Abstract
Knowledge management (KM) is a key element for the development of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the construction industry. This is particularly relevant in Chile, where this industry is composed almost entirely of SMEs. Although various KM system proposals can be found in the literature, they are not suitable for SMEs, due to usability problems, budget constraints, and time and connectivity issues. Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) systems offer several advantages to construction SMEs, but they have not yet been exploited to address KM needs. Therefore, this research is aimed at the development of a MCC-based KM platform to manage lessons learned in different construction projects of SMEs, through an iterative and user-centered methodology. Usability and quality evaluations of the proposed platform show that MCC is a feasible and attractive option to address the KM issues in SMEs of the Chilean construction industry, since it is possible to consider both technical and usability requirements.
Highlights
The construction industry is a knowledge-based industry [1]
The approach applied allowed us to encapsulate the complex design decisions and trade-offs involved in the architecture of a mobile application with augmented capabilities via cloud backend services destined for improving knowledge management in
The platform has been considered by users as a useful tool with great potential to improve the performance of the knowledge management process, as it provides systematization of a process that has not yet been formalized in Chilean small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs)
Summary
Effective knowledge management (KM) is believed to be one of the performance enhancers for organizations wanting to remain successful in the highly competitive global construction industry [2]. KM is even more important for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), as knowledge is a key resource for them to survive, grow, and remain competitive in turbulent economic times [3]. This has a particular relevance for the Chilean construction sector because 98% of these construction companies are SMEs and they represent. Knowledge is seen as information that is found in the mind of an individual, related to facts, procedures, concepts, judgments and ideas; in turn, KM refers to identifying and leveraging collective knowledge in an organization to help the company
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