguments, and helps develop a contingency framework of the effectiveness of KM efforts.     

绩效考核政治性对个体知识共享行为影响的实证研究

随着组织政治和管理伦理成为理论界和实践界共同关注的热点问题,越来越多的学者开始研究管理者在绩效考核过程中的政治性操作对员工工作场所行为的影响.基于结构方程技术的实证分析发现,积极绩效考核政治性对员工知识共享行为具有显著正向作用,消极绩效考核政治性对员工知识共享行为具有显著负向作用;绩效考核政治性通过成就感知、个人兴趣、集体情感与责任动机的完全中介作用间接影响员工知识共享行为;绩效考核政治性与员工知识共享动机和行为之间的关系并不随着员工工作控制点的差异而变化.研究结论既具有理论价值,又富含管理启示.     

变革型领导对R&D团队创新绩效的影响机制研究

R&D团队是企业技术创新的重要组织形式.本研究从变革型领导这一视角探讨了其对R&D团队创新绩效的影响及中介机制.本文运用结构方程模型方法,通过对316个R&D团队样本的实证研究发现,R&D团队领导者的变革型领导风格对团队创新绩效有积极影响,而知识分享与知识整合正是这种影响的中介机制.     

企业跨部门心理安全、知识分享与组织绩效间关系的实证研究

知识分享是组织学习研究领域中的一个热点话题,本研究旨在探讨跨部门心理安全对组织内部知识分享以及组织绩效的影响机制。本文实证研究发现,组织跨部门心理安全与组织知识分享、组织绩效之间均存在"倒U"关系,而知识分享会对组织绩效的提升产生正向影响,知识分享在跨部门心理安全对组织绩效的作用中扮演中介角色。研究发现有助于加深我们对跨部门心理安全与组织知识分享、组织绩效间作用关系的深入了解,为企业管理实践提供有益的借鉴和启示。     

我国知识工作者组织内知识共享问题的研究

知识共享问题正日益受到管理界的重视,但对于组织内知识共享的实证性研究仍然较少。本文通过对我国知识工作者的实际调查与分析发现,个人传播知识的动机主要是成就感,吸收知识的动机主要是对工作的挑战性的追求。在组织文化方面,知识传播主要依赖组织的归属感,知识吸收依赖组织的宽容度、归属感和信任度。具有较高知识传播程度的知识工作者,通常有较高的工作效率;具有较高知识吸收程度的知识工作者,通常有较高的工作效率和较高的工作质量。     

Decision knowledge sharing: flexible supply chains in KM context

Supply chain excellence has a real impact on business strategy. Building supply chains as flexible systems represents one of the most exciting opportunities to create value and one of the most challenging tasks for the policy makers. It requires integrated decision making amongst autonomous chain partners with effective decision knowledge sharing between them. The key to success lies in knowing which decision has more impact on the overall performance and this can be achieved by appropriate knowledge sharing. In this context, knowledge management (KM) can be used as an effective approach to achieve knowledge sharing and decision synchronisation in supply chains. Flexible supply chains (FSC_s) are more complex and involve multiple autonomous players with varying technical cultures (affects knowledge mindsets), managerial background (affects decision knowledge) and supply chain management (SCM) exposures (affects knowledge sharing attitudes). Thus there is a need to develop demo models that can encourage chain managers towards collaborative knowledge sharing in the supply chains. This paper presents the application of one such model based on decision knowledge sharing (DKS) for improved supply chain management. A simulation model of a flexible supply chain based on DKS framework is developed for demo purposes. The key results are highlighted along with industry implications. The cost based performance of DKS at different levels of flexibility is studied. Thus a careful analysis of the chain with a focus on collaborative decisions is useful to ensure success. This paper addresses this interesting and challenging domain.     

知识共享在人际互动与创新之间的中介作用研究

本文的目的是揭示个体层面上知识共享对创新的影响作用,首先论证了知识共享对创新直接的积极影响,接着进一步提出知识共享在人际互动和创新之间起到中介作用.据此,提出研究假设,确立知识共享作为中介变量,在人际沟通与创新、任务冲突与创新之间的影响作用.研究在不同行业中,以上司与下属配对方式收集了168套问卷,实证检验的结果验证了所提出的理论假设.     

Understanding the Antecedents of Effective Knowledge Management: The Importance of a Knowledge‐Centered Culture*

Within the context of knowledge management, little research has been conducted that identifies the antecedents of a knowledge‐centered culture—those organizational qualities that encourage knowledge creation and dissemination. In this study, the existing literature on organizational climate, job characteristics, and organizational learning (in the form of cooperative learning theory) are linked with the current thinking and research findings related to knowledge management to develop a theoretical model explaining the relationships among organizational climate, the level of cooperative learning that takes place between knowledge workers, and the resulting level of knowledge created and disseminated as measured by team performance and individual satisfaction levels. The study goes on to empirically test the proposed research model by investigating the climate of organizations, and seeks to understand the linkage between a set of organizational and individual characteristics and knowledge‐related activities found in cooperative learning groups and the resulting work outcomes. The hypothesized research model is tested using LISREL with data collected from 203 information systems (IS) professionals engaged in systems development activities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications the results have for future research and managerial practice.     

