Knowledge-intensive Environment Research Articles

Academic Library as Workplace

This study seeks to explore the academic library as a workplace and understand indicators of successful performance and areas that indicate a need for improvement. A survey containing the Knowledge Intensive Work Environment Survey Target (KIWEST) was sent to academic library listservs and received 351 complete responses eligible for analysis. Respondents were library workers employed in an academic library in the United States at the time of taking the survey. Academic libraries performed best in the areas of job autonomy, task completion clarity, competency demands, and meaning of work. Academic libraries indicated less positively in the areas of perceived investment in employee development, engagement (dedication), social support from supervisors, and role conflicts. Findings were consistent with previous studies about the individual factors in the library workplace, and this study demonstrates consistency with academic library strengths and areas of growth in the rapidly changing post-COVID workplace environment.

The role of information communication technologies as a moderator of knowledge creation and knowledge sharing in improving the quality of healthcare services

This study examines the role of knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and information communication technologies, which are organizational factors that influence the quality of healthcare services. In today's knowledge-intensive environment, understanding and gaining in-depth knowledge on how to improve the quality of healthcare services is gaining in importance and recognition. Quantitative data collected in 2019 with 151 respondents employed in healthcare organizations was used. Running a series of hierarchical linear regression models, we found a significant positive relationship between knowledge creation and quality of healthcare services, and a significant positive relationship between knowledge sharing and quality of healthcare services. Empirical data additionally provides support for information communication technologies that act as a moderator both in the relationship between knowledge creation and knowledge sharing with quality of healthcare services. With our data, we provide empirical backing for the impact of knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and information communication technologies on the quality of healthcare services that are provided by Montenegrin healthcare organizations. Our paper offers theoretical and practical implications derived from our research study.

Under Scrutiny: Differentiation and Integration of Knowledge in Organizations

Decisive for firms’ innovation performance in knowledge-intensive environments is the way firms combine their strategies to differentiate and integrate knowledge. While independently, differentiation and integration of knowledge have been found to mostly have positive effects on innovation performance, little is known about the effects of using both strategies simultaneously. We know that differentiating knowledge creates specialization advantages and that integrating knowledge enables transferability. Independently, both are necessary but insufficient for performance. So, in what combination do they maximize firms’ innovation performance? Adopting a congruence methodological approach, we find that devoting significant resources to both strategies simultaneously (congruence) is more conducive of high innovation performance compared to directing resources to one over the other (incongruence). We also find that congruence is more beneficial when firms have a significant amount of knowledge resources to devote. Our study advances the knowledge-based theory of the firm by incorporating novel insights from innovation research.

Information Organization Activities in the Knowledge Management Setting

This study examines information organization activities in the knowledge management setting. The investigation commences with the long-drawn debate on the concept of Knowledge Management and the literature that has hitherto reviewed it. Furthermore, the study delves into how conventional bibliographic information retrieval techniques and expert search systems have heretofore been applied in the organization and retrieval of digital resources and if they can be employed in the Knowledge management setting. It is contended that though the procedures, tools, and techniques are effectual and productive, they cannot be utilizedina knowledge Intensive environment. Accordingly, the study puts forth a generic knowledge management frame work that can be applied in a knowledge management setting. In addition, it proposes novel research gaps in the context of information organization.

Successful Strategies for Using Knowledge Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use to effectively integrate knowledge management (KM) into business practices. The study population comprised of five managers from two SMEs operating in Uganda. The eligibility criteria were that participants had to be managers from Ugandan SMEs with a knowledge-intensive environment, with some responsibility of KM in the organization, and experienced with at least 1 year of successful KM practices. The conceptual framework for this study was theory z. Data were collected through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, and reviews of company documents. Member checking was completed to strengthen credibility and trustworthiness. Synthesis: After methodological triangulation of the data sources collected and completion of Yin’s 5-step process of data analysis, five themes emerged: having supportive leadership, ensuring sustainability, embedding KM practices in the organization culture, socialization, and embracing modern technology. The findings of this study might promote social change by supporting small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers’ use of KM to expand opportunities for employees to learn new skills and knowledge leading to the expansion of employment opportunities.

