Knowledge-based Actions Research Articles

Ignoring and collective passivity in relation to information systems: How actors avoided engagement with data about wait times in Swedish healthcare

Although digital technology (DT) is often introduced with the aim of enhancing organizational knowledge transfer and learning, these aims often fail to materialize. The information systems (IS) literature attributes such unexpected outcomes to inappropriate technology design and implementation, as well as to overuse, misuse, and non-use of technology. However, we know little about how actors misuse or fail to use technology and data, thereby failing to acquire and act upon the knowledge necessary to achieve organizational learning. Leveraging the literature on strategic ignorance, we explore how actors expected to use technology for learning purposes justify their non-engagement with it. Studying an implementation of a DT with the purpose of facilitating organizational learning on basis of provided data in health care, we identify seven ignoring justifications through which the target users of the DT avoided key knowledge acquisition and knowledge-based action activities. These sensemaking behaviors accumulated to a state of collective passivity in relation to the DT. Our conceptualization contributes to and connects theories of organizational learning in the IS literature and strategic ignoring.

Making evidence-based practice actionable in the social service context: experiences and implications of workplace education

PurposeResearch and experience show that evidence-based practice (EBP), i.e. using the best available knowledge in daily professional work, is difficult to achieve in social services. The purpose of this study is to understand the development of organizational EBP learning processes in daily work through workplace education for staff and managers of supported homes for people with cognitive disabilities. The authors examine how the EBP model and new knowledge are understood and made actionable in the workplace, applying theories of organizational learning.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used empirical material collected from an EBP workplace education pilot in Sweden, as well as documents on national EBP implementation in Swedish social services. Before the pilot, a focus group interview was conducted with regional senior managers. Participating managers and staff were individually interviewed two to three years after the pilot.FindingsThe study illustrates how knowledge-based action emerged from education where EBP was interpreted, understood, reflected on, and tested, supported by codified EBP tools in the work context. The participants, when supervised, and when observing and questioning their own behaviors in practice, contributed to double-loop learning (DLL) processes. Codification of EBP knowledge into useful tools and socialization processes during education and workplace meetings was crucial in developing individual and group DLL and knowledge-based actions.Originality/valueThe bottom-up approach to EBP development and the adaptive contextual learning at the workplace gave new insights into organizational learning in social service workplaces.

Thermal-magnetic performance analysis for smart fluid dampers

Abstract Over the years, the Italian Government has taken significant strides in promoting road safety awareness among the students in high schools to create an awareness of prevention and a consciousness of road safety in the student population. In this context, an agreement was signed between the DICEAM Department of the “Mediterranea” University of Reggio Calabria (Italy) and the “Euclide” Higher Education Institute Bova Marina (Italy) to combine road safety with research science in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) area. With the primary aim of “knowing in order to act”, the students focused on the multi-physics design of magnetorheological fluid dampers as high-performance devices (simple to design and requiring reduced maintenance) for vehicle suspensions, especially class B vehicles. By combining road safety considerations with multi-physics scientific disciplines, the project seeks to emphasize the importance of prevention and knowledge-based action. The study explores the use of magnetorheological fluid dampers, powered by electric current and magnetic induction distribution with thermal loads, to provide appropriate yield stress for developing damping action with repercussions on the quality of road safety. The paper delves into the basic principles of FEM (Finite Element Method) techniques for analyzing an MR damper from both magnetostatic (the main cause generating the damping effect) and thermal perspectives (thermal effects are strongly influenced by environmental conditions). The analysis of an asymmetrical device, where the damping action relies on an MR fluid strip, reveals the significant influence of magnetic and thermal stresses on the magnetization of individual particles and the overall viscosity of the MR fluid.

