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This paper proposes a research agenda for knowledge management research and practice. To do this, it first reviews selected past knowledge management activity, especially that published in KMRP, including descriptions, predictions, initiatives and other research agendas. This merges into a consideration of the current states of knowledge management literature and knowledge management practice, and some issues that need to be taken into account for the future. These are used to synthesise an agenda whose key feature is research on practice, not just research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the guest editors discuss the theme of the issue, the role of theory in management research.

This paper gives an overview of knowledge management (KM) research in Zimbabwe and analyses the most significant research trends and patterns from 2010 to 2022. The literature review technique was used to collect data, focusing on characteristics of publication outputs, focus of the researches, research methods, and summary of key findings. Findings show that research in knowledge management is still limited in Zimbabwe. The corporate sector receives the most focus from KM researchers, followed by knowledge-oriented institutions, the public sector, Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), media organisations, and agriculturerelated enterprises. Universities, despite being both knowledge factories and large consumers of knowledge, are implementing knowledge management only to a limited extent. The common research themes include knowledge management technologies, firm performance, knowledge sharing, and knowledge management challenges. The qualitative approach is the most preferred research methodology, while interviews and questionnaires are the most often utilised data collection methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the writing of qualitative research in management learning and education (MLE). Topics discussed include the method of writing the qualitative work for submission to he journal, the review of issues associated with writing, academic career, the information to be assessed, and the MLE-related research.

The business-to-business electronic marketplace (e-marketplace) is becoming critical for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, which e-marketing services determine a firm’s e-marketing performance and how innovation, knowledge complexity and environmental turbulence influence the relationship between e-marketing services and e-marketing performance are under-researched topics in the field. We first empirically tested 176 SMEs from China to evaluate which e-marketing services are significantly related to e-marketing performance and how these services collectively influence the performance. Then, we used an NK model to examine how innovation, knowledge complexity and environmental turbulence mediate/moderate the relationship. The results show that five e-marketing services (e-CRM, e-SCM, e-competitiveness, IS/IT integration and information transparency) can greatly influence e-marketing performance; innovation positively mediates the relationship between e-marketing services and performance; and knowledge complexity and environmental turbulence positively moderate the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Existing literature indicates that replication and extension studies are crucial for advancement of knowledge and establishing external validity of earlier work. In this study, we replicate and extend Cho and Cheon's (2004) advertising avoidance on the Internet model. We specifically examine the relationship of perceived goal impediment, perceived ad clutter, and prior negative experience with ad avoidance. The proliferation of the Internet has greatly increased ways organizations target customers through online advertising. However, consumers have also become more proficient at advertising avoidance. Survey data from 339 consumers browsing the Internet in Iran were used to validate the original model. Further, an extension of the study suggests that user mode moderates the relationships identified in the original model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Author cooperation is almost always needed when attempting to replicate important advertising research because critical study details are often omitted from articles due to the value of journal space. We replicate and extend Reid, Rotfeld, and Wimmer (1982) by measuring authors' compliance with requests to share their study's details, which are needed to replicate their published empirical advertising journal articles. More than a third of authors did not share enough details of the requested study to enable independent replication and extension of their work. Extending earlier research, we find that obtaining details of author-generated data is much easier (75%) than public secondary data (44%). Obtaining details of third-party data was largely impossible. We also found important differences in compliance with requests for replication information across journals. Our results have implications for advertising knowledge generation and the ability to independently replicate published research. We offer suggestions to improve and increase advertising scholars' ability to obtain necessary information to replicate published findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article provides insights into barriers to replication research and presents an agenda identifying “who” should do “what” to robustly advance knowledge in disciplines of advertising and marketing. A Delphi study, showing consensus of opinion among international experts in the replication process—authors, editors, and reviewers—is presented. The study engages the problem from a triadic perspective and highlights differences in thinking among these stakeholder groups. In presenting an agenda for collective action, the article seeks to stimulate debate regarding the merits of undertaking and publishing replication research in enhancing the credibility of the theoretical foundations of our disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Greening the supply chain is an increasingly important concern for many business enterprises and a challenge for logistics management. Critical functions within green supply chain management are internal improvements and selection of green suppliers. This study proposes