Systematisierung der Erfolgsfaktoren von Wissensmanagement auf Basis der bisherigen empirischen Forschung

Zusammenfassung  Der vorliegende Beitrag leitet aus einer umfassenden Bestandsaufnahme der empirischen Forschung zum Wissensmanagement einen Bezugsrahmen der Erfolgsfaktoren ab. Ziel ist die Zuordnung der identifizierten Erfolgsfaktoren zu übergeordneten Aggregationsniveaus (Untersuchungsfelder, Kategorien und Dimensionen) und damit die Reduzierung von Komplexit?t und Systematisierung der bisherigen Befunde. Weiterhin sollen aus den Ergebnissen der vorliegenden Analyse Implikationen für die weitere Forschung im Wissensmanagement abgeleitet werden. Als Ergebnis resultiert ein Modell, welches die Inhalte als auch die hypothetischen Beziehungen zwischen den identifizierten Aggregationsebenen veranschaulicht. Er bildet damit Grundlage für eine weitere Analyse der Erfolgsfaktoren, ihrer Auspr?gungen und Interdependenzen. Aus der Heterogenit?t der Studien konnten weitere Implikationen für die theoretische Wissensmanagement-Forschung abgeleitet werden.

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Knowledge management factors of success: A review of empirical findings and a model for future research

Summary  This paper derives a framework of key success-factors from an in-depth review of empirical research in knowledge management. Our first objective was to reduce the complexity of previous findings in the field of knowledge management by developing a model-structure that focuses on the interdependencies of the identified variables and to develop a framework that would allow for further research. We thus iteratively aggregated the identified factors of success to superior fields of analysis (named research fields, categories and dimensions). Our second objective was to extract from the analysis further implications for future research. The derived hypothetical framework maps the identified levels of aggregation and its describing factors, as well as the hypothetical interdependencies among them. Therefore this framework not only structures the findings, but also provides a basis for further analysis that aims at sound confirmation of the knowledge management factors of success, their characteristics and interdependencies. The observed heterogeneity of existing research points towards further research implications for knowledge management theory.

Forschungsschwerpunkte: Mergers & Acquisitions, Projektmanagement, Wissensmanagement     

Combining Experts' Risk Judgments on Technology Performance of Phytoremediation: Self-Confidence Ratings, Averaging Procedures, and Formative Consensus Building

Expert panels and averaging procedures are common means for coping with the uncertainty of effects of technology application in complex environments. We investigate the connection between confidence and the validity of expert judgment. Moreover, a formative consensus building procedure (FCB) is introduced that generates probability statements on the performance of technologies, and we compare different algorithms for the statistical aggregation of individual judgments. The case study refers to an expert panel of 10 environmental scientists assessing the performance of a soil cleanup technology that uses the capability of certain plants to accumulate heavy metals from the soil in the plant body (phytoremediation). The panel members first provided individual statements on the effectiveness of a phytoremediation. Such statements can support policymakers, answering the questions concerning the expected performance of the new technology in contaminated areas. The present study reviews (1) the steps of the FCB, (2) the constraints of technology application (contaminants, soil structure, etc.), (3) the measurement of expert knowledge, (4) the statistical averaging and the discursive agreement procedures, and (5) the boundaries of application for the FCB method. The quantitative statement oriented part of FCB generates terms such as: "The probability that the concentration of soil contamination will be reduced by at least 50% is 0.8." The data suggest that taking the median of the individual expert estimates provides the most accurate aggregated estimate. The discursive agreement procedure of FCB appears suitable for deriving politically relevant singular statements rather than for obtaining comprehensive information about uncertainties as represented by probability distributions.     

Optimal stimulation level theory, exploratory consumer behaviour and product adoption: an analysis of underlying structures across product categories

Research of the last decades focused on answering several questions in view of optimum stimulation theory. Which variables do influence general explorative tendencies such as risk taking, variety seeking, or curiosity-motivated behaviour and how do the general explorative tendencies effect the willingness to choose new or familiar products on a repurchase occasion? The approach of this research is the attempt to analyse a wide range of variables, which have successfully been tested to influence innovative behaviour, within one simultaneous model. This research is applied across different product-categories. It is confirming the nomological validity of OSL-theory including some contextual variables by attesting a principal consistency between all (six) models that have been established throughout the range of several examined product categories. The parameters between inherent factors do not contradict when comparing the single models with each other, parameter values do only differ slightly according to category-specific peculiarities. As a consequence of these results, an overall fairly good picture is drawn of what is behind the keenness for innovations of early adopters in general (regardless of the product category).     

From Street‐level Bureaucrats to Street‐level Policy Entrepreneurs? Central Policy and Local Action in Lottery‐funded Community Cancer Care

Recent contributions to the policy implementation literature have applied Kingdon's model of ‘policy windows’ to the implementation of policy on health inequalities in the UK, and have identified the key role played by ‘policy entrepreneurs’ at local as well as national level. Despite this, the picture that emerges is of frustration of central policy intentions at the local level, alongside frustration of local aspirations by the centre. This article explores the relationship between central policy and local implementation in the context of a Lottery‐funded initiative to develop community cancer care in the UK. We examine the relationships: between the BIG Lottery Fund and central government; between BIG and the cancer care projects it funded; and between the projects and their local economy of cancer care. We found evidence of success both in vertical cascading of policy and in local policy innovation; 83 per cent of projects succeeded in obtaining continuation funding at the end of their Lottery funding. We suggest that this was due, in part, to two features of Lottery funding and accountability that combined to differentiate it from the other policy initiatives studied. They meant that projects were ‘buffered’ not just from national policy churn, but also from competing local priorities. In the ‘protected space’ that was thus formed, ‘street‐level policy entrepreneurs’ played a key role in developing cancer care innovations for adoption by mainstream funding agencies.     