Knowledge-Based Reinforcement Learning and Estimation of Distribution Algorithm for Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem

In this study, a flexible job shop scheduling problem with time-of-use electricity price constraint is considered. The problem includes machine processing speed, setup time, idle time, and the transportation time between machines. Both maximum completion time and total electricity price are optimized simultaneously. A hybrid multi-objective optimization algorithm of estimation of distribution algorithm and deep Q-network is proposed to solve this. The processing sequence, machine assignment, and processing speed assignment are all described using a three-dimensional solution representation. Two knowledge-based initialization strategies are designed for better performance. In the estimation of distribution algorithm component, three probability matrices corresponding to solution representation are provided. In the deep Q-network component, 34 state features are selected to describe the scheduling situation, while nine knowledge-based actions are defined to refine the scheduling solution, and the reward based on the two objectives is designed. As the knowledge for initialization and optimization strategies, five properties of the considered problem are proposed. The proposed mixed integer linear programming model of the problem is validated by exact solver CPLEX. The results of the numerical testing on wide-range scale instances show that the proposed hybrid algorithm is efficient and effective at solving the integrated flexible job shop scheduling problem.

A Risk-Based IoT Decision-Making Framework Based on Literature Review with Human Activity Recognition Case Studies.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a key and growing technology for many critical real-life applications, where it can be used to improve decision making. The existence of several sources of uncertainty in the IoT infrastructure, however, can lead decision makers into taking inappropriate actions. The present work focuses on proposing a risk-based IoT decision-making framework in order to effectively manage uncertainties in addition to integrating domain knowledge in the decision-making process. A structured literature review of the risks and sources of uncertainty in IoT decision-making systems is the basis for the development of the framework and Human Activity Recognition (HAR) case studies. More specifically, as one of the main targeted challenges, the potential sources of uncertainties in an IoT framework, at different levels of abstraction, are firstly reviewed and then summarized. The modules included in the framework are detailed, with the main focus given to a novel risk-based analytics module, where an ensemble-based data analytic approach, called Calibrated Random Forest (CRF), is proposed to extract useful information while quantifying and managing the uncertainty associated with predictions, by using confidence scores. Its output is subsequently integrated with domain knowledge-based action rules to perform decision making in a cost-sensitive and rational manner. The proposed CRF method is firstly evaluated and demonstrated on a HAR scenario in a Smart Home environment in case study I and is further evaluated and illustrated with a remote health monitoring scenario for a diabetes use case in case study II. The experimental results indicate that using the framework’s raw sensor data can be converted into meaningful actions despite several sources of uncertainty. The comparison of the proposed framework to existing approaches highlights the key metrics that make decision making more rational and transparent.

USING SCENARIO PLANNING TO ENHANCE COASTAL RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE: COMMUNITY FUTURES IN THE ESTUARINE LANDSCAPES OF BRISBANE WATER, CENTRAL COAST, AUSTRALIA

Abstract. Local governments face daunting urban planning challenges in the face of rapid population growth, increasing demand for affordable housing and climate change and divergent community perceptions. There is currently insufficient action to meet these formidable and dynamic challenges. Greater know-how and capacity development need to be invested in local planning and political authorities to promote knowledge-based action. More than two thirds of Australians reside along the coastal cities with over 15 million addresses across 544 local government areas at risk from coastal hazards from 2020 onwards (XDI, 2019). This makes it an urgent priority for local government to fast track adaptation planning for its residents in the low-lying hazard prone areas as well as Council services and infrastructure. In 2019, UNSW students from the Master of Urban Development and Design and Master of Landscape Architecture programs addressed these challenges within a design studio environment. In the studio they developed strategies for urban resilience for a network of five communities surrounding the Brisbane Waters on the Central Coast. The studio adopted an urban scenario planning approach using open source data and on-the-ground evidence to develop diverse community resilience strategies. For each community three scenarios were developed to test alternative urban design strategies and provide insight on possible contrasting futures. This paper demonstrates the benefit of evidence-based scenario planning for local authorities. Such approaches contextualise complex abstract problems and provide new insights for local climate adaptation in accessible and transparent ways. This proactive approach emphasises the need to build the urban design and planning capabilities of local authorities to enhance coastal adaption and resilience to climate change.