Ethical leadership and employee knowledge sharing: Exploring dual-mediation paths

Drawing on social learning and self-determination theories, this study investigates the mediating effects of controlled motivation for knowledge sharing and moral identity in the relationship between ethical leadership and employee knowledge sharing. We conducted a field study with 337 full-time employees to test our hypotheses. Results supported the mediating effects of both controlled motivation and moral identity in accounting for the relationship between ethical leadership and employee knowledge sharing. Our study is among the first to examine whether and why ethical leadership predicts employee knowledge sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Analyzing the Integration of WiMAX and Wi‐Fi Services: Bandwidth Sharing and Channel Collaboration

Several emerging studies have focused on the pricing issue of bandwidth sharing between Wi‐Fi and WiMAX networks; however, most either concentrate on the design of collaborated protocols or figure out the issue without the overall consideration of consumer preferences and contract design. In this study, we explore a wireless service market in which there are two wireless service providers operating Wi‐Fi and WiMAX. One of the research dimensions given in this study is whether wireless service providers implement bandwidth sharing, while the other is whether they make decisions individually or jointly. By involving consumer preferences and a wholesale price contract in the present model, we find that bandwidth sharing would benefit a WiMAX service provider, yet a Wi‐Fi service provider would make no significant savings under a wholesale price contract. In addition, the profit of a WiMAX service provider may increase with Wi‐Fi coverage when bandwidth sharing has been implemented but decrease with Wi‐Fi coverage when both wireless services operate without bandwidth sharing. Furthermore, the WiMAX service provider allocates more capacity when the average usage rate increases, but lowers the expenditure of capacity when the average usage rate is too high.     

Experiential and Informational Knowledge,Architectural Marketing Capabilities,and the Adaptive Performance of Export Ventures: A Cross‐National Study

Knowledge‐based view (KBV) theory posits that the acquisition and use of relevant knowledge is key to understanding organizational performance. However, there is relatively little empirical evidence to support or refute several important propositions underlying KBV theory explanations of organizational performance. In particular, the extant literature has focused on individual technical and scientific components of the knowledge bases of firms in dynamic industries, and largely ignored both different levels of informational and experiential knowledge relevant to the market environment, and the increasingly important context of exporting. Our study addresses these knowledge gaps by developing a framework for export venture knowledge management and empirically examining relationships between different types of individual‐level and organizational‐level knowledge relevant to the market environment, architectural marketing capabilities, and the adaptive performance of export ventures. Using primary data collected in the United Kingdom and China, our study indicates that export ventures' organizational‐level experiential and informational knowledge, and individual‐level experiential knowledge relevant to the market environment, is positively associated with export ventures' architectural marketing capabilities, which are in turn associated with the adaptive performance of export ventures.     

A Resource‐Based View of Strategic IT Alignment: How Knowledge Sharing Creates Competitive Advantage

A critical decision problem for top management, and the focus of this study, is whether the CEO (chief executive officer) and CIO (chief information officer) should commit their time to formal planning with the expectation of producing an information technology (IT)‐based competitive advantage. Using the perspective of the resource‐based view, a model is presented that examines how strategic IT alignment can produce enhanced organizational strategies that yield competitive advantage. One hundred sixty‐one CIOs provided data using a postal survey. Results supported seven of the eight hypotheses. They showed that information intensity is an important antecedent to strategic IT alignment, that strategic IT alignment is best explained by multiple constructs which operationalize both process and content measures, and that alignment between the IT plan and the business plan is significantly related to the use of IT for competitive advantage. Study results raise questions about the effect of CEO participation, which appears to be the weak link in the process, and also about the perception of the CIO on the importance of CEO involvement. The paper contributes to our understanding of how knowledge sharing in the alignment process contributes to the creation of superior organizational strategies, provides a framework of the alignment‐performance relationship, and furnishes several new constructs.     

The Role of Task Uncertainty in IT Project Team Advice Networks

Advice seeking is often the most critical success factor in today's IT project teams. To understand how advice seekers are motivated, we integrate the antecedents of advice seeking—as defined by network theory (Granovetter, 1983)—into a cost/benefit model based on expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964). To contribute to the research on advice network formation, we integrate the role of task uncertainty—one of the defining characteristics of IT projects—into that research (Wallace & Keil, 2004). Based on a controlled quasi‐experiment, this study demonstrates that when task uncertainty is low, individuals with attractive personalities and similar demographics will be sought out for advice more frequently, regardless of their knowledge and resources (i.e., the benefits to the advice seekers). However, when task uncertainty is high, individuals with greater knowledge and access to resources are sought out more often in an advice network. These results provide clarity to prior research that has found mixed results concerning the effectiveness of the traditional antecedents to advice seeking (e.g., knowledge, power, and transactive memory) (e.g., Xu, Kim, & Kankanhalli, 2010a). In addition, project managers may choose to alter their team structure in order to optimize the advice network based on the anticipated level of IT project risk or task uncertainty.     

