Codified Knowledge Research Articles

Knowledge creation and utilization in project teams

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the knowledge processes that interplay in the social construction and appropriation of knowledge and to test these constructs empirically in project teams.Design/methodology/approach– Literature research and quantitative survey were used. The research identified project success, faster completion times, operational efficiency, innovation and generation of new knowledge as dominating project management expectations in the past ten years. It studied how these projects construct and appropriate knowledge within project teams to achieve these five objectives. Using a quantitative approach, data were sought from 1,000 respondents out of a population of 10,000 from 11 project management areas in eight world regions to test the conceptual model in real-world scenarios. The data gathered were analyzed using quantitative analysis tools and techniques such as reliability, correlation and regression.Findings– There is a lingering difficulty within organizations on how to translate tacit knowledge into action. The transfer and utilization of tacit knowledge was shown to be embedded and nested within relationships. Innovation in projects was found to be mostly linked to replication and codification of knowledge (explicit dimension) as opposed to interpretation and assimilation (tacit dimension). Arriving at a mutual interpretation of project details and requirements does not depend on canonical (formal documentation) methods but mostly on non-canonical (informal) and relational processes embedded within the team.Originality/value– This work studies, in empirical and geographical detail, the social interplay of knowledge and provided evidence relative to the appropriation of knowledge in the project organizational form, which can be extrapolated to wider contexts. The work scoped the inter-relational nature of knowledge and provided further evidence on the nebulous nature of tacit/intangible knowledge. It also proved further that organizations mostly rely on explicit knowledge to drive organizational results, as it is easily actionable and measurable.

Retracted: Knowledge Sourcing and Knowledge Reuse in the Virtual Product Prototyping: An Exploratory Study in a Large Automotive Supplier of R&D

The capacity of organizations to share knowledge is seen as a source of competitive advantage in many industries. Knowledge sourcing and knowledge reuse have been indicated as important enablers of organizational efficiency and innovation performance. Although firms may own valuable knowledge, the presence of barriers to knowledge sourcing and reuse may hinder the exploitation of such knowledge. The present study explores the barriers to knowledge sourcing and reuse and their implications within the virtual product prototyping stage of new products development. The study is based on 24 interviews with R&D employees of a large supplier of R&D in the automotive sector. Results demonstrate that the low operational quality of a repository may hinder knowledge sourcing; therefore, people prefer to source knowledge from other colleagues. Additionally, the inefficiencies in knowledge sourcing from a repository, the low quality of the codified knowledge, and its complexity affect the reuse of existing knowledge. This study reveals that knowledge sourcing and knowledge reuse are important knowledge management processes in the product prototyping and that inefficiencies in these two processes may negatively affect the time performance in the new product prototyping process. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Professional Learning for Using Data: Examining Teacher Needs & Supports

Background In the last few decades, a focus on school accountability at the state and federal levels has created expectations for teachers to attend to data in increasingly structured ways. Although professional learning is often cited as an important facilitator of effective data use, research that focuses on the intersection of professional learning and data use is scarce. Examining teacher perceptions of data use supports, and contrasting assertions of what is desired in data-related professional learning with accounts of the ways in which this professional learning actually happens provide an avenue for exploring these issues and for building a research base that can inform the work of district and campus leaders as well as support providers. Focus of Study This study aimed at examining teacher needs specific to data-related professional learning through a lens informed by knowledge-based organizational learning. We were guided by two broad questions: (a) What knowledge and skills do teachers need in order to engage in data-informed practice? (b) How do professional learning supports address these needs? Research Design The qualitative study draws on document analysis as well as interview and focus group data collected from n=110 participants (teachers, school leaders, and district support staff) in three school districts in central Texas. Flexible a priori coding rooted in our conceptual framework was employed to examine data for themes common across district settings and across school levels (e.g., elementary, middle, high). Code counts were used to further examine areas of professional learning focus and/or apparent imbalance. Findings Educators articulated professional learning needs related to data use in six main areas: (a) asking appropriate questions of data (to guide analysis and use); (b) accessing and operating district data systems; (c) data literacy/interpretation; (d) fitting data use with day-do-day practice; (e) sharing information via collaboration; and (f) knowledge codifica-tion. Of these, data capture via computer data systems was by far the most prominent focus reported by educators in each district. Clear plans for addressing data use capacity through professional learning supports were lacking. Recommendations Taking into account teacher perspectives on what professional learning for data use was needed and on how such supports were, in reality, structured, we make three recommendations: (a) purposefully embed professional learning for data use in ongoing organizational routines; (b) mitigate the district level silos that separate training-on-computer-systems from professional learning focused on turning data into action at the classroom level; and (c) seek balance in supporting the constellation of knowledge and skills that contribute to data use capacity.