Linking entrepreneurial orientation to SMEs’ performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to measure the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The aim is to contribute to the extant literature about the role of EO for SMEs development, and more specifically to identify implications that can inform knowledge-based initiatives of entrepreneurship universities focussing on the development and diffusion of the entrepreneurial culture and capacity.Design/methodology/approachThis research paper adopts a quantitative approach to investigate a conceptual framework linking EO to SME’s performance. The central postulated hypothesis is that EO positively affects performance of SMEs. This hypothesis has been tested by using a system of partial least squares of structural equations modelling, adopting the SmartPLS® 3.0 software (Ringleet al., 2015). The empirical context analysed 170 SMEs operating in the Bajio Region (México) in the leather–footwear sector.FindingsThe results provide evidence that Mexican companies that manifest EO have a positive effect on their firm performance. Similarly, findings emphasise that both risk taking and innovativeness are currently the central axes of EO for the analysed companies. Accordingly, entrepreneurial universities should be engaged in the development of EO of students, academic staff and companies by focussing on knowledge-based actions that can foster the improvement of some specific features of the EO.Practical implicationsThe results provide insights about the relationships between EO and the performance of SMEs indicating that potentials initiatives of entrepreneurship universities aiming to support the development capacity of SMEs as well as of students and academic staff should be focussed on the critical dimensions characterising EO.Originality/valueThis paper provides insights into the role of EO for SMEs performance. It provides three main contributions. First, derived from literature research, it proposes a working definition of EO. Second, the empirical research findings support an understanding of the relationship between EO and Mexican SMEs performance and propose a multiple and reflective dimension of EO’s model. Moreover, finally, this research provides some implications for entrepreneurship universities aiming to create and diffuse an entrepreneurial culture and capabilities by fostering the development of the EO.

Participation and Compliance in Tension: Developing Women-led Yarn Spinning Businesses in Tajikistan

This paper presents a case study on two consecutive 4-year projects funded by IFAD that used participatory action research (PAR) to develop women-led yarn spinning businesses in rural Tajikistan. The case study explains how the PAR approach contributed to the project success and how it was affected by different compliance environments. The first project, managed by ICARDA, operated in an enabling compliance environment that supported field-level action based on a PAR-driven learning. The second project, managed by AKF, faced a high-burden compliance environment that affected field-level decision-making and created unforeseen costs for the project. The paper argues that cooperative learning and decision-making by the field staff and the stakeholders, facilitated by low burden compliance, is a cornerstone of effective, sustainable development. High-burden compliance systems can jeopardise project effectiveness and sustainability by prioritising procedural conformity over participatory, knowledge-based action.

Software engineering ontologies categorization

Software engineering is an own scientific and practice aria with an own structure, terminology, products, pro-cesses and resources. The software product is a knowledge-based product and it is the result of the knowledge-based actions. In this research, categorization of ontologies in software engineering are presented. The known criterion (process, domain, structure) are used for the categorization of ontologies but two criterion (process and domain) was modified. The process criterions is looked in the connection whit time period and the prede-velopment time added to time period. The domain criterions is making whit help of the representation of soft-ware engineering world in the form of domains. The ontologies are involved in representing knowledge of three types of the software engineering domains. In the first, the application domain, the focus is on under-standing the customer needs and what the software product must do. In the second, the implementation do-main, the focus is on understanding how the software product must behave and respond to the customer needs. In the third, the problem domain, the focus is on understanding the software engineering problems, which can be during software life cycle processes of the software product. Our research goal is to develop categorization of the software engineering ontologies on the base of adding known criterion. Ontological representation of software engineering knowledge; categorization; domain analysis; object-oriented programming; ontology-driven utilizing of programming styles. Categorization of the software engineering ontologies. The results of case study, using ontologies by categorization are presented. Had developed categorization of ontologies, it is possible exactly to define types of software engineering ontologies and its places into software processes. This is demonstrating on the examples of the case studies. Problems in programming 2018; 1: 55-64

A roadmap for knowledge exchange and mobilization research in conservation and natural resource management.

