The way we share and learn: An exploratory study of the self-regulatory mechanisms in the professional online learning community

Self-regulation involves a triadic interplay among personal beliefs, individual behavior, and environment that both proactively and reactively influences one’s adjustment of efforts, courses of action, and attainment of goals to reach the anticipated outcomes. In this study, we propose and validate a self-regulation model that explores the effects of social capital and social cognitive factors on knowledge-sharing behavior. The results demonstrate that members of an online knowledge communities regulate his or her internal motivation, external demands, interpersonal relationships, help-seeking strategies, as well as confidence of capability in utilizing social resources and performing knowledge sharing task. Through a stronger sense of community, emotional attachment and empathic concern about others’ needs, members develop a high level of professional competence to collaborate with others and adequate efficacious beliefs to emotionally and instrumentally help others. The implications to both research and practice are discussed to enhance the understanding and effectiveness of self-regulation in the realm of knowledge management.     

Facilitating educators’ knowledge sharing with dedicated Information Systems

The process of knowledge sharing can be seen as the lifeblood for the establishment of a true Knowledge Society. Such a society must be grounded on an iterative process whereby existing knowledge is constantly shared, consolidated and – crucially – enriched with new knowledge. And knowledge sharing is the means by which that enrichment can take place. Without doubt, these processes play a vital role in the context of education, which ultimately has a strong bearing on the formation of the Knowledge Society. In this paper, knowledge sharing among educators is discussed within the context of long-term research work that the authors have carried out in the field. The paper reports on the design and development of a series of Information Systems conceived for the sharing of practices among educational practitioners. It discusses the thinking behind these different but related systems and examines how this is borne out in the implementation of key system features.     

Knowledge sharing and ERP system usage in post-implementation stage

Many organizations have adopted enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in recent years to integrate information and information-based processes within and across functional areas. Because of the under-utilization of ERP systems, most of these organizations are disappointed in reaching the anticipated business goals. It is imperative to explore how to facilitate the usage of ERP systems for organizations. This study aims to develop an understanding of the effect of knowledge sharing on ERP system usage and the factors affecting employees’ knowledge sharing after the initial implementation of an ERP system. Selected social oriented theories were employed to develop our conceptual model. By means of a survey of 804 ERP users from 53 Taiwan companies, we confirmed our research model to some extent and found that social capital, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy all have significant impacts on knowledge sharing. However, contrary to common belief, we found a negative, though insignificant, effect of extrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing. The implications for research, practice, and future research directions are discussed herein.     

EOMKIS：支持企业知识系统集成的企业本体论建立系统

ＣＩＭＳ企业经过多年的研究开发后,已经产生了许多基于知识的智能系统。由于建立方法的不同以及研究应用背景的差别,使得各个系统之间难以共享和重用。为了解决这一问题,利用本体论方法实现知识共享和重用体体论的结构化建立方法及开发系统。     

团队知识创新支持系统的设计与应用研究*

针对团队在知识创新过程中遇到的一系列问题,研究并开发了面向任务的团队知识创新支持系统。该系统主要从团队创新知识的记录和查询、知识结构的可视化以及创新知识的识别和评价几个方面来支持团队的知识创新活动。     

Reuse of knowledge assets from repositories: A mixed methods study

Reuse of information retrieved from an electronic knowledge repository and how this complements person-to-person interactions are poorly understood. I developed a research model that examined factors influencing how individuals benefit from reuse of knowledge assets. Using a mixed method approach, two empirical studies were conducted to test the model. The results showed that two key factors helped users to overcome difficulties in reusing knowledge assets: seeking assistance from and sharing a common perspective with the author of the asset. The study explains when and how individuals receive benefits from knowledge reuse. When individuals reuse complex knowledge assets in domains with which they are unfamiliar, they apparently gain more benefit by contacting the author; sharing a common perspective with the author also facilitates asset reuse. Thus both electronic repositories and person-to-person interaction mechanisms complement one another in facilitating knowledge sharing.     