The Role of Patent Law in Knowledge Codification

Berkeley Technology Law Journal Volume 23 Issue 3 Summer Article 1 February 2014 The Role of Patent Law in Knowledge Codification Dan L. Burk Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/btlj Recommended Citation Dan L. Burk, The Role of Patent Law in Knowledge Codification, 23 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 1009 (2008). Available at: http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/btlj/vol23/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals and Related Materials at Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Berkeley Technology Law Journal by an authorized administrator of Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact jcera@law.berkeley.edu.

An approach to task-oriented knowledge recommendation based on multi-granularity fuzzy linguistic method

Purpose – In organizations, knowledge intensive activities are mainly task oriented. Finding relevant completed tasks to the new task and providing task-related knowledge to workers facilitate the knowledge reuse. However, relevant tasks are not easily found in the huge amount of completed tasks. The purpose of this paper is to assist the worker to find the required knowledge for the task at hand by reusing the knowledge related to relevant competed tasks. Design/methodology/approach – First, the task profile is constructed. Relevant degrees to categories which tasks to are derived by multi-granularity fuzzy linguistic method. The stages of completed tasks are identified by the modified KNN method. Second, similar completed tasks on categories are retrieved and then the relevant tasks are selected from the retrieved similar tasks by multi-granularity fuzzy linguistic method. Third, the worker’s current task stage is derived by calculating the similarity between the rated knowledge and the knowledge in the stage of completed tasks. Finally, the knowledge is recommend based on stage relevance, relevance of the completed tasks and importance of the knowledge. Findings – The proposed method helps the worker find the knowledge related to the task at hand by finding and reusing the completed tasks. The experimental results show that the proposed method performs well and can fulfill the worker’s’ knowledge needs. The use of the linguistic term set with preferred granularities instead of precise numbers facilitates the expression of the opinions. The recommendation stage by stage makes the knowledge recommended more precisely. The obtained linguistic weight of the knowledge makes the recommended results understood more easily than the numerical values. Research limitations/implications – In the study, the authors just focus on the codified knowledge recommendation. However, there is another kind of knowledge named tacit knowledge, which exists in the mind of the experts. The constructing and updating of the expert profile can be investigated. Meanwhile, the new recommendation method which considers more factors also needs to be studied further. Practical implications – The paper includes implications for the development of the knowledge management system. The proposed approach can be applied as a tool of knowledge sharing. It facilitates the finding of the knowledge that is related to the task at hand. Originality/value – The paper provides new ways to find the relevant tasks and the related knowledge to the task at hand. Meanwhile, the new method to recommend the knowledge stage by stage is also proposed. It expands the research in the knowledge sharing and knowledge recommendation.

Knowledge sourcing and knowledge reuse in the virtual product prototyping: an exploratory study in a large automotive supplier of R&D

AbstractThe capacity of organizations to share knowledge is seen as a source of competitive advantage in many industries. Knowledge sourcing and knowledge reuse have been indicated as important enablers of organizational efficiency and innovation performance. Although firms may own valuable knowledge, the presence of barriers to knowledge sourcing and reuse may hinder the exploitation of such knowledge. The present study explores the barriers to knowledge sourcing and reuse from electronic repository and their implications within the virtual product prototyping stage of new products development. The study is based on 24 interviews with research and development (R&D) employees of a large supplier of R&D in the automotive sector. Results demonstrate that the poor operational quality of a repository hinders knowledge sourcing; thereby, people prefer sourcing knowledge from other colleagues rather than from the repository. Moreover, the inefficiencies in knowledge sourcing from a repository, the poor quality of the codified knowledge and its complexity affect the reuse of existing knowledge. This study reveals that knowledge sourcing and knowledge reuse can affect the time performance in the virtual product prototype development process.