a novel, hybrid model that addresses dependent relationships between various criteria and the vague information coming from decision-makers. The Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique structures the relationships among criteria, thereby constructing an influential network relationship map (INRM). Meanwhile the DEMATEL-based, analytical network process (ANP) method aids in obtaining influential weights of the criteria. Decision-makers may hold diverse opinions and preferences due to incomplete information, differences in knowledge or simply conflicts that are inherent between various departments. This can make it difficult to judge the performance of alternatives. One remedy is to apply a modified COmplex PRoportional ASsessment of alternatives with Grey relations. Next, this is applied to improve each criterion for integration of the performance values obtained in closing the aspiration level from different expert opinions based on INRM. An empirical example using data from a Taiwanese electronics company is provided to demonstrate our proposed method. The results can provide firms with a knowledge-based understanding of the source of some problems, thus reducing the performance gaps and closing the aspiration levels. Finally, there is a discussion on certain managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international marketing literature has suggested that the characteristics of the subsidiary-headquarters relationship play an important role in subsidiary knowledge development within the field of multinational corporations. However, few studies have examined the association between the subsidiary-headquarters relationship and the subsidiary strategic role and its effects on subsidiary knowledge development. In this article, the authors first examine the effect of four subsidiary-headquarters relational characteristics (socialization mechanisms, autonomy, shared values, and internal embeddedness) on subsidiary knowledge development. Then, building on configuration theory, the authors employ two perspectives of fit (moderation and profile deviation) to investigate the impact of fit between strategy and relational characteristics and examine their effects on subsidiary knowledge development. Using data from 184 U.K. foreign-owned subsidiaries operating in the knowledge-intensive business services sector, the authors confirm that internal embeddedness, socialization mechanisms, and autonomy are positively related to subsidiary knowledge development. Furthermore, the findings support the moderation and profile deviation perspectives and indicate that aligning the subsidiary's strategic role with relational characteristics can lead to superior knowledge development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although emotions play an important role in human behavior and knowledge studies, knowledge management (KM) research considers them from specific angles and, to date, has lacked a comprehensive understanding of the emotions dominating KM. To offer a holistic view, this study investigates the presence of emotions in KM publications by applying a sentiment analysis. The authors present a sentiment dictionary tailored to KM, apply it to KM publications to determine where and how emotions occur, and categorize them on an emotion scale. The considerable amount of positive and negative emotions expressed in KM studies prove their relevance to and dominance in KM. There is high term diversity but also a need to consolidate terms and emotion categories in KM. This study's results provide new insights into the relevance of emotions in KM research, while practitioners can use this method to detect emotion-laden language and successfully implement KM initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human resource management research has traditionally taken the attribute approach; outcomes are considered to be dependent on attributes of the individuals or attributes of the job itself. However, many of the phenomena and outcomes related to human capital, such as recruiting and onboarding, teamwork and communication, knowledge management, and employee satisfaction are also dependent on social capital and the relational networks that exist among employees. Social network analysis is a methodology that has so far been underutilized within the human capital field, but it is uniquely suited for helping researchers and practitioners understand the complex relationships that are driving organizations. This article provides an introduction to social network analysis and explains how it can be applied to both research and practice, with the goal of developing new ways of thinking about human capital, social capital, and the important interaction between the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of product design, engineers usually find it is difficult to precisely find and reuse others’ empirical knowledge resources, especially the lesson-learned knowledge, which is usually not well collected by the organisation. This study proposes a novel approach, which uses a semantic-based visualised wiki system (SVWkS) to support lesson-learned knowledge reuse. The core of visualised knowledge search framework is a semantic-based topic knowledge map. The architecture of this knowledge map creation method is designed, which has five major modules: lesson-learned items pre-processing, topic extraction, topic relation computation, topic weight computation and topic knowledge map generation modules. Then a working scenario of SVWkS is briefly introduced. We have conducted three sets of experiments to evaluate quality of visualised results-knowledge map, the effectiveness of semantic-based visualised searching mechanisms and the performance of utilising SVWkS for knowledge reuse in outfitting design of a ship-building company. The first experiment shows that knowledge maps generated by SVWkS are accepted by domain experts from the evaluation since precision and recall are high. The second experiment shows a semantic-based visualised searching mechanism supported by semantic relations is more useful than a traditional keyword search in terms of precision and recall. The third experiment shows that SVWkS-based group outperforms keyword search-based group in both learning score and satisfaction level, which are two measurements of performance of utilising SVWkS. The promising results confirm the feasibility of SVWkS in helping engineers to