Knowledge Integration Processes Research Articles

The relationship among the innovation environment, transactive memory system of the R&D team, and knowledge collaboration

The innovation environment is the basis for the operation of the innovation ecosystem. In an era where knowledge resources are increasingly recognized as core assets, the advent of transactive memory system (TMS) has significantly enhanced the knowledge collaboration among R&D (Research & Development) teams, thereby boosting their innovation performance. Based on the empirical analysis of 235 valid questionnaires, this paper explores the relationship among the innovation environment, R&D Team's TMS, and knowledge collaboration. The results show that: (1) the Innovation environment has a direct and significant positive effect on the team's TMS and knowledge collaboration; (2) Team's TMS has some direct and significant positive effects and mediating effects on Knowledge Collaboration, and the Coordination of team's TMS has no significant effect on the Knowledge Integration process of Knowledge Collaboration; (3) The innovation environment can indirectly affect the knowledge collaboration process through the Specialization and Credibility of the TMS. This study further enriches the relevant research in the field of knowledge management and provides theoretical support and countermeasures for enterprises to promote innovation and development by optimizing knowledge management.

A participatory learning management model of indigenous knowledge for creative economy of Karen in Thai-Myanmar Border

ABSTRACT The Karen is the largest hill tribe in Thailand, living in densely forested areas on the Thai-Myanmar border for centuries. This study aims to develop a participatory learning management model of indigenous knowledge for creative economy. The qualitative research purposively selected participants based on a village complex of four Karen major subgroups including Pga K’nyau (White Karen), Pwo (Red Karen), Pa-O (Black Karen), and Kayah (Long Neck Karen). This participatory action research applied three techniques including Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Appreciation Influence Control (AIC), and Future Search Conference (FSC) to provide opportunities for participants to take part in this study. The findings found that a participatory learning management model of indigenous knowledge for creative economy requires knowledge integration and holistic learning processes. The knowledge integration and holistic learning processes must be sustainable in several areas including: being environmentally friendly, building pride, adding values, as well as maintaining identity. This paper offers policy implications on indigenous education.

Digital enabled innovation ecosystems: a dual case study of knowledge flows in intellectual property platforms

PurposeThe embedding of digital technology and the fuzzy organizational boundary have changed the operation of platform innovation ecosystem (PIE). Specifically, as an important energy of PIE, the internal logic of knowledge flow needs to be reconsidered in the context of digital age, which will be helpful to select the cultivation and governance strategy of PIE.Design/methodology/approachA dual case-analysis is applied to open the “black box” of knowledge flow in the PIE from the perspective of enabled by digital technology, by taking the intellectual property (IP) operation platform as cases.FindingsThe research findings are as follow: (1) The knowledge flow mechanism of PIE is mainly demonstrated through the processes of knowledge acquisition, knowledge integration and knowledge spillover. During this process, connectivity empowerment and scenario empowerment realize the digital empowerment of the platform. (2) Connectivity empowerment provides a channel of knowledge acquisition for the digital connection between participants in PIE. In the process of knowledge integration, scenario empowerment improves the opportunities for accurate matching and collaborative innovation between knowledge supplier and demander, and enhance the value of knowledge. The dual effect of connectivity empowerment and scenario empowerment has accelerated the knowledge spillover in PIE. Particularly, connectivity empowerment expands the range of knowledge spillover, and scenario empowerment affects the generativity of the platform, resulting in the enhancement of platform’s capability to embed and expand its value network. (3) Participants have been benefitted from the PIE enabled by digital technology through three key modules (knowledge acquisition, knowledge integration and knowledge spillover), as the result of knowledge flow.Originality/valueThis study focuses on the knowledge flow mechanism of PIE enabled by digital technology, which enriches the PIE theory, and has enlightenments for the cultivation of digital platform ecosystem.