Scholars across all disciplines have long been interested in how knowledge moves within and beyond their community of peers. Rapid environmental changes and calls for sustainable management practices mean the best knowledge possible is needed to inform decisions, policies, and practices to protect biodiversity and sustainably manage vulnerable natural resources. Although the conservation literature on knowledge exchange (KE) and knowledge mobilization (KM) has grown in recent years, much of it is based on context-specific case studies. This presents a challenge for learning cumulative lessons from KE and KM research and thus effectively using knowledge in conservation and natural resources management. Although continued research on the gap between knowledge and action is valuable, overarching conceptual frameworks are now needed to enable summaries and comparisons across diverse KE-KM research. We propose a knowledge-action framework that provides a conceptual roadmap for future research and practice in KE/KM with the aim of synthesizing lessons learned from contextual case studies and guiding the development and testing of hypotheses in this domain. Our knowledge-action framework has 3 elements that occur at multiple levels and scales: knowledge production (e.g., academia and government), knowledge mediation (e.g., knowledge networks, actors, relational dimension, and contextual dimension), and knowledge-based action (e.g., instrumental, symbolic, and conceptual). The framework integrates concepts from the sociology of science in particular, and serves as a guide to further comprehensive understanding of knowledge exchange and mobilization in conservation and sustainable natural resource management.

Newcomb meets Gettier

I show that accepting Moss’s (Philos Rev 122:1–43, 2013) claim that features of a rational agent’s credence function can constitute knowledge, together with the claim (put forward by several philosophers) that a rational agent should only act on the basis of reasons that he knows, predicts and explains evidential decision theory’s failure to recommend the right choice for the Newcomb problem. The Newcomb problem can be seen, in light of Moss’s suggestion, as a manifestation of a Gettier case in the domain of choice. This serves as strong evidence for both Moss’s claim and the knowledge-based action approach.

Public literacy on sustainable development

Public literacy on sustainability, knowledge about sustainability and competence to act sustainably, is assessed with a 20-question questionnaire as a function of participants’ gender, age, education and annual income by surveying 353 randomly selected typical, non-expert citizens. Exploratory factor analysis reduced the number of independent variables, questions, from 20 to five, which were used for analysis and interpretation. Public sustainability literacy explains more of the total variance than any other latent factor, yet high proportions of ‘Don’t Know’ responses to all theme questions are evident. However, subject responses show a noteworthy level of knowledge and willingness to contribute to sustainable development. Assuming that typical citizens are not passive receptors of decisions made by sustainable development experts, an individual domain of responsibility is introduced to turn policies/regulations and technical advances into knowledge-based actions. The recommended bottom-up approach complements the top-down approach practiced presently and requires national campaigns to teach non-experts specific actions to achieve and maintain sustainability.

Reconsidering Multimarket Contact and Rivalry: The Effects of Knowledge-Based Resources and Actions

Prior studies have shown how multimarket contact (MMC) typically reduces rivalry involving downstream activities such as product pricing and market entry. Yet, recent research also shows that MMC can increase rivalry in knowledge-intensive contexts involving upstream activities such as R&D investments and patent citations. These studies suggest a need to better understand how MMC affects rivalry over knowledge-based resources, since increasing MMC may also impose additional costs related to a greater need to protect the firm’s knowledge-based resources from imitation by rivals. We argue that MMC increases a firm’s incentives to use knowledge-base actions to protect the value of its knowledge-based resources. In support of these arguments, this study shows that MMC increased the likelihood that a firm initiated patent litigation against a rival and that this positive effect is exacerbated by the technological quality of the firm’s knowledge-based resources. This study offers important contributions to the ...