find needed lesson-learned knowledge and reuse-related knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry. The aim of this approach is to strengthen the modularity and reuse of engineering design ontologies to support knowledge management initiatives within the aerospace industry. Successful development and effective utilisation of engineering ontologies strongly depends on the method/framework used to develop them. Ensuring modularity in ontology design is essential for engineering design activities due to the complexity of knowledge that is required to be brought together to support the product design decision-making process. The proposed approach adopts best practices from previous ontology development methods, but focuses on encouraging modular architectural ontology design. The framework is comprised of three phases namely: (1) Ontology design and development; (2) Ontology validation and (3) Implementation of ontology structure. A qualitative research methodology is employed which is composed of four phases. The first phase defines the capture of knowledge required for the framework development, followed by the ontology framework development, iterative refinement of engineering ontologies and ontology validation through case studies and experts’ opinion. The ontology-based framework is applied in the combustor and casing aerospace engineering domain. The modular ontologies developed as a result of applying the framework and are used in a case study to restructure and improve the accessibility of information on a product design information-sharing platform. Additionally, domain experts within the aerospace industry validated the strengths, benefits and limitations of the framework. Due to the modular nature of the developed ontologies, they were also employed to support other project initiatives within the case study company such as role-based computing (RBC), IT modernisation activity and knowledge management implementation across the sponsoring organisation. The major benefit of this approach is in the reduction of man-hours required for maintaining engineering design ontologies. Furthermore, this approach strengthens reuse of ontology knowledge and encourages modularity in the design and development of engineering ontologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Under the fierce competition, manufacturing companies pay more attention to innovation and the knowledge that enables innovation. Manufacturing process innovation is a knowledge-intensive activity, and efficient knowledge accumulation is the prerequisite and basis for computer-aided process innovation (CAPI). Hence, this research aims to build an open knowledge accumulation approach to obtain organised and refined process innovation knowledge (PIK). By considering the similarity of PIK network with biological neural network and combining the technical characteristics of social network with wiki, a novel PIK accumulation schema based on bilayer social wiki network is proposed. In social wiki network environment, PIK is accumulated in public knowledge space through participants’ social interactions and knowledge activities. The process of knowledge fusion is investigated to form the preliminary knowledge containing collective intelligence, and the mechanisms of collaborative editing and collaborative evolution are studied to refine the knowledge. The outcomes of this study lay the foundation for knowledge application of CAPI. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the potential of health information technology (HIT) systems to significantly reduce medical errors, streamline clinical processes, contain healthcare costs, and ultimately improve the quality of healthcare, their adoption by hospitals in the United States has been rather slow. To study this adoption process and get insights into the underlying mechanisms, in this work we synthesize the theories on social networks and knowledge transfer. We propose a research framework in which the absorptive capacity of a potential adopter and the collective disseminative capacity of connected adopters act as two key determinants of knowledge transfer in a socioeconomic network, and these two capacities substitute for each other in affecting HIT adoption. We also propose that, in a network setting, the mechanism of knowledge transfer manifests quite differently from that of social contagion in its impact on the diffusion process at different stages of adoption. Using a large longitudinal data set covering adoption decisions of more than five thousand hospitals across a thirteen-year horizon, we find strong support for our hypotheses. Our analysis shows that knowledge flow in provider networks plays a key role in fostering technology diffusion in initial years, allowing the contagion effect to set in sooner for quicker adoption in later years. Therefore, recent efforts at multiple levels to form integrated healthcare delivery networks should accelerate HIT adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Product development is a highly creative and knowledge-intensive process that involves extensive information and knowledge exchange and sharing among geographically distributed teams and developers. How to best integrate such heterogeneous product knowledge has become an extremely important knowledge management (KM) subject associated with product development. Product development knowledge integration and sharing is becoming a key issue in the enterprise KM. This paper addresses the challenges of product development knowledge integration and sharing during product development. The aim of this research work effort is to develop a method to enhance the integration and sharing of product knowledge during the development phase. This study presents a systematic approach to developing knowledge integration and sharing for product development. The proposed approach includes the steps for designing a framework of product development knowledge sharing, developing representation model for product development knowledge, designing product development knowledge sharing process, designing product development knowledge integration ontology, developing knowledge integration and sharing method for product development based on ontology, and implementation of product development knowledge integration and sharing method. The proposed method could bring out an efficient and proactive way for knowledge integration and sharing among product