Taking on Grand Challenges Through Collaborative Crowdsourcing: The Importance of Common Ground for Knowledge Integration

Tackling grand challenges calls for collaborative innovation approaches that can gather various stakeholders around a common goal. One such approach receiving growing scholarly attention is collaborative crowdsourcing. By enabling crowds to collaboratively share and integrate their knowledge, perspectives, and partial solutions, collaborative crowdsourcing changes the role of ordinary people from passive receivers to active creators of innovative solutions for addressing grand challenges. However, our understanding of the knowledge sharing and integrating processes in temporary online crowds is limited and calls for further research. Through a netnographic analysis of an online crowdsourcing platform tackling problems around the Covid-19 pandemic, we provide a detailed account of the knowledge integration processes as they unfold on the platform over time. We identify fourteen activities that individuals engage in and relate these activities to six subprocesses that constitute the knowledge integration process on a collaborative crowdsourcing platform for addressing grand challenges. Our insights contribute to the research on collaborative crowdsourcing by showing the importance of crowds establishing common ground, not only around solutions but also around the different aspects of the problem. Furthermore, when addressing grand challenges, connecting contributions emerges as an important intermediate step between the diverging and converging cycles previously identified in crowdsourcing studies. Finally, our article highlights the importance of (collaborative) crowdsourcing initiatives in making participants feel part of something greater by “building a collective.”

Target priorities and transformation formalized indicators of operational systems for construction stakeholders

World experience shows that the realities of modern times create conditions for permanent transformations of operating systems and the formation of updated models of organizational structures of construction enterprises-stakeholders, aimed at more effective use of the economic and organizational-technological potential of the business entity, expanding the range of opportunities for economic and managerial growth , form prerequisites for the development of business structures and provide an opportunity to introduce innovative forms of knowledge management in enterprise administration. The relevance of the issues of cognitive research is determined by the features of the development of modern society. A characteristic feature of today is the presence of unified information technologies (IT) in almost all spheres of life. IT enables the sharing of information on a global scale, the collection and integration of vast data sets from dispersed and diverse sources. Big data sets collected in this way are used for forecasting and generating new knowledge. Contrary to the boundaries of disciplinary affiliation and commitment to different scientific schools, scientists are united by the paradigm, theory and methodology of cognitive science. At the basis of modern scientific research, the subject of production, with its knowledge, abilities and skills, is emerging. The latest scientific studies of cognitive mechanisms were mainly focused on the analysis of processes, models and practices of knowledge management of an individual organization, and only a small number of their studies were aimed at evaluating and optimizing processes related to the integration of knowledge in the project. The process of knowledge integration should ensure the dynamic potential of organizations – the ability to integrate internal and external knowledge to respond to environmental changes. The article analyzes and classifies the components of knowledge management systems in construction: an information technology system, in which special attention is paid to information technologies (IT); an organizational system that focuses on what the project's organizational structure and various processes and procedures should be; a human system that is focused on the management of human resources through digitalization and means of communication through the "information explosion", which is due to the transformation of the operating systems of enterprises in the dimensions of the "complexity of the world" indicators: SPOD-world, VUCA-world and BANI-world.

Understanding technology-driven work arrangements from a complexity perspective: a systematic literature review and an agenda for future research

Organizations are increasingly introducing new work arrangements triggered by fast-paced knowledge acquisition, exponential technological growth, and demographic changes. Even though many studies have provided an in-depth understanding of how technology changed individual forms of modern work (e.g. virtual teams, shared leadership, remote work), the field needs a broader view of what constitutes technology-driven work arrangements and why they are implemented in organizations. The purpose of our paper is to systematically review, structure, and integrate the empirical evidence on current research on technology-driven work arrangements and to identify blind spots, which will serve as a springboard for the further development of the field. Based on our understanding of technology-driven work arrangements as flexible approaches to work within and beyond organizational boundaries that result from technology-driven transformation processes characterized by intensified spread, speed, and depth, we identify 191 studies that meet our inclusion criteria and organize them into six thematic clusters. We integrate our findings into an overarching framework based on complexity theory. We argue that three thematic clusters identified in our systematic literature review (organizational architectures across boundaries, knowledge integration processes across boundaries, and flexible employment relations across organizational boundaries) address an organization’s need for external flexibility. In contrast, three other clusters (virtual teams within organizations, virtual communication processes within organizations, and enhancement of self-responsibility of organizational actors) address internal flexibility needs, reflecting the overall goal of technology-driven work arrangements to achieve internal and external flexibility via coordinated and consistent patterns of action across all clusters. We additionally highlight underexplored research opportunities and provide promising avenues for future research.