Trust in management and knowledge sharing: The mediating effects of fear and knowledge documentation

Knowledge sharing within and between teams is of vital importance for organizations. The influence of interpersonal trust in general and trust in management in particular on knowledge sharing is evident. However, it is not clear how the relationship between interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing works. This study provides a better understanding of that relationship by demonstrating that fear of losing one's unique value and knowledge documentation have a mediating effect on the relationship between trust in management and knowledge sharing. Specifically, trust in management increases knowledge sharing through reducing fear of losing one's unique value and improving willingness to document knowledge. These findings have important implications at both a managerial and theoretical level. For managers, this paper emphasizes the individual's central role in the knowledge sharing process in terms of knowledge documentation and fear of losing one's unique value. On the theoretical level, this study provides empirical evidence for two mechanisms that help explain the effect of trust in management on knowledge sharing. In future research, this study could be extended to include other psychosocial phenomena that enable knowledge sharing in organizations.     

我国知识型员工知识转移的动机实证研究

本文在对上海、北京、广州等地区10余家知名高科技企业的428名知识型员工问卷调查的基础上,分别用SPSS11.0、LISREL8.2统计软件进行探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析,证明我国企业知识型员工知识转移的动机包括:个人利益、兴趣动机、个人成就感和组织情感四维度结构,最后,通过相关回归,将以上四维动机对知识转移行为的影响力进行了分析,对我国企业内部知识转移激励机制的设计有一定的参考价值.     

Knowledge sharing for innovation performance improvement in micro/SMEs: an insight from the creative sector

Abstract

As economies become more reliant on innovative, knowledge-intensive firms, understanding the interaction between knowledge and improving innovation performance is increasingly important. Although most UK businesses are micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (micro/SMEs), knowledge management research has tended to focus on large companies Knowledge sharing can be critical for innovation performance, especially for smaller players with limited resources. Our study presents an insight from micro/SMEs operating in the highly knowledge-intensive and innovative games/entertainment software development sector. Using a mixed method approach, we investigate knowledge sharing and its contribution to firm innovation performance improvements. Our findings suggest that micro/SMEs are at the forefront of the creative sector precisely because of their smaller size. Our study reveals evidence of knowledge donation but limited evidence of knowledge collection in the knowledge sharing process. We develop a model highlighting the importance of industry context, individual knowledge and organizational size in knowledge sharing for innovation performance.     

A Newsvendor Problem with Revenue Sharing and Channel Coordination*

Increasingly manufacturers and retailers are implementing revenue‐sharing policies to coordinate distribution channels more effectively. This article considers a standard newsvendor problem in a single manufacturer–retailer channel and compares the expected profits that each party receives in a traditional ordering environment with those that can be achieved under a revenue‐sharing policy designed to completely eliminate double marginalization. It is shown that the retailer always benefits from the transition to revenue sharing by capturing a portion of the incremental channel profit generated by the complete elimination of double marginalization. A necessary demand‐distribution‐dependent condition is derived under which the transition to revenue sharing benefits the manufacturer as well. The findings of this research are illustrated in a numerical example for the uniform demand distribution.     

An Empirical Study of the Effect of Knowledge Management Processes at Individual,Group, and Organizational Levels*

To enhance our understanding of knowledge management, this paper focuses on a specific question: How do knowledge management processes influence perceived knowledge management effectiveness? Prior literature is used to develop the research model, including hypotheses about the effects of four knowledge management processes (internalization, externalization, socialization, and combination) on perceived individual‐level, group‐level, and organizational‐level knowledge management effectiveness. The study was conducted at the John F. Kennedy Space Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration using a survey of 159 individuals and two rounds of personal interviews. Structural equation modeling was performed to test measurement and structural models using the survey data. The emergent model suggests that internalization and externalization impact perceived effectiveness of individual‐level knowledge management. Socialization and combination influence perceived effectiveness of knowledge management at group and organizational levels, respectively. The results also support the expected upward impact in perceived effectiveness of knowledge management, from individual to group level, as well as from group level to organizational level. The study's limitations and implications for practice and future research are described.     

供应链知识共享的决策行为及影响因素研究

识别知识共享的影响因素是成功实施供应链知识共享的重点。以具有Stackelberg博弈特征的供应链为研究对象,分析了3种不同情况下供应链知识共享的决策行为,在定量分析的基础上讨论了供应链知识共享行为的影响因素。研究结果表明,供应链知识共享行为受到了知识价值、共享收益以及企业在供应链中的地位等诸多因素的影响。