developers in the product development process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Information technology has promoted our society gradually into knowledge economy from product economy. Value creation requires more and more knowledge and information to support enterprise activities. Knowledge management (KM) as an activity has already existed, and will make the organisation and individual have stronger competition strength, and make better decisions. In order to respond to the industrial trend towards knowledge management, this paper investigates and proposes a framework for product lifecycle knowledge management that utilises product maintenance data across the lifecycle of the product. A case presented in this paper is a maintenance knowledge service system to prove the framework method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nowadays, many companies designing and manufacturing products have to develop collaborations with various partners. This situation involves increasing information exchanges between industrial partners and generates many related problems of data transfers, transformations or misunderstanding due to interoperability. This paper deals with enterprise modelling for studying interoperability in product design. This paper presents a research work carried out within the framework of ISTA3 (3rd generation interoperability for aeronautical sub-contractors) project and concerning interoperability between collaborating aeronautical subcontractors. We initially describe the generic ISTA3 methodology used for studying interoperability. Then we focus on design companies and develop their interoperability specificities, especially with PLM (product lifecycle management) systems. An adapted methodology based on multi-level modelling is proposed then illustrated through an industrial case study within two collaborative companies, involved into a subcontracting relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The nature of competition induces the need to constantly improve and perform better. For global aerospace manufacturers, this is as timely an epithet as ever as market forces urge for more growth, better financial return and market position. The macroeconomic aspect is compounded by the growth of product complexity and the need for higher product quality, hence the drive to reduce waste places emphasis upon production costs and the need to improve product performance. This paper focuses upon a rapid development and deployment method that enables the capture and representation of machining knowledge so that it may be shared and reused by design engineers to accelerate the design-make process. The study and mapping of information and knowledge relationships are described and put forward as a lightweight ontology. From this, a set of knowledge document templates were created to facilitate the capture, structuring and sharing of machining knowledge within a collaborative multidisciplinary aerospace engineering environment. An experimental pilot system has been developed to test and demonstrate that knowledge document templates can accelerate the sharing of machining knowledge within an industrial product lifecycle management environment. The results are discussed to provide a case for further development and application within the product domain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study uses an archival research design to assess the impact of enterprise systems on a firm's internal information environment as reflected in the production of management earnings forecasts. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that, if enterprise systems improve management's access to decision-relevant internal information, higher quality management earnings forecasts should ensue. Consistent with disclosure theory and the purported technical characteristics of enterprise systems, the authors find a positive association between enterprise system implementations and subsequent increases in the likelihood of management forecast issuance and the accuracy of the forecasts. Additional robustness tests support the argument that improvements in management forecasts are due to improvements in the firm's internal information environment rather than to enhancements in management's ability to manage earnings. Beyond accumulating financial reporting information, the authors note that such systems provide management with information to make day-to-day operational decisions. Moreover, the paper provides a basis for considering management forecast qualities as a measurable proxy for improvements in the firm's internal information environment that result from information technology investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge organisation is an important topic for knowledge management and application. However, in the current knowledge-intensive manufacturing environment, documents are heterogeneous and come from multi-disciplinary domains and product process phases, which make the knowledge behind documents difficult to represent and manage. This hinders knowledge sharing and reuse in manufacturing activities. In order to solve the problem, this paper presents a novel multi-perspective modelling approach for manufacturing knowledge representation and organisation. It combines the ideas of ontologies and topic maps together to give a unified representation of knowledge association semantically. This new modelling method takes advantage of both ontologies and topic maps: general knowledge in domains is described with ontology-based descriptions, and specific knowledge, such as extended or new knowledge entities and relations, is described with topic map-based descriptions. It supports various relation types in manufacturing knowledge and organises association in different facets at several levels. In addition, it can be used in association management, information retrieval, semantic inference and expansion, recommendation and navigation for knowledge sharing and reuse. A case study for representing electronic manufacturing knowledge is introduced to demonstrate the implementation of the proposed method, which shows that it is valid and practical. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss topics appearing elsewhere in the issue, including information on decision support tools for collaborative business networks, knowledge management in production engineering, and small and medium sized enterprises.