Internet Data-based Media Resource Mining Method for Artistic Talent Cultivation

Abstract The cultivation of innovative artistic talents is the top priority of art education, making full use of Internet media resources to provide talents with high artistic literacy for art development. This paper begins with the integration of media resources in Internet data and builds a framework for the dimensions and processes of media resource knowledge integration. The BERT model combined with the multi-head self-attention mechanism is used for feature extraction of media text resources in Internet data, the signal decomposition of audio media resources is realized through the matching tracking algorithm, and the recommendation of video resources for art talent development is carried out based on the temporal hierarchical attention model. To verify the effectiveness of the algorithms given in this paper, a verification analysis of each algorithm is performed. The results show that when the IR value of audio signal decomposition increases from 1.49 to 10.36, the ROC-AUC value of art cultivation media audio decreases from 0.95±0.02 to 0.93±0.04. After 200 iterations, the video resource recommendation algorithm’s time fluctuation is between 0.21ms and 9.81ms, depending on the users’ behavior sequence. Making full use of technology to deeply mine Internet data can enable the diversification of media resources for art talent training and improve the quality of art talent training.

Making knowledge matter: Understanding and improving knowledge-integration in Dutch marine spatial planning policy

Lacking knowledge concerning the North-Sea's socio-ecological system causes the rapid increase of Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) development to occur under serious uncertainty. Optimising OWF development while minimizing negative effects on the socio-ecological system of the North-Sea thus requires holistic knowledge and its appropriate use in policy. Together with the pressure for OWF development, the subsequently rapid development of an array of scientific knowledge results in a dynamic and multidisciplinary knowledge situation, challenging the integration of knowledge, particularly between research and policy. To ensure policy is based on the latest holistic understanding, knowledge requires integration in strategic Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) policy. While the need for better knowledge processes is widely mentioned as a challenge for MSP, knowledge-integration in MSP remains understudied. This paper responds by studying the role of OWF-related knowledge in MSP while formulating a framework of conditions for knowledge-integration between research and policy in MSP policy and OWF development. These conditions are formulated based on knowledge management and MSP literature and subsequently applied in semi-structured interviews, document research, consortium observations, and focus groups. The case study used for acquiring data is knowledge-integration in Dutch MSP and OWF development. The Dutch maritime area is intensively used and faces important tensions over space due to conflicting stakeholder interests. In addition, while being an early adopter of MSP, the Netherlands also faces serious challenges due to high political pressure promoting Offshore Wind Farm development and a related need for maritime knowledge production. Together with the array of knowledge programs aiming to inform Dutch MSP, this provides a useful case to analyse knowledge-integration in MSP.The framework developed in this paper includes conditions for knowledge-integration ranging from the acceptance of differences between researchers and policymakers, to the need to employ interface managers who can develop a structural and effective knowledge-integration process. Fundamental differences between researchers and policymakers, such as differing timeframes, and differing views on uncertainty were found to form significant risks for knowledge-integration, as such influencing conditions. Additionally, the dynamic, long-term, area specific, and multidisciplinary context of MSP and OWF development was found to significantly influence the knowledge-integration process, underlining the importance of context for knowledge processes.

The Importance of Information Processing in Child Protection Cases—A Study of Social Workers’ Integration of Other Professionals’ Knowledge

Abstract The processes used by social workers to collect, interpret and use stakeholder information in child protection cases are an unexplored but essential part of the decision-making process. This study focuses on social workers’ efforts to integrate the knowledge of other professionals. This article draws on a framework for managing knowledge across organisational boundaries and a process-oriented conceptualisation of knowledge integration. The analysis of ten interviews with social workers shows that the process of knowledge integration affects the basis of social workers’ decision making. We argue that knowledge possessed by other professionals is often viewed as easily transferrable and correctly received, when in fact this knowledge is often complex and subjective and requires extra effort to obtain, understand and integrate into case-specific situations. This implies a need to recognise information processing as an influencing factor in decision making within child protection that pertains to both practice and research.