Does European Union policy making explain accounting choices? An empirical analysis of the effects of investigations by the Directorate General for Competition on accounting choices

The hypothesis that political costs caused by the regulatory process impact upon accounting has been tested extensively and has found considerable empirical support. However, most studies use data from the United States. Whether the conclusions carry over to different institutional settings is an open question. This study exploits the fact that, in the European Union, there exists a policy area—competition policy—in which the European Commission can act in a manner significantly less constrained than in most other policy areas, imposing substantial fines on companies found to be in infringement of European competition regulations. Companies investigated by the Commission’s Directorate General for Competition have strong incentives to deflect attention and keep a low profile. It is conjectured that such companies will use income-decreasing accruals in order not to appear to be making unjustified profits. The results confirm this conjecture.     

Impact of Economic Conditions and Crises on Mortality and its Predictability

To investigate how economic conditions and crises affect mortality and its predictability in industrialized countries, we review the related literature, and we forecast mortality developments in Spain, Hungary, and Russia—three countries which have recently undergone major transformation processes following the introduction of radical economic and political reforms. The results of our retrospective mortality forecasts from 1991 to 2009 suggest that our model can capture major changes in long-term mortality trends, and that the forecast errors it generates are usually smaller than those of other well-accepted models, like the Lee-Carter model and its coherent variant. This is because our approach is capable of modeling (1) dynamic shifts in survival improvements from younger to older ages over time, as well as (2) substantial changes in long-term trends by optionally complementing the extrapolated mortality trends in a country of interest with those of selected reference countries. However, the forecasting performance of our model is limited (like that of every model): e.g., if mortality becomes extremely volatile—as was the case in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union—generating a precise forecast will depend more on luck than on methodology and expert judgment. In general, we conclude that, on their own, recent economic changes appear to have minor effects on life expectancy in industrialized countries, but that the effects of these changes are greater if they occur in conjunction with other major social and political changes.     

A political economy of accounting standard setting

In recent years accounting researchers have identified “political” lobbying as a problem for accounting standard setting. This paper presents a simple game-theoretic analysis of the political process to identify situations where companies have incentives to lobby the political principal instead of participating in the usual due process of accounting standard setting. Analysis of the model suggests that “political” lobbying is more likely to happen in the EU than in the US. Furthermore it is suggested that if the relevant standard setters wish to achieve harmonization of accounting standards between the EU and the US, European companies have more lobbying leverage than their American counterparts because there are more European veto players than American ones.     

A unified Europe? How euro-attitudes relate to psychological differences between countries

In this study, a number of psychological concepts have been measured (through questionnaire-items) in 15 countries under the hypothesis that they could explain national differences in attitudes towards the euro. Based on the average country scores for each of these concepts, multidimensional scaling (combined with hierarchical cluster analysis) revealed 5 regions and 2 unclustered countries (UK and Ireland) in three dimensions: 1. National economic pride and satisfaction; 2. Self-confident open-mindedness; 3. Progressive non-nationalistic. Structural equation modelling was further used to perform multiple group regression analyses in order to test for differential relationships between the psychological concepts and the attitudes, for the different country regions. It could be shown that the majority of psychological variables have a significantly different impact on euro-attitudes.PsycINFO classification: 2229; 2930; 2960; 3920     

A Comparison of Accelerated and Traditional MSW Students: Twenty Years Later

Abstract

There has been concern about the ideal length of time to effectively offer graduate content. Programs of less than two full years have been suspect. Thus study reports on two groups of social workers in the same program who have been professionally active for over twenty years. They completed the master's requirements under two different time conditions: One group completed study in twelve months; the other in the traditional two year period. The accelerated group reported the five major curriculum areas were more useful in their practice. In addition, they reported higher long-range achievement scores on the identical objectives of both programs.     

‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’

The collapse of the Berlin Wall is usually associated with images of progress, with falling autocrats and rising liberties. But things are not quite as straightforward if scrutinized from the vantage-point of women. Despite their unusually active participation in the mass protests of 1989, women in the eastern part of Germany suffered a series of setbacks in the subsequent unification process, most notably in the realms of reproductive rights, employment opportunities and access to affordable day-care. This article engages contending feminist approaches in East and West Germany in an attempt to highlight the controversial but central role the concept of patriarchy occupies in understanding the gendered effects of unification. To recognize the significance of patriarchal domination is not to deny that some forms of dissent - and even emancipatory transformation - have taken place. It does, however, necessitate an understanding of gender-related domination and resistance that focuses not only on heroic revolutionary events and on political, legal and institutional features, but also, and perhaps even primarily, on relatively mundane daily struggles that take place over values and societal expectations.