IPRs and International Knowledge Flows: Evidence from Six Large Emerging Countries

AbstractThis paper studies international knowledge flows looking at: (i) patent citations that track codified knowledge and (ii) technological collaborations between inventors that gauge knowledge transmitted through face to face contacts. It uses a gravity model for 13 countries (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, South Africa, Mexico, the USA, the UK, Japan, Italy, Germany, France and Canada) using EPO data. In the case of tacit knowledge flows it shows that intellectual property rights (IPRs) reinforcement has no effect and that sharing a common legal origin and technological proximity are more important than geographical distance. In the case of codified knowledge flows IPRs reinforcement has a positive effect only when applicants’ citations are considered.

The Journals and the Instrument Maker

The Paris-based instrument maker Michael Butterfield publicised novel and fine quality instruments through the Journal des Sçavans from the journal’s early days on (between 1676 and 1684). The descriptions or advertisements of Butterfield’s instruments were not restricted to textual presentations only, but often included engravings. The reasons for including such images and the role played by the visual aspects of the presentation of instruments are the focus of the present paper. The earliest historical records of Butterfield’s work are provided by the Journal des Sçavans and the Philosophical Transactions during their first two decades of publication. The significance of these records for the historian, however, extends further than the bio-bibliographical aspect. Indeed, the presence of Butterfield’s instruments in periodic journals provides a case study of the conspicuous traits of the visual part of knowledge in such media. The periodic format for erudite and technical content was still in its experimental phase. Hence this essay will focus on the codification of knowledge about technical devices for this serial format. It will also show that these illustrations seem to have played an ambivalent role on both the cognitive and the commercial levels. Finally, it discusses the ways in which images influenced the dissemination of such knowledge, particularly through these two journals. The example allows us to characterize the particular mode of visual representation adopted under the specific constraints of these early periodicals, including its pleasures and problems.

Service customisation and standardisation in combinatory knowledge-intensive business services

The trade-off between customisation and standardisation in service offerings has been widely debated in the literatures on service in general and on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) specifically. Moving beyond this trade-off, this paper introduces a new type of service offering, called combinatory KIBS, distinguished by their capability to combine customisation and standardisation. Based on a sample of approximately 500 KIBS, our results show that combinatory KIBS develop specific business strategies which achieve superior performance in customisation and standardisation. They pair customer interaction aimed at service customisation and knowledge codification useful in providing standard services, while also investing in networking.

Conceptual Graph Representation Framework for ICD-10

Abstract Codification and representation of knowledge from structured and unstructured repositories have been the requirement for Expert Systems designing. Structured repositories remain open for knowledge extraction and representation for building a knowledgebase (KB). ICD-v10 (International Classification of Diseases), a structured repository, is the 10 th revision of the collection of Disease codes and health related problems, symptoms, complaints and external causes of injury. ICD-v10 uses a 7-bit code to represent all diseases. The main focus of our research work is to propose new methods for capturing and representing these codes in the forms of Knowledge from Semantic Structured Repository with better materialization, quality and repository usage, along with logical unit and logical entailments to form conceptual relations among them. Apart from creating a new representation structure, this work gives direction on the storage of these structures as Knowledge Unit (KU).

The interplay of knowledge engineering and cognitive psychology: learning ontologies creating

The paper tries to marry cognitive issues of knowledge engineering and knowledge management in order to provide a new methodology for initial knowledge structuring. Ontology was chosen as the contemporary most comprehensive knowledge representation and codification model. Our approach uses participatory action research project in which some hypotheses about the relations between the cognitive style and ontology development are suggested. The methodology used simple, affordable technologies such as pen-and-pencil techniques for visual structuring experiments. The paper is aimed to integrate cognitive style individual features of knowledge analysts into the specifics of ontology design. It was found that personal peculiarities of cognitive style affect the topology and quality of knowledge structures. These findings provide some implications for collaborative ontology design and development. The knowledge structuring issues derived in this project can be used by managers and practitioners to address knowledge work and organisational learning.