Preconditions for the development of organizational knowledge ecosystem inside an audit firm

The paper aims to present key preconditions for the development of organizational knowledge ecosystem inside an audit firm. The audit activities represent a specific context for knowledge management, especially what concerns knowledge sharing and generation of new knowledge in organizational environment of formal rules and standards. We present the survey of audit firm employees (68) and their management by discussing the key challenges related to the dynamic knowledge sharing and new knowledge creation inside an audit firm. The paper investigates the nature of knowledge within an audit firm and analyses the cultural and structural aspects of KM practices that may lead to the emergence of ecosystem for sharing the existing and generating new knowledge. The paper adopts the intra-organizational perspective to knowledge ecosystem. The audit firm operates as knowledge organization that, despite its strong formal side, is a complex dynamic system of knowledge professionals, who form the different communities of practice inside the firm. Research presented in this paper helped identify the key challenges and opportunities for the emergent knowledge partnerships inside the professional audit firm. The key cultural preconditions behind the effective knowledge ecosystem - trust-based relations, organizational culture, positive horizontal and vertical relations, and strong intrinsic motivation to share knowledge - are in place. Research findings also reveal a good fit between the employee expectations and organizational practices. However, certain challenges need to be addressed, such as bringing out and embodying the tacit knowledge of employees, and the need for continuous upgrading of the processes of knowledge creation and integration. To establish an effective and sustainable knowledge ecosystem inside the professional services firm, the paper argues for striking a delicate balance between the formal and informal parts of organization, as well as its KM system.

Expert and non-expert at the same time: knowledge integration processes and dynamics in interdisciplinary teamwork

Contemporary sustainability issues require the integration of diverse knowledge to study and address them holistically. How interdisciplinary knowledge integration arises in teamwork is, however, poorly understood. For instance, studies often focus on either individual or team processes, rather than studying their interplay and thereby contributing to understanding knowledge integration in an integral manner. Therefore, in this study we aimed to understand how knowledge integration processes are shaped by interactions in interdisciplinary teamwork. We present insights from an ethnographic case study of interdisciplinary teamwork among eight master’s students. In this student team, we observed two dynamics that impeded knowledge integration: (1) conformative dynamic manifested as avoiding and ignoring differences, and (2) performative dynamic as avoiding and ignoring not-knowing. Based on earlier work, we expected that contributing one’s own and engaging with each other’s knowledge would ensure knowledge integration. However, the dynamics exposed that it did not only depend on whether knowledge was contributed and engaged with, but also which knowledge was exchanged and manipulated in the teamwork. We coin the concept ‘relative expertise’, which emphasizes that interdisciplinary teamwork requires that collaborators act simultaneously as expert—in relation to their own contributory expertise—and non-expert—in relation to others’ contributory expertise. The dynamics hampered acting as a relative expert, and we saw that this was shaped by an interplay of students’ individual epistemic competencies, shared assumptions about teamwork, and social context. The insights may help recognize dynamics and underlying factors that impair knowledge integration, and thereby inform targeted interventions to facilitate knowledge integration.

Limited Benefits of Technological Advances in Human Service Organizations: Going beyond the Hype Using Sociotechnical Knowledge Management System

This study investigates the issue of underwhelming effectiveness in Information Communication Technology (ICT) by employing a sociotechnical knowledge management system (KMS) framework. The conceptual model highlights the combined contributions of the Technical KMS representing ICT, and the Sociocultural KMS in facilitating the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic processes of Knowledge Integration, ultimately enhancing Organizational Effectiveness. This cross-sectional survey explores the role of ICT in supporting practitioners within human services organizations as they navigate the complexities of addressing their clients’ diverse needs. The study involves a sample of 1,708 frontline caseworkers who participated in the 2022 Survey of Employee Engagement (SEE). Results demonstrate that both Technological KMS and Sociocultural KMS contribute to enhancing Organizational Effectiveness through improved Knowledge Integration. While caseworkers are more satisfied with Technological KMS, Sociocultural KMS yields greater benefits. Additional analyses comparing the 2008 and current survey data reveal ongoing underwhelming effectiveness despite technological advancements. These findings highlight the importance of integrating advanced technology and business processes, advocating for a paradigm shift toward a knowledge-based and sociotechnical perspective. The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is discussed, contingent on addressing ethical concerns, cybersecurity, and privacy. Future research should explore the sociotechnical KMS applications and examine their impact on organizational effectiveness.