关系知识表达模式及在专家系统中的应用

采用关系模式表达知识，可以利用当前流行的关系数据库管理系统（ＲＤＢＭＳ），将专家系统与ＲＤＢＭＳ上建立的管理信息系统，决策支持系统，办公自动化系统等有机结合，有利于知识的管理、存储和利用。并可在大量的管理信息，决策支持信息以及办公自动化信息中发现知识，使信息与知识共享。本文研究用关系模式表达知识的方法，并在一分类专家系统中利用ＲＤＢＭＳ强大的数据处理能力实现知识推理。     

Distinguishing knowledge-sharing, knowledge-construction, and knowledge-creation discourses

The study reported here sought to obtain the clear articulation of asynchronous computer-mediated discourse needed for Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia’s knowledge-creation model. Distinctions were set up between three modes of discourse: knowledge sharing, knowledge construction, and knowledge creation. These were applied to the asynchronous online discourses of four groups of secondary school students (40 students in total) who studied aspects of an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and related topics. The participants completed a pretest of relevant knowledge and a collaborative summary note in Knowledge Forum, in which they self-assessed their collective knowledge advances. A coding scheme was then developed and applied to the group discourses to obtain a possible explanation of the between-group differences in the performance of the summary notes and examine the discourses as examples of the three modes. The findings indicate that the group with the best summary note was involved in a threshold knowledge-creation discourse. Of the other groups, one engaged in a knowledge-sharing discourse and the discourses of other two groups were hybrids of all three modes. Several strategies for cultivating knowledge-creation discourse are proposed.

新颖度--关联规则的评价指标

提出了度量所发现的规则的新颖性的指标——新颖度,给出了它的构造方法和具体的算法实现,并通过实例进行了说明。     

Towards an evaluation framework for knowledge management systems

In this paper we develop an evaluation framework for Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). The framework builds on the theoretical foundations underlying organizational Knowledge Management (KM) to identify key KM activities and the KMS capabilities required to support each activity. These capabilities are then used to form a benchmark for evaluating KMS. Organizations selecting KMS can use the framework to identify gaps and overlaps in the extent to which the capabilities provided and utilized by their current KMS portfolio meet the KM needs of the organization. Other applications of the framework are also discussed.

Integrating manufacturing systems through knowledge exchange protocols within an agent-based Knowledge Network

Manufacturing enterprises need the ability to respond to rapid changes in the market more than ever before. Besides, they are forced to constantly modify their culture and internal organization structures because of change and intense competition in the market. This obviously requires industrial organizations to manage the different components of their organizations by integrating and coordinating them into a highly efficient, effective, and responsive system in order to maintain and improve their competitiveness. This paper presents a knowledge exchange procedure for creating an integrated intelligent manufacturing system. The basic features of the proposed scheme are introduced and the approach is supported through a case study.     

知识管理与知识共享

现在的人类社会,知识无处不在,无处不用。越来越多的企业意识到人与知识是企业竞争力的根本,于是,“以人为本”成了许多企业文化的核心,“知识资本”和“知本家”体现出入门对知识价值的认同。根据报道,财富1000中近半数的企业设立了知识主管,负责为知识共享创建基础设施和文化环境,为实施知识管理创造条件。不仅工业界,学术界也对知识管理倍加关注。本文介绍知识管理与知识共享的概念,关键技术及其应用,对相关问题进行分析和探讨。     

Use of collaborative technologies and knowledge sharing in co-located and distributed teams: Towards the 24-h knowledge factory

The relocation of knowledge work to emerging countries is leading to an increasing use of globally distributed teams (GDT) engaged in complex tasks. In the present study, we investigate a particular type of GDT working ‘around the clock’: the 24-h knowledge factory (Gupta, 2008). Adopting the productivity perspective on knowledge sharing ([Haas and Hansen, 2005] and [Haas and Hansen, 2007]), we hypothesize how a 24-h knowledge factory and a co-located team will differ in technology use, knowledge sharing processes, and performance. We conducted a quasi-experiment in IBM, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, over a period of 12 months, on a GDT and a co-located team. Both teams were composed of the same number of professionals, provided with the same technologies, engaged in similar tasks, and given similar deadlines. We found significant differences in their use of technologies and in knowledge sharing processes, but not in efficiency and quality of outcomes. We show how the co-located team and the GDT enacted a knowledge codification strategy and a personalization strategy, respectively; in each case grafting elements of the other strategy in order to attain both knowledge re-use and creativity. We conclude by discussing theoretical contributions to knowledge sharing and GDT literatures, and by highlighting managerial implications to those organizations interested in developing a fully functional 24-h knowledge factory.     