Fostering Knowledge Transfer and Learning in Shift Work Environments

Shift work is a continuous ‘round‐the‐clock’ work practice that involves rotating work schedules with a vital process of ‘handover’ denoting a change of teams between shifts. Handover as an activity requires that outgoing shift teams pass on insights and responsibility to incoming shift teams. Knowledge transfer in shift work environments is therefore crucial to allow for a seamless continuation of work practices between shifts. Studies in shift work indicate that knowledge transfer between shifts often fails—that is, incoming workers tend to solve problems with inadequate information, have an incomplete understanding of significant events that occurred in prior shifts, while workers often attempt to solve the same problems across different shifts. This study investigates the challenges associated with shift handover and proposes knowledge transfer enablers that can make a difference to handover. In addition, these enablers can foster learning, a process often overlooked in shift environments. A qualitative research methodology was used to study three distinctive case organisations in the manufacturing and educational sectors, where the nature of day‐to‐day work is shift‐bound and transfer issues were present during handover processes. Our findings suggest that three enablers facilitate knowledge transfer problems associated with shift work: (1) a purposeful knowledge codification and classification culture, (2) open access to established boundary objects and boundary spanners and (3) a unified information infrastructure to facilitate knowledge transfer during shifts and handover. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Knowledge spillovers via patent citations across the regions of the Russian Federation - evidence from European patent data

The transmission of knowledge between different entities is a central part of the concept of the national innovation system introduced by Lundvall. As knowledge in general is a statistically rather intangible concept, alternative concepts need to be implemented to account for it. This study uses patent citations to account for codified knowledge flows across the regions of the Russian Federation and is thus the first study focusing on patent citation in the Russian Federation. These flows are quantified and it is shown that basic economic indicators like the quality of the regional research system and the regional income levels are suitable in describing the intensity of knowledge flows.

Knowledge Creation in Constructivist Learning

In today's competitive global economy characterized by knowledge acquisition, the concept of knowledge management has become increasingly prevalent in academic and business practices. Knowledge creation is an important factor and remains a source of competitive advantage over knowledge management. Constructivism holds that learners learn actively and construct new knowledge based on their prior knowledge. Therefore, there needs to be a shift in locus of constructing knowledge from the individual to collective construction. The concept of knowledge building communities has emerged recently as a foundation for re-examining pedagogical approaches in education. To understand the true nature of knowledge, it is necessary to recognize that tacit and explicit knowledge are essential to knowledge creation. Knowledge can be created through conversion between tacit and explicit knowledge by four different modes. The four modes of knowledge conversion are created when tacit and explicit knowledge interacts with each other. It is in this very act of conversion from tacit to explicit knowledge that learning is created. Educators must understand the dynamic nature of knowledge itself in order to practice effective knowledge management in multi-disciplinary contexts. It is also crucial for educators to focus on effective methods of delivering content, the media used, and the overall quality of the instruction materials. Information technology facilitates knowledge management practices by disseminating knowledge and making codified knowledge retrievable. The study therefore tries to find out the effectiveness of e- learning in developing the knowledge creation ability of student in the four modes suggested by Nonaka and Takeuchi .

Evaluación de la gestión del conocimiento: Una revisión sistemática de literatura

La evaluación de la gestión del conocimiento (GC) es un tema importante para aquellas organizaciones que quieran saber “qué está pasando” con sus estrategias de GC. No obstante, no existe un consenso sobre qué evaluar y cómo evaluarlo. Por esta razón, el propósito del artículo es presentar una revisión sistemática de literatura de 43 artículos publicados en la última década. La revisión comprende un análisis cienciométrico básico y un análisis de contenido relacionado con varios aspectos de los modelos como su estructura, la función y objetivo de la evaluación, lo métodos de investigación utilizados, los sectores económicos de aplicación, y la ubicación de los aspectos evaluados respecto de una taxonomía de escuelas de pensamiento de la GC y una clasificación de las capacidades organizacionales de GC. Como principal hallazgo se muestra la predominancia del enfoque de GC como codificación de conocimiento. Además, se presentan varias brechas susceptibles de investigación futura.

Codification as Part of Knowledge Management in Research Projects in the Field of Metallurgy

Increasing requirements in the field of quality and management standards are the reason why knowledge management is regarded as an upcoming need for the metal processing industry. To fully benefit from the organisational achievements which are knowledge resources, and to meet the expectations of customers, one should think about functional, but also modern, computer system that allows the integration of heterogeneous sources of knowledge. The article describes practical aspects of the codification of metallurgical knowledge for the needs of a system of knowledge integration operating in industrial plants. The article propose successive steps to create objects of knowledge and requirements imposed onto the knowledge engineers. The presented methodology is consistent with the standards of knowledge management in the field of codification, and is based on the latest achievements of information science in the field of formal representation of knowledge.