Helping Teacher Leadership Teams: Enhancing Teaming by Focusing Knowledge Integration

<p style="text-align: justify;">Teacher Leadership Teams (TLTs) are cross-functional teams, and thus knowledge integration is central to their teaming. Importantly, the existing literature maintains that cross-functional teams apply the traverse or transcend approach differently to integrate divergent knowledge, but few studies have directly focused on it within the context of TLTs. Studies on leadership teams in schools have highlighted political and/or cultural perspectives and mainly stressed team/organizational conditions that might influence the TLT process of using two knowledge integration approaches. Therefore, our research analyzed how one TLT employed two knowledge integration approaches in consideration of team/organizational conditions. More specifically, we conducted qualitative research using the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory as an analytic lens. We identified that the TLT used traverse, transcend, and mixed approaches, and that its context influenced the team’s hybrid use by determining when the team utilized each approach. We believe that our findings contribute to revealing TLTs’ actual knowledge integration process by empirically examining one TLT’s use of knowledge integration approaches. Our findings also contribute to developing a more comprehensive framework to understand TLT knowledge integration by addressing existing research from political and cultural perspectives and suggesting further areas of focus (i.e., functional conditions) for future research.</p>

Systemic knowledge integration in transdisciplinary and sustainability transformation research

While knowledge integration has been well framed conceptually, the structural aspects that support co- learning and knowledge integration in transdisciplinary research remain only modestly addressed. Addressing this gap, we enlighten how a conceptual framework – building on former work by Ostrom, Giddens and Whaley – could help to structure and analyse systemic knowledge integration processes. The conceptual model is based on a transdisciplinary research project, ‘Region Römerland Carnuntum 2040’, aiming to investigate and trigger regional sustainability transformations via the experimentation with a new governance format “Future council”. The present article is based on the Future Council’s patching of rules for knowledge integration as well as a well thought-through accompanying research, which consist of a series of surveys and interviews to reveal subliminal values, capabilities, knowledge and emotions of the regional stakeholders involved in the FC. The conceptual model helped to provide a more equal playing field for systemic knowledge integration in a heterogenous group as well as just representation of marginalized groups (e.g. youth). On the other hand, our findings reveal that structural adaptability comes with the danger of reproducing power structures (e.g. of mayors). For the future we identify a need for more research on social boundaries, values and emotions and their important structuring role for transdisciplinary knowledge integration.

Instrumental Analysis Experience-Based Teaching before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities

The COVID-19 outbreak represented a remarkable challenge in universities and colleges since it forced the transition from a face-to-face model in classrooms and laboratories to a remote, online model using computers, tablets, and cell phones. In Mexico and other Latin American countries, the return to educational activities was a slow-paced process. The lack of presential activities had a deep impact on education, particularly in under- and graduate Chemistry courses, where laboratory work allows students to develop skills and abilities by applying their knowledge to solve experimental problems. As a consequence, institutional and personal efforts were put together to overcome this situation. These efforts led to remarkable experiences and outcomes with high educational value. This work presents experiences and outcomes of the Instrumental Analysis course offered in the Chemistry Clinical Biologist bachelor program throughout three nonconsecutive semesters, each time on different contexts, to describe the challenges faced, and the emerging opportunities from the experience throughout the pandemic. Each experience is described in a case study. Case 1 exemplifies a regular, pre-COVID-19 semester, in 2019, in a fully face-to-face teaching modality. Case 2 describes a semester in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, in a 100% online teaching modality. Finally, Case 3 presents a semester with low prevalence of COVID-19 cases, using a hybrid modality, in 2021. Our observations suggest significant differences related to the knowledge integration process when laboratory work was interrupted, and provide evidence about how online activities impacted the learning process in experimental chemistry courses.