Knowledge sharing has been recognised as a key enhancer of supply-chain performance. However, the sharing of knowledge may not take place easily and automatically among the supply-chain partners. This paper attempts to shed some light on the mechanisms underpinning knowledge sharing in supply chains. In particular, we focus on knowledge sharing in a dyadic buyer–supplier relationship. We posit that trust and power are two important antecedents of two types of knowledge sharing between a buyer and supplier, namely technical exchange and technology transfer. To build our research model, a large-scale mail survey was conducted from a contact list of 800 companies provided by the Singapore Logistics Association. The results of the structural equation modelling suggest that trust has significant effects on technical exchange and technology transfer. Further, power also affects technical exchange and technology transfer significantly, though the impacts appear to be weaker than trust. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research aims to investigate the contributions of interorganisational relationships and knowledge-management practices as predictors of collaborative commerce (c-commerce) adoption. A non-compensatory adoption decision process was modelled using a neural network approach to examine the predictors of c-commerce adoption. A survey was undertaken in 136 firms for this research. The results showed that both interorganisational relationships and knowledge-management processes played an important role in predicting the adoption of c-commerce. In particular, variables from interorganisational relationships such as trust, communication, collaboration, and information sharing are found to contribute strongly to the predictive power of the model when compared with knowledge-management processes. This study provides insights for firms that would like to improve their supply-chain collaboration through the implementation of c-commerce. The findings lead to an understanding of what attributes of interorganisational relationships and knowledge-management processes can contribute to the improved adoption of c-commerce in the supply chain. Unlike past adoption studies which have tended to focus on technology, and organisational and environmental factors, this research examined interorganisational relationships and knowledge-management processes which are increasingly gaining the attention of researchers and practitioners. This study has also extended the existing literature by examining a non-compensatory model for technology adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to stimulate innovation during the collaborative process of new product and production development, especially to avoid duplicating existing techniques or infringing upon others’ patents and intellectual property rights, the collaborative team of research and development, and patent engineers must accurately identify relevant patent knowledge in a timely manner. This research develops a novel knowledge management approach using ontology-based artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm to automatically classify and search knowledge documents stored in huge online patent corpuses. This research focuses on developing a smart and semantic oriented classification and search from the sources of the most critical and well-structured knowledge publications, i.e. patents, to gain valuable and practical references for the collaborative networks of technology-centric product and production development teams. The research uses the domain ontology schema created using Protégé and derives the semantic concept probabilities of key phrases that frequently occur in domain relevant patent documents. Then, by combining the term frequencies and the concept probabilities of key phrases as the ANN inputs, the method shows significant improvement in classification accuracy. In addition, this research provides an advanced semantic-oriented search algorithm to accurately identify related patent documents in the patent knowledge base. The case demonstration analyses 343 chemical mechanical polishing and 150 radio-frequency identification patents sample sets to verify and measure the performance of the proposed approach. The results are compared with the previous automatic classification methods demonstrating much improved outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study aims to investigate how different knowledge-management processes (i.e. knowledge acquisition and dissemination) affect the manufacturers’ performance in collaborative economic exchanges with their suppliers. Drawing upon the knowledge based view and transaction cost economics, this study proposes that knowledge-management processes are positively related to the performance of the manufacturers in a collaborative buyer–supplier relationship. It also posits that this link is stronger when the levels of supply-chain integration and relational stability are higher rather than lower. The findings of this study show strong support for these propositions. Theoretical and practical contributions of this study are also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers the supplier selection problem in terms of the characteristics of the products/processes to be outsourced. Emphasis is placed on the possible risk that may arise in sharing or transferring crucial product/process knowledge to suppliers during outsourcing. Two indices are employed to assess the suitability of a supplier for outsourcing a