La educación empresarial en gestión de operaciones integrada al desarrollo de emprendimientos innovadores

Se entiende como educación empresarial al perfeccionamiento de las facultades mentales de cada individuo, cabe indicar que, para crear, desarrollar e innovar, en primer lugar, su preparación profesional genera personas con el suficiente carácter de decisión y determinación objetiva, basándose siempre en la formación tecnológica e intelectual, enfocándolas en la toma de decisiones que son necesarias a través de la vida laboral.
 En la actualidad la humanidad es partícipe de un ambiente competitivo, en el que no solo basta con terminar una carrera de tercer nivel sino más bien optar por un posgrado por ende la comunidad estudiantil se ve forzada a continuar con su capacitación académica en universidades del Ecuador mismas que han creado posgrados con fines de profesionalización a fin de contribuir al desarrollo social, humano y tecnológico.
 Existen ofertas de estudios con los enfoques necesarios que impulsen el crecimiento y la evolución personal con enfoques a la gestión de operaciones impulsando la creación, desarrollo y organización de la función de producción con el objetivo de alcanzar ventajas competitivas. La Universidad tiene por finalidad de desarrollar el pensamiento objetivo de sus educandos logrando de esta manera satisfacer las necesidades del entorno nacional, estructurando la educación superior, realizándose previamente un análisis de mercado, donde se evalúa el crecimiento significativo de las empresas entre los años 2012 y 2016 siendo de gran importancia el personal que labora en dichas compañías y profesionales capacitados para ejercer puestos cubriendo dicha competencia laboral.
 En este contexto, las universidades desempeñan un papel importante en la creación de entornos fértiles y de gran densidad de conocimientos para apoyar la exploración y explotación de ideas innovadoras y emprendimientos, donde los gobiernos han creado subvenciones para promover la innovación empresarial a través de asociaciones universitarias obligatorias. Basándose en estas ideas, el propósito de esta investigación documental es analizar el papel de las universidades en la educación empresarial en gestión de operaciones integrada al desarrollo de nuevos emprendimientos innovadores con relación a la calidad del profesional.

THE AGGLOMERATION AND NETWORKING APPROACHES TO THE INTERPRETATION OF THE ECONOMIC CLUSTER CONCEPT

The agglomeration and networking approaches to the interpretation of the concept of the economic cluster are examined in the article. The advantages of the networking concept of cluster stratification of the economy are shown in the context of facilitating the natural process of establishing sustainable competitive innovation clusters and the formation of an active innovative knowledge-intensive environment. Regarding the definition of the cluster, it is suggested adhering to an expanded networking concept, which is based on the idea of stimulating the development of sustainable structured business networks in the economy.

An original framework for strategic technology development of small manufacturing enterprises in emerging economies

PurposeTechnology and knowledge have become the buzzwords of the new millennium. Technological changes and demanding customers are creating a more knowledge intensive, turbulent, complex and uncertain environment. Organizations, which are able to continually build faster and cheaper new strategic assets than their competitors, create long-term competitive advantages. Thus, the growth of companies is directly associated with innovativeness and technological development, especially for small organizations that are more vulnerable to dynamic changes in market place. Organizations need a strategic framework that can help them to achieve the goal of technology development and competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to develop such strategic framework for small organizations for their technology development and, hence, survival in marketplace.Design/methodology/approachOptions field methodology, options profile methodology, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy set theory are utilized to generate various options and profiles to propose a conceptual framework for technology development.FindingsThe results from the study showed that “mixed approach,” “strategic simulation approach” and the “regulatory environment approach,” in this order, emerged as the top three important options for the strategic technological development of small manufacturing enterprises.Originality/valueThis result can provide an original and more accurate implementation pathway toward technological innovative development in emerging economies. The proposed framework can provide valuable guidelines and recommendations to practicing managers and analysts for policy development to promote innovative and technological developments.

Do stakeholder capabilities promote sustainable business innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises? Evidence from Italy

Sustainable innovation and its management have become fundamental forces for change in business and society. Paradoxically, little attention has been given to how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) manage sustainable innovation in the current knowledge-intensive context. By studying 80 SMEs from the high-tech manufacturing sector in Italy, this research has found that, when combined with stakeholder engagement, sustainable innovation management becomes a pivotal phenomenon for new and established SMEs. Stakeholders proved instrumental in generating the sense of environmental responsibility in SMEs. As a pioneer combination of stakeholder theory and innovation management theory, our research found that stakeholder-related capabilities, both tangible and intangible, influence the firm's orientation towards sustainable innovation, its environmental responsibility and related capabilities. Our research assists the sustainability, adaptation, innovation and growth orientation of SMEs in a knowledge-intensive environment by recommending that, in their relationship with stakeholders, SMEs become more open to co-create, share and reuse environmental knowledge.