Knowledge sharing in project-based organizations: Overcoming the informational limbo

Project-based organizations (PBO) are nowadays widespread in almost all the activity sectors. This type of organizations poses complex problems for information and knowledge management due to the fragmentation and lack of uniformity of organizational structures, processes, practices, and technologies. The ineffectiveness of knowledge sharing over time, between project teams, is perhaps the most prominent issue that PBO must deal with. This strongly affects organizational learning, which seems to under-deliver value to PBO. Therefore, relevant knowledge is trapped in an “informational limbo” out of reach, not being capitalized for the organization. This is particularly true in research and development (R&D) institutions, where knowledge sharing can be hindered by conceptual misunderstandings resulting from different disciplines, cultures and ways of working of project participants. This paper addresses such issues by analyzing, in a comprehensive way, how information and knowledge management can better suit project team's needs and at the same time improve organizational learning. An ethnographic study, based on immersed participant observation, is performed at a Portuguese R&D Institute, in order to understand the link between the way information is managed in a project and how people interact and learn by sharing knowledge between projects. Results provide a set of enterprise information management (EIM) recommendations. Findings also suggest that a PBO-wide EIM strategy, balancing knowledge codification and personalization mechanisms, is a feasible solution to overcome the problems of knowledge sharing in PBO.

Sharing Knowledge and Integrated Information in Therapeutic Radiological Physics

In this paper a framework for Sharing Knowledge and Integrated Information in Radiotherapy (SKIIR) for medical physicists involved in Therapeutic Radiological Physics is discussed. The proposed SKIIR is mainly designed for sharing knowledge based on specific cases of treating patients with cancer. Integrated Information and Knowledge are captured for storing knowledge and medical information related to the specific cases of interest, in any useful form and format, for the medical physicists. Various patient cases’ descriptions and related documents of primary interest for the medical physicists are stored and organized for future use in a multimedia library including short descriptions, radiotherapy planning, ultrasound, CT and MRI images, statistical information, bibliography, discharge letters, etc. Codification of knowledge and preservation of anonymity is also discussed.

Firms size and directed technological change

The analysis of the characteristics of firms helps to understand the causes and consequences of the direction of technological change. Firms differ substantially with respect to the type of technological knowledge they can generate and exploit through technological innovations. This in turn has major effects on the direction of technological change they are able to introduce. Large firms able to command the recombinant generation of codified knowledge with a strong scientific base are more likely to introduce neutral technological changes that consist in a shift effect of production functions. Small firms that rely more on tacit and external knowledge are more likely to rely on technologies directed toward the most intensive use of locally abundant production factors. The effects of this difference in terms of the resulting total factor productivity growth are important and can be grasped only when the changes in output elasticity of production factors in growth accounting are properly appreciated. The empirical evidence for a sample of 6,600 Italian firms observed between 1996 and 2005 confirms that large firms introduced mainly neutral technological changes while small firms with lower levels of profitability introduced biased technological changes.

Uneven Geographies of User-Generated Information: Patterns of Increasing Informational Poverty

Geographies of codified knowledge have always been characterized by stark core–periphery patterns, with some parts of the world at the center of global voice and representation and many others invisible or unheard. Many have pointed to the potential for radical change, however, as digital divides are bridged and 2.5 billion people are now online. With a focus on Wikipedia, which is one of the world's most visible, most used, and most powerful repositories of user-generated content, we investigate whether we are now seeing fundamentally different patterns of knowledge production. Even though Wikipedia consists of a massive cloud of geographic information about millions of events and places around the globe put together by millions of hours of human labor, the encyclopedia remains characterized by uneven and clustered geographies: There is simply not a lot of content about much of the world. The article then moves to describe the factors that explain these patterns, showing that although just a few conditions can explain much of the variance in geographies of information, some parts of the world remain well below their expected values. These findings indicate that better connectivity is only a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the presence of volunteered geographic information about a place. We conclude by discussing the remaining social, economic, political, regulatory, and infrastructural barriers that continue to disadvantage many of the world's informational peripheries. The article ultimately shows that, despite many hopes that a democratization of connectivity will spur a concomitant democratization of information production, Internet connectivity is not a panacea and can only ever be one part of a broader strategy to deepen the informational layers of places.