Perception and Resilience of Andean Populations Facing Climate Change

Abstract The Andean Tropics are among the mountain systems most affected by climate change. The most conspicuous effect is glacier recession. However, little is known about how rural populations perceive climatic change impacts or about how social-ecological systems respond to the effects of change. Here, I examine perceptions of climatic change and their effects on social-ecological systems in the Peruvian Southern Andes. Data from interviews and focus groups are used to explain institutional responses to climatic variability based upon perceived effects of climate change. Results show that people perceive glaciers shrinking, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, more extreme temperatures, and shortened rainy seasons. Their responses to these perceived changes range from wetland creation to agriculture calendar modification to irrigation adjustments. Such perceptions of change rely on personal observations and local knowledge, which inform responses; knowledge-based action characterizes resil...

Dynamic alternation of primate response properties during trial-and-error knowledge updating

Humans and animals seek appropriate solutions to novel problems through trial-and-error (TE) actions and observation of their outcomes. Once an individual has obtained the knowledge (rule) to solve a problem, knowledge-based (KB) actions may be applied in a stereotypical manner. Solutions can thus be based on TE or KB actions. To characterize this learning process at the behavioral level, we developed a new cognitive task for a laboratory monkey (Macaca fuscata) to perform. In this task, a search array consisting of six elements of different colors was presented, one of which was the behaviorally relevant target. The target color was changed unpredictably with no instruction or signal, requiring the monkey to use a TE search strategy to find the target color. We found that once the monkey identified the relevant color by chance after a color change, correct performance increased in a step-like manner and at the same time, other response properties (reaction time and color-choice tendency) also changed discontinuously. These step-like alternations in behavioral performance may be attributed to the subject’s switching between TE and KB search strategies in the two phases. The present study has therefore provided behavioral evidence for the timing and manner of switching between search strategies during the process of updating knowledge.

認識行動共有知識ベースシステムにおける複数視覚特徴統合による物体認識

認識行動共有知識ベースシステムにおける複数視覚特徴統合による物体認識

Mister Bixby, Monsieur Bernard, and Some Other 19th Century Scientist–Philosophers on Knowledge-Based Actions

Following Mr. Bixby and some other 19th century scientist– philosophers such as Claude Bernard, relevant scientific actions should, as a matter of primary importance, be explained with reference to the competence and not to the intentions of those involved. The background is a reliabilist virtue approach – a widespread tendency in 19th century epistemology and philosophy of science. Bixby’s approach includes a critique of some constructivist arguments and establishes a mutually supportive connection to conceptions of scientific progress.

Textual accounts, ruling action: the intersection of knowledge and power in the routine conduct of community nursing work

This paper reflects critically on nursing knowledge-based action, its increasingly scientific and text-based manifestations, and the relevance of these practices for power and powerlessness in nursing. Smith's concept of text-mediated relations of ruling (1990. 1999) provides the analytic frame to investigate how nursing case managers articulate public health services and home support for people with disabilities to specific policies, including fiscal policy. An institutional ethnography shows how a nurse's routine text-mediated assessment and exercise of professional judgement establishes a ruling relation with a client (against her intention), as he is “written up” in organizational texts. The analysis of assessment texts spells out how a local perspective is subdued to the ruling discourse. A general argument is made on the basis of this analysis: nurses participate in ruling through the textualization of their knowledge and in the process it dominates their knowing and acting. An ideological construction of nursing knowledge results. The paper suggests what this means for the profession, nurses themselves, and their clients.

Justifying public participation in technical decision making

The need for expert knowledge and expert knowledge-based action in an advanced technoscientific society poses a fundamental challenge to any attempt to involve the public in the specialized basis of this society, i.e. in technical decision-making. The concern is not so much with how to meet this challenge at the practical level; it is with how to ground or rationally defend the will to do so-and to provide a brief topology of discussions that are deepening this understanding. So the author sketches out reasons for participation-as prolegomena to undertaking the work of actually creating or institutionalizing such participation. The task is more theoretical than applied, but, like the mathematics and physics that commonly prepare the way for the engineering sciences and the practice of engineering design, the task is not without practical importance.