Knowledge-based service economy and firm entry: an alternative to the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship

Recent research on the determinants of high-tech business entry increasingly relies on the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship (KTSE), which contends that employees-turned-entrepreneurs start new companies in order to commercialize unused local knowledge generated by incumbent firms and universities. Existing literature in the USA context finds a positive relationship between regional knowledge production and (total) high-tech start-up rates, which is interpreted as lending empirical support to the theory. In this paper, we perform a systematic test of the KSTE and show that KSTE-based explanation of business entry is not always consistent with the US firm formation patterns when the analysis gradually shifts from less to more knowledge-intensive environments. We then discuss alternative business entry mechanisms that are more in line with the geographical and sectoral variation in the US high-tech start-up rates.

Document recommendation based on the analysis of group trust and user weightings

Collaborative filtering (CF) has been applied in various domains to resolve problems related to information overload. In a knowledge-intensive environment, most works are processed through teamwork. A user on a team can reference task-related documents from other trusted members to support work on the task. However, the traditional personalised recommender systems no longer meet the demand of teams or groups. Therefore, this work proposes a novel document recommendation method based on a group-based trust model. Our method will analyse the degrees of trust among users in a group and then identify the trustworthy users. The proposed group trust consists of a hybrid personal trust (HPT) model and users’ importance (i.e. users’ activity, similarity and reputation) in a group. Group-based trust is then integrated with the user-based CF to recommend documents to users. The experiments demonstrate that the proposed method can provide better performance than other trust-based recommendation methods; it not only obtains reliable trust values to increase the accuracy of predictions but also enhances the recommendation quality.

Managing Organizational Open Innovation Capability in a Knowledge-Intensive Business Environment

The paper is aimed to develop a theoretical framework for investigating the main determinants of an organizational open innovation capability and provide a conceptual basis for identifying the core areas which are of importance for effectively managing the implementation of open innovation practices within business organizations. Based on a literature review of research on managerial practices for open innovation collaboration, a definition of a company’s open innovation capability is proposed which places special emphasis on the interrelationship among the strategic components of a business organization’s environment and its dynamic knowledge management capacities. As a result of the study, the integrated model of the organizational open innovation capability is presented that can be used for defining strategic priorities and managerial guidelines for achieving open innovation success. From a practical perspective, companies can apply the proposed conceptual model to review and adjust their organizational open innovation capability on a continuous basis in order to improve innovation performance in the challenging knowledge-intensive business environment.

Knowledge-based environments in the city: design and urban form in the Helsinki metropolitan area

Knowledge-based development (KBD) is of interest to cities, as it promotes economic growth and boosts dynamic urban image. Creative environments are arguably highly dependent on sociality, and they are usually located near city centres. The focus of this study is on three knowledge-based locations in the Helsinki metropolitan area (HMA) in Finland. The research material composes of field observation data and photographs. Results indicate that knowledge-intensive environments include several elements of good city design, for example, pedestrian-friendly street networks and green areas, but they tended to lack vibrant urban life, that is, human activity. The findings support the claim that information and communication technology (ICT)-based companies are not very dependent on the sociality of environment. As cities are spaces for individuals working, studying and visiting, attention must be paid to the urban design of these areas.

Using Social Media to Enable Staff Knowledge Sharing in Higher Education Institutions

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are knowledge intensive environments by nature. However, the management of organisational knowledge and the promotion of staff knowledge sharing is largely neglected in these institutions. This study examines how enterprise social networks can enable staff knowledge sharing in communities of practice in that context. The study is framed as an Action Research project, covering three cycles over a 12 month period. A conceptual model was developed for empirical testing and data was collected through focus groups and interviews, supplemented by reflective journaling and content analysis. The findings support the conceptual model and provide insight into the antecedents necessary for the creation of an enterprise social network enabled knowledge sharing environment, the motivators for and barriers to participation, and the perceived organisational and individual benefits of increased staff knowledge sharing activity. The findings indicate that the barriers to participation are influenced by the prevalent organisation structure and culture, and a divide between faculty and other staff. However, individual benefits that accrue from participation may influence greater participation, and organisational benefits that accrue may influence organisational strategies that drive change in structure and culture to promote the development of the knowledge sharing environment. A number of findings have practical implications for the management of higher education institutions, such as the evidence of a divide between faculty and other staff, and the perceived existence of an organisational culture that inhibits staff communication, interaction and collaboration. In general, the study findings provide an opportunity for educationalists to better understand the scope and impact of employing social media platforms for knowledge sharing. This study adds to the growing body of work on organisational implementations of social media, and should be of interest to practitioners and researchers undertaking similar projects.