Assessing Integration of Science in Policy-Making Process of the Utilization of Abandoned Lands in Indonesia: Case of Bogor Regency

Science cannot directly influence policy without a process of knowledge transfer and integration into policy-making called the science-policy interface. On the other hand, not all scientists intend to use their knowledge and findings to influence policy-makers. This condition causes a gap between science and policy. The main objective of this study is to identify various "knowledge products" that have varying amounts of policy space, understand the power relations between actors, and identify and analyze the process of integrating knowledge products into the policy-making process for abandoned land in Bogor Regency. The primary method used in this study is the RAPID (Research and Policy in Development) analytical framework. The study indicates that policy-makers will adopt the scientific evidence if they follow their organization's Main Performance Indicators (KPI) or gain political or economic benefits. The role of the lower-level bureaucracy as the implementing agency is crucial in the policy adoption process. The people "behind the organization" and "policy intrapreneurs" have an essential role in integrating scientific knowledge and policy. Scientific products, such as modeling, are often more effective in convincing policy-makers. The scientific evidence will become good advice and have a more significant impact when they meet policy-makers' interests. The study concludes that it is challenging to integrate science into policy-making without mutual trust amongst formal and informal network actors who have access to policy-makers to utilize abandoned lands in Bogor Regency.

How Does Green Search Promote Green Innovation? The Mediating Role of Green Control

The importance of a knowledge search for green innovation has been recognized, but our understanding of the influence of green search is still unclear. We used 198 Chinese manufacturing data to sort the influential mechanism of green search on green innovation based on resource-based theory, information processing theory, and transaction cost theory. We also explored the intermediate role of green control (i.e., output and behavior control) between the two dimensions of green search (i.e., search breadth and depth) and green innovation (i.e., exploratory and exploitative innovation). The results show that the diversified green information searched from outside must be controlled through the behavior process and results in improving the quality of existing green products and developing new green products. A continuous and deep search for green knowledge can achieve the results of green innovation by setting goals and monitoring processes. When Chinese manufacturing enterprises are searching for knowledge to produce green products, they must pay attention to the supervision and control of the knowledge integration process and results to ensure the effective utilization and transformation of knowledge.

Climate policy expertise in times of populism – knowledge strategies of the AfD regarding Germany’s climate package

ABSTRACT Climate policy is expected to consider the current state of science. As populist radical right parties (PRRP) become elected members of parliaments, they have a greater influence on integration processes between science and politics. The aim of the paper is to show that instead of generally rejecting climate science, PRRPs appeal to ‘alternative expertise’ and politicize scientific knowledge. With our empirical analysis of public hearings, plenary meetings and press statements discussing Germany’s Climate Package between 2018 and 2020, we show that the AfD uses expertise that suits their political interests very selectively and arbitrarily supporting either scientific outsider positions or positions that only pretend to be scientific. We argue that populist strategies weaken trust in scientific expertise by undermining democratic institutions for knowledge integration in climate governance. Therefore, a clear separation between research and politics together with transparent and formal scientific knowledge integration processes are needed.

CoV2K model, a comprehensive representation of SARS-CoV-2 knowledge and data interplay

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many research organizations have studied the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus; a body of public resources have been published for monitoring its evolution. While we experience an unprecedented richness of information in this domain, we also ascertained the presence of several information quality issues. We hereby propose CoV2K, an abstract model for explaining SARS-CoV-2-related concepts and interactions, focusing on viral mutations, their co-occurrence within variants, and their effects. CoV2K provides a clear and concise route map for understanding different connected types of information related to the virus; it thus drives a process of data and knowledge integration that aggregates information from several current resources, harmonizing their content and overcoming incompleteness and inconsistency issues. CoV2K is available for exploration as a graph that can be queried through a RESTful API addressing single entities or paths through their relationships. Practical use cases demonstrate its application to current knowledge inquiries.

THE PROCESS OF POWER/KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION IN THE PERIOD OF KNOWLEDGE EXPLORATION: A CASE STUDY ON COLLECTIVE CHOREOGRAPHY

Taking knowledge sharing between authoritative teachers and group dancers in a group dance rehearsal as the research object, here we are analyzing relevant literature and using the methods of interview and observation to collect relevant data. Then, we have been using the method of qualitative research to code the collected data and build the theoretical model of power / knowledge integration process in the knowledge exploration period for a group dance rehearsal. The constructed model further enriches the existing theoretical research area. This study may also help predict the problems that will occur in the process of knowledge integration, that is, the potential influencing factors. Thus, the participants of the process in question could adjust themselves through a better grasp of the dynamic process of knowledge integration. Better preparation and participation in cooperation inside the performance team can make team planning and team organization much more sufficient.