Collaborative Networks - Premises for Exploitation of Inter-Organizational Knowledge Management

Abstract

Inter-organization knowledge management in the context of collaborative networks is a critical activity for business success. During the evolution of collaborative network specific technologies, increasingly performant instruments were created to exploit this knowledge. As a development cycle, inter-organizational knowledge is built on the foundation of information and data owned by the participants in the collaborative networks. One of the most widely used instruments to exploit this data and knowledge, with the purpose of creating new knowledge, is Data Mining. In the context of this paper, data mining is the process of discovering patterns and hidden relations in very large data collections, stored in data banks or data bases. Because only in extremely rare cases reading data tables record by record leads to the discovery of useful patterns, the information must be processed automatically, process known as Knowledge Discovery. Knowledge Discovery is a component that combines the power of computers with a human operator that has the ability to find the visual patterns revealed by the system. Using an automated data mining system, the computer finds the existing informational patterns and the human factor (the analyst) evaluates those patterns and picks the ones that are really relevant for the current analysis. Considering the current technological context, where storage devices are more and more accessible and performant, the storage capacity is no longer a barrier preventing storage of all required data. Exploitation of inter-organizational knowledge in collaborative networks leads the research to the field of business intelligence applied even on social environment. This approach belongs in literature to the general branch of social business intelligence.Keywords: Collaborative Networks, Information Technology, Inter-Organizational Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Discovery, Data Mining1 IntroductionT he importance of knowledge and organizational networks in obtaining a competitive advantage on the market is recognized both by theoreticians and by practitioners as well. The increase of the number of collaborative networks, the accent on knowledge within the society based on knowledge and innovation come to support those who want to adhere to new organizational forms that would lead to obtaining success on the global market.Knowledge is known as one of the most important assets of management within organizations, as knowledge allows organizations to use and develop resources, to increase the competitive ability and to obtain a substantial competitive advantage [1]. Knowledge also represents an important source that allows nations, organizations, and persons to obtain benefits, such as: learning improvement, innovation, and decision making. Any organization, public or private, needs a knowledge management process in order to obtain the best performances [2].In global economy, the strong competition, the frequent changes on the market, the higher and higher demands concerning quality, lead to the necessity of new organizational forms. Organizational networks are acknowledged as organizational forms characterized by an increased flexibility and that may lead to obtaining the competitive advantage on the market. Apart from the potential advantages, organizational networks are also confronted with problems and challenges that are particularly connected to the complexity of the collaborative environment.Inter-organizational knowledge can be defined as an explicit set of knowledge that is formalized and created by organizations [3]. The interactions within the network allow organizations to develop the collaborative and relational tacit knowledge and to generate inter-organizational tacit knowledge that can be capitalized within the interorganizational memory [4]. The interorganizational knowledge allows organizations to develop distinctive abilities, which may lead to the increase of the innovation ability. …