Special knowledge sharing incentive mechanism for two clients with complementary knowledge: A principal-agent perspective

In this paper, we study how the firm share the special knowledge of two knowledge-complementarity clients by implementing a large and complex project which the firm out-sourced. Firstly, incentive mechanism for complementarity special knowledge sharing are designed for clients being risk-neutral and risk-averse respectively under the asymmetric information. Further, knowledge complementary effects and other relevant factors on the optimal incentive coefficient are analyzed. Lastly, the numerical results are reported.     

Altruistic traits and organizational conditions in helping online

Helping is more likely to occur when potential helpers can clearly understand the help-seeker’s needs and when they can freely choose whether to help or not. Information systems such as electronic bulletin boards, web communities, and knowledge management systems all satisfy these conditions. In order to explain helping behaviors in the workplace, we employ the personality traits of altruism and job autonomy, as well as the characteristics of the information systems used by employees in organizations. In this study, we conducted a survey of business persons who use information systems in the workplace. The results of our study indicate that altruism and job autonomy have both the main and interaction effects on the willingness to help others through information systems. With regard to the effects of the characteristics of information systems, the media richness of information systems exerts a positive impact on willingness to help. On the contrary, the size of the user group affects the willingness to help negatively, which reflects the bystander effect in the offline world. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

A knowledge grid model and platform for global knowledge sharing

This paper proposes a knowledge grid model for sharing and managing globally distributed knowledge resources. The model organizes knowledge in a three-dimensional knowledge space, and provides a knowledge grid operation language, KGOL. Internet users can use the KGOL to create their knowledge grids, to put knowledge to them, to edit knowledge, to partially or wholly open their grids to all or some particular grids, and to get the required knowledge from the open knowledge of all the knowledge grids. The model enables people to conveniently share knowledge with each other when they work on the Internet. A software platform based on the proposed model has been implemented and used for knowledge sharing in research teams.     

If it's fair,I’ll share: The effect of perceived knowledge validation justice on contributions to an organizational knowledge repository

The organizational value of an electronic knowledge repository depends on the degree to which it offers high quality knowledge to its users. Validation procedures are implemented to monitor and ensure the quality of submitted content. However, if perceived as unreasonable or unfair, validation can have the unintended effect of discouraging employee contributions. Drawing on organizational justice and fairness literatures, we show that both quality perceptions and contribution behaviors are positively influenced by perceived procedural justice of validation, which, in turn, is influenced by perceived informational and interpersonal justice. Implications for organizational knowledge management research and practice are discussed.     

Understanding knowledge management system usage antecedents: An integration of social cognitive theory and task technology fit

The factors influencing KMS usage are of major concern to the MIS community. Among the diverse theories employed to help understand this is task technology fit (TTF), which considers the needed technological characteristics of the task as a major factor determining usage. This theory, however, ignores the personal cognition dimension, which has been found to affect the use of an IS. By integrating TTF and social cognitive theory (SCT), we attempted to determine the key factors affecting KMS usage in IT, the organizational task, and personal cognition. Through a survey of 192 KMS users, task interdependence, perceived task technology fit, KMS self-efficacy, and personal outcome expectations were found to have substantial influences on KMS usage. Among the key factors, KMS self-efficacy was found to be especially important as it was substantially and positively correlated to perceived task technology fit, personal and performance-related outcome expectations, and KMS usage.     

Enhancing portability with multilingual ontology-based knowledge management

Information systems in multilingual environments, such as the EU, suffer from low portability and high deployment costs. In this paper we propose an ontology-based model for multilingual knowledge management in information systems. Our unique feature is a lightweight mechanism, dubbed context, that is associated with ontological concepts and specified in multiple languages. We use contexts to assist in resolving cross-language and local variation ambiguities. Equipped with such a model, we next provide a four-step procedure for overcoming the language barrier in deploying a new information system. We also show that our proposed solution can overcome differences that stem from local variations that may accompany multilingual information systems deployment. The proposed mechanism was tested in an actual multilingual eGovernment environment and by using real-world news syndication traces. Our empirical results serve as a proof-of-concept of the viability of the proposed model. Also, our experiments show that news items in different languages can be identified by a single ontology concept using contexts. We also evaluated the local interpretations of concepts of a language in different geographical locations.