product/process. The first measures the supplier's capability for technological innovation in the products for which they offer outsourcing services, and includes investment in R&D projects and the ratio of R&D personnel to the total work force. The second index measures the supplier's practices in protecting its clients’ intellectual property rights, and includes corporate image, track record in protecting clients’ intellectual property rights, and compliance with internal and external requirements. These two indices are then used to classify suppliers into four major groups, which are in turn assigned to classes of components/processes depending on their strategic importance and vulnerability – a portfolio approach. The proposed portfolio approach has been validated via a substantial empirical study involving data for 401 parts, 216 suppliers, and 36 manufacturing companies operating in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the use of interorganisational knowledge models with the purpose of standardising engineer-to-order (ETO) products. Such product variant reductions can lead to decreased costs for both the ETO company and its suppliers without reducing sales. In spite of the attention that supply chain integration has received in the literature, supply chain integration with a focus on the integration of product knowledge in ETO companies and their suppliers has not received much attention. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to define this type of supply chain integration. The concept is investigated by a case study, which supports the claim that supply chain product knowledge integration is an approach for increasing the competitiveness of ETO companies and their suppliers. Given the gap in the literature, the paper may potentially open a new horizon for studying supply chain integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originally designed as a tool to alleviate bottlenecks associated with knowledge management, the suitability of wikis for corporate settings has been questioned given the inherent tensions between wiki affordances and the realities of organizational life. Drawing on regulatory focus theory and social cognitive theory, we developed and tested a model of the motivational dynamics underlying corporate wikis. We examined leaders (owners) and users of 187 wiki-based projects within a large multinational firm. Our findings revealed two countervailing motivational forces, one oriented toward accomplishment and achievement (promotion focus) and one oriented toward safety and security (prevention focus), that not only predicted owners' participation but also the overall level of engagement within the wiki groups. Our primary contribution is in showing that, notwithstanding the potential benefits to users, wikis can trigger risk-avoidance motives that potentially impede engagement. Practically, our findings call for an alignment between organizational procedures surrounding wiki deployment and the technology's affordances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research is drawing attention to the material practices that support verbal exchanges and cognitive processes in collective sensemaking. In this study, building on an ethnographic study of a design consulting firm, we develop a process model that accounts for the interplay between conversational and material practices in the transition from individual to group-level sensemaking, and we begin to unpack how the "materialization" of cognitive work supports the collective construction of new shared understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the effect of customer clusters on a firm's innovation. They argue that knowledge leveraged from customer clusters can help the firm develop innovations. The authors specifically concentrate on the effect of a firm's geographical proximity and diversity of customer clusters on innovation outcomes. In addition to showing the importance of customer cluster proximity on firm innovation, they explore the effect of customer cluster heterogeneity on innovation in an international marketing environment. They test the theoretical model using multicountry data (N = 288) drawn from the U.K. innovation survey implemented by the Economic and Social Research Council, which collected the data across five European countries. Theoretical constructs operate largely as hypothesized and explain a substantial proportion of the variation in the different innovation outcomes tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In knowledge-based environments, teams must develop a systematic approach to integrating knowledge resources throughout the course of projects in order to perform effectively. Yet many teams fail to do so. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we examine how teams can develop a knowledge-integration capability to dynamically integrate members' resources into higher performance. We distinguish among three sets of resources-relational, experiential, and structural-and propose that they differentially influence a team's knowledge integration capability. We test our theoretical framework using data on knowledge workers in professional services and discuss implications for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As customer needs become more sophisticated, often requiring new elements of psychological satisfaction, this poses the question of how innovation practices can be developed from the rational and mechanistic to take more account of the psychological, social and cultural needs of customers that are captured within successful products. This paper discusses the concept of visceralisation - the 'gut feel' and instinct associated with the tacit dimensions of managerial intuition - and develops a model of a visceral market learning capability. This concept draws on related ideas of design thinking and design attitude to improve innovation outcomes. While visceralisation has been discussed from both the consumer and research perspective, little progress has been made in applying the concept for market research and new product innovation purposes. The research methodology utilises an interactive, collaborative approach involving practitioners to assist in the development of the model and an understanding of the visceralisation process. This is further informed by two case studies that support this emerging concept. This paper helps to characterise the concept of visceralisation, and the market and organisational learning mechanisms needed to develop visceral insight, and provides suggestions for market researchers and managers involved in new product development. While further development is required, the paper provides a framework, process and guidelines for the application of this technique in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have created an automated kiosk that uses embodied intelligent agents to interview individuals and detect changes in arousal, behavior, and cognitive effort by using psychophysiological information systems. In this paper, we describe the system and propose a unique class of intelligent agents, which are described as Special Purpose Embodied Conversational Intelligence with Environmental Sensors(SPECIES). SPECIES agents use heterogeneous sensors to detect human physiology and behavior during interactions, and they affect their environment by influencing human behavior using various embodied states (i.e., gender and demeanor), messages, and recommendations. Based on the SPECIES paradigm, we present three studies that evaluate different portions of the model, and these studies are used as foundational research for the development of the automated kiosk. The first study evaluates human-computer interaction and how SPECIES agents can change perceptions of information systems by varying appearance and demeanor. Instantiations that had the agents embodied as males were perceived as more powerful, while female embodied agents were perceived as more likable. Similarly, smiling agents were perceived as more likable than neutral demeanor agents. The second study demonstrated that a single sensor measuring vocal pitch provides SPECIES with environmental awareness of human stress and deception. The final study ties the first two studies together and demonstrates an avatar-based kiosk that asks questions and measures the response using vocalic measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we argue that the ability of a firm to access a variety of knowledge resources and, in turn, upgrade its products depends on its being tied not simply to any or many organizations and institutions, but rather to those that act as social and knowledge bridges between previously isolated producer communities. Through a multimethod analysis of the recent transformation of the Argentine wine industry, we highlight how distinct governance rules for new government support institutions can anchor their multiplex, cross-cutting network qualities, which underpin their ability to provide improved collective resources and reshape the ties between firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six Sigma programmes aspire to reduce variation in organizational processes and achieve clear financial results. Six Sigma initiatives have proven to be an effective technique for improving quality in manufacturing. Similarly, the importance of knowledge management has grown considerably in recent years and has emerged as a major source of competitive advantage for manufacturing firms. From the perspective of a decision support system, knowledge management is concerned with information acquisition, dissemination, and responsiveness. Little research has examined simultaneous applications of Six Sigma and knowledge management. The purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness of knowledge management for the implementation of Six Sigma in hospitals. We hypothesize that knowledge management will enhance the implementation of Six Sigma by leading to improvements of quality programme results and sustainable competitive advantage. The results of hierarchical regression analysis demonstrate that knowledge management does ameliorate the success of Six Sigma initiatives, specifically for knowledge dissemination and responsiveness. These results are discussed in terms of the contributions to existing theory and for managers of Six Sigma and knowledge management initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses the practical application, in a work environment, of discoveries in behavior science made in an academic setting. At issue is the management and transfer of knowledge to the process of employee management and training. He discusses actions that academics can employ to make sure that organizational decision makers use practical forms of research. Suggested are a a number of steps scholars can take to make research more useful including the simplification of empirical research, the involvement of managers and business students in the research process and the improvement of business communication skills.