Impact of instrumental ties, tacit knowledge sharing and affective commitment on absorptive capacity – an empirical study of pharmaceutical companies

ABSTRACTAbsorptive capacity construct has gained importance since last two decades especially in knowledge intensive environment. The companies invest their time and resources to achieve strategic goals and thus enhance their absorptive capacity in order to deal with new knowledge requirements. Companies largely focus on the macro level processes and mechanisms which are external to their boundaries and ignore the intra company factors critical to absorptive capacity. This study explores the impact of human behaviours related to instrumental ties (INST), affective commitment (AFC) and tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) on absorptive capacity (ACAP). Results of this study based on sample from pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan show significant contribution of human behaviour in development of absorptive capacity. The employees’ behaviours may not be ignored by decision makers in pharmaceutical companies while formulating knowledge strategies.

Role of Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Education in Computer Science: A Literature Review

Disruption of economies, caused by the Internet and communications technology and its effect to other industries, has had and will continue to have severe effect to the existing business models and production of goods for the upcoming decades. In addition, increasing complexity of global problems calls for the need of new problem solving competences. Complex problem solvers, knowledge workers, are more and more working by collaborative structures, where the solution creation benefits from multiprofessional way of working. This study is focusing on a trend of how higher education, especially in the area of computer science and engineering, is responding to the challenge of educating collaborative knowledge workers to a knowledge intensive work environment. The study was performed by a literature review covering publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database to find relevant research articles and reviews published between the years 2000 and 2016. The results indicate a steadily growing interest towards multi- and interdisciplinary education. Most of the interest is indicated among the health care, medicine and nursing, and social sciences disciplines, while the interest among engineering and computer science is a clear minority. The results of this article can be used to study further the unused potential of engineering and computer science for the multi- and interdisciplinary education.

Commonality, conflict, and absorptive capacity

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of middle managers (MM) in the knowledge-intensive environment as perceived by the employees, MM and principal decision makers (DM) in the context of the absorptive capacity process.Design/methodology/approachIn this qualitative study, the data were collected from pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan by using purposive sampling and the results were analyzed based on the thematic analysis approach.FindingsThe results show that employees and principal DM have a strong agreement between them regarding the roles of MM; however, MM have contrasted views. Some of the roles were agreed to by all the respondents.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has focused on the roles of MM (common and conflicting) in knowledge-intensive pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan. The results of other studies on the roles of MM in the context of traditional and hybrid organizations may differ from this study.Practical implicationsThe results of this study show the importance of role specificity of MM for the smooth absorptive capacity process. While dealing with complex knowledge structures in pharmaceutical companies, this study gives strong input to HR mangers and consultants and practitioners as they continuously handle complex knowledge process activities.Originality/valueThe study has explored the specific roles of MM by using the thematic analysis approach.

Contractual governance and the choice of dispute-resolution mechanisms: Evidence on technology licensing

In fast-paced and knowledge-intensive environments, licensing partnerships can be powerful levers for market expansion. Research on the management of technology-oriented licenses has nonetheless pointed out the risks of corrosive disputes caused by conflicting interests or misunderstandings among licensing partners. The choice made ex ante on mechanisms for resolving potential disputes is of prime importance in the execution of licensing exchanges. Although the legal literature has widely emphasized the advantages of arbitration towards litigation, public ordering remains the “default” option in managers’ eyes. By adopting a transaction cost economics logic, our study explores the conditions under which licensing partners may prefer arbitration over public ordering during the contractual-design phase. In accordance with our theoretical arguments, findings show that the occurrence of arbitration provisions increases when the coordination orientation adopted by licensing partners is extensive. In situations where both monitoring and coordination orientations are simultaneously extensive, results reveal a greater propensity to prefer arbitration over public ordering. Our research therefore supports the view that corporate decision-makers tend to favor the conciliatory stance and compromising awards typically associated with arbitration, only when exchanges are expected to be highly coordinative. Their preference for arbitration over litigation is magnified when the coordination orientation develops alongside the monitoring orientation.

Building A Collaborative Community: An Agent-Based Simulation Study

A collaborative community is an emerging organizational form that is increasingly being used in knowledge-intensive environments where success depends on the ability to collaborate. We analyze how ...

The role of SMEs in innovation-oriented economic development

Both at European and national level tertiary and quaternary sectors are concentrated in the metropolitan centre. In the rural areas only the sites of such sectors can be found the premises of which temporarily transform the sectoral structure of these areas, but from the regional development aspect they did not prove to be an effective strategy.The European Commission is now focusing on growth from innovation, which could become the driving force behind productivity growth and the economy’s long-term trend. The innovation-oriented economic development’s key players are on the one hand the knowledge-intensive enterprises, on the other hand the universities. Tertiary education can play a role – among others – in shaping and creating the development of knowledge intensive business environment and conditions, on the other hand it can assist the development of network contacts – another precondition of employment growth.