Prior research proposes that greater collaboration between sales and marketing has benefits to the organization through improved business performance. This study examines the importance of this proposition and finds that there is a direct and positive relationship between these two constructs. In addition, this study identifies five antecedents to improving collaboration between sales and marketing and outlines the management implications of the study. The findings indicate that a positive senior management attitude toward collaboration between sales and marketing, the reduction of interdepartmental conflict, the improvement of communications, the establishment of organizational learning, and effective market intelligence systems are important antecedents to effective collaboration between sales and marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As markets have become global, more and more manufacturing companies achieve global operations through various strategic business alliances including joint ventures and outsourcing, etc. Since manufacturing has become global to address the needs of the global market, companies take advantage of advanced information technologies in achieving their global supply chain. It is not enough to just establish an integrated information system such as enterprise resource planning (ERP); it is also important to see to what extent this has been used to facilitate innovation and knowledge diffusion along the supply chain for an ultimate improvement of productivity and quality and in turn manufacturing organizational competitiveness. Without the integration of people and information technology/information systems (IT/IS), it is very hard to achieve any significant improvement in organizational performance. However, there are not many articles or reports that deal with knowledge management in advanced manufacturing organizations. Advanced manufacturing enterprises are characterized by a physically distributed enterprise environment, outsourcing and IT-enabled supply chain management (SCM). This paper makes an attempt to review the literature available on knowledge management (KM) in manufacturing with the objective of identifying the gap between theory and practice, strategies and techniques for KM systems in advanced manufacturing environments. The literature on KM in manufacturing has been reviewed using a suitable classification scheme with the objective of developing a framework for managing knowledge in manufacturing and suggesting some future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Largely missing in the study of knowledge management has been examination of the role the physical environment of the workplace plays in creating opportunities and barriers that influence the development and flow of a variety of types of information and knowledge. This article introduces the concept of organizational ecology as a frame of reference for thinking about the workplace as a complex web of interdependent social and organizational factors that, in combination, influence informal communication, interaction, and learning patterns. Specifically, it proposes the concepts of "dynamic constraint" and "dynamic harmony" to explain why organizational interventions involving manipulation of only social or physical factors often fail to achieve their desired objectives. It also examines how the spatial aspects of an organization's ecology can contribute to more effective communication and interaction patterns that support informal learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We advance a time-based theory of how team attributes, in terms of formal plans and knowledge, influence episodic transition and interpersonal processes and their relationships with team performance. Data were collected from 29 student teams that competed in a business simulation over four episodes (i.e., performance periods). We found mixed support for the notion that episodic processes partially mediate the relationships between team attributes and performance. Some unexpected yet informative interactive relationships were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating spillovers (potential costs and benefits to a firm that extend beyond an individual transaction), I integrate transaction cost theory and the knowledge-based view of the firm in an effort to better understand the efficient governance of knowledge. Contracts with detailed task descriptions were associated with transactions with the potential to generate new and reusable knowledge. The risk of a firm's technology spilling over to others and the risk of reputation-impairing spillovers were associated with suppliers using their own employees rather than subcontractors. Thus, results suggest that the creation and protection of knowledge are key factors in understanding governance decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines corporate performance effects of cross-business knowledge synergies in multibusiness firms. It synthesizes the resource-based view of diversification and the economic theory of complementarities to conceptualize cross-business knowledge synergies in terms of the relatedness and the complementarity of knowledge resources across business units of the multibusiness firms. The study hypothesizes that corporate performance is improved when the firm simultaneously exploits a complementary set of related knowledge resources across its business units. In a sample of 303 multibusiness firms, the study finds that synergies arising from product knowledge relatedness, customer knowledge relatedness, or managerial knowledge relatedness do not improve corporate performance on their own. Synergies arising from the complementarity of the three types of knowledge relatedness significantly improve both market-based and accounting-based performance of the multibusiness corporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]