The effects of information technology on knowledge management systems

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2007.06.011Get rights and content

Abstract

Due to the rapid development of knowledge and information technology (IT), business environments have become much more complicated. In order to cope with ensuing complications, enterprises ought to incessantly innovate; otherwise, it will be very difficult for them to survive in the marketplace. Hence, many enterprises have applied IT in order to cut production costs, introduce innovations in products and services, promote growth, develop alliances, lock in customers and suppliers, and create switching costs and raise barriers to entry. In other words, IT can help a firm aiming to gain a competitive advantage. In addition, many studies have argued that business value comes mainly from intangible assets, such as knowledge. Thus, knowledge workers will be able to replace clerical workers as the new mainstream of manpower resources, a field in which the development of IT is the major force for change in knowledge management system (KMS). Therefore, based on the definition of the five gaps in KMS, this study explores the role and effect of IT in the implementation of KMS on firms; moreover, relationships between KMS and IT are analyzed and demonstrated by means of the literature reviews, expert interviews and questionnaire analyses. Furthermore, this study discusses how to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of implementing KMS through appropriate IT.

Introduction

In recent years, the rapid development of information technology (IT) has made it easier for employees, customers, suppliers, and partners to interact while carrying out each of their business functions; moreover, cross-function collaborations become feasible in product development, marketing, distribution, and customer service. That is, IT does not merely support efficient business operations, workgroup task and collaborations, and effective business decision-making; but they also change the way businesses compete (Ruiz-Mercader, Merono-Cerdan, & Sabater-Sanchez, 2006). Therefore, it is obvious that IT is a tool crucial for enterprises to achieve a competitive advantage and organizational innovation.

Due to the IT revolution and advancements of the Internet, the value of knowledge assets has been greatly enhanced. Many companies are building knowledge management system (KMS) in order to manage organizational learning and business know-how. The main purpose of such a policy is to help knowledge workers to create important business knowledge, to organize it, and to make it available whenever and wherever it is needed in the companies (O’Brien & Marakas, 2006). Facing a tremendous amount of data on a daily basis, enterprises only use IT to integrate each division of various tools, such as intranet, data warehouse, electronic whiteboard, artificial intelligence and expert systems so that the jumbled business data is well-organized and more integrated (Khandelwal & Gottschalk, 2003). Furthermore, the value of business can be increased by applying IT. For example, many hotel chains and travel companies record individual preferences, so that the client is automatically given their favorite rooms or seats in the future (Probst, Raub, & Romhardt, 2000). Another case in point is Citibank’s special system which recognizes atypical spending patterns in the use of credit cards, thus being able to alert customers to the possible loss or misuse of their cards. If there were no such knowledge-oriented technological assistance, enterprises would not possess a strong concept of knowledge management (KM). The highest value of IT to KM is in allowing the expansion and universalization of the scope of knowledge and in increasing the speed of transferability. Additionally using IT, we are able to retrieve and store knowledge in individual or groups, which allows this knowledge to be shared with other divisions in the same organization or business partners in the world. Furthermore, IT contributes to the integration of knowledge or even to the stimulation of new knowledge (Davenport & Prusak, 1998).

Nowadays, a long-lasting competitive advantage is achievable only if companies develop into knowledge-creating companies (Carlucci and Schiuma, 2007, Vouros, 2003). However, many companies have faced various kinds of difficulties in implementing KMS. First, if knowledge is merely accumulated in workers’ brains, there is no way of recording it systematically. Second, even though knowledge is recorded and recorded in documents, it is very complicated to search for, retrieve, or review it, a problem which erects barriers to the diffusion of knowledge. Thus, in past times, even though managers knew how important KM was, it was very difficult to implement it successfully (Bradley, Paul, & Seeman, 2006).

Section snippets

Knowledge management and information technology

IT concepts are pervasive in the current business environment, yet its definition also contains certain intangible aspects. This study mainly probes IT as a tool which is able to manage, store, and transmit structural knowledge. It can support us in our efforts to make the knowledge stored in the human brain or in documents available to all employees of an organization (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). In the process of KM, the absorption, creation, arrangement, storage, transfer and diffusion of

Conceptual framework

Based on the concept of KM gaps proposed by Lin and Tseng, 2005b, this study proposes a holistic framework, depicted in Fig. 1, within which to explore the role and effect of IT in KMS. The KM gaps model is divided into five gaps (Gap 1 to Gap 5) and fully illustrates the management gaps that might occur during the implementation of KMS. These five gaps are defined as follows:

  • Gap 1:

    The gap between the knowledge required to enhance the competitiveness of an enterprise as perceived by the upper

Methodology

Research methods can be generally divided into two types: quantitative research and qualitative research. The main objective of this research is to explore the roles and effects of IT in KMS with an emphasis on the “contextual” factors suited to further exploration in qualitative research (Berg, 2000, Hammersley, 1996). In other words, it is not known whether there exist any concrete relations between IT and KMS. If certain connections are discovered, it would be desirable to pursue their study

Case studies

The case study represents one of the most commonly research designs in qualitative research. The case analysis is a good starting point in the inductive process of theory building (Yin, 1988, Yin, 1994). In addition, it is an apt method for inductive or teleological studies since it permits the researcher to observe and gather information about new or undiscovered natural phenomena that has never been studied before.

The purpose of our case study is to explore the relation between IT and KMS. As

Questionnaire Analysis

The results of the analyses of these four case studies are summarized in Table 1. These results were then used as a reference to design and develop a questionnaire aimed at quantifying the roles and effects of IT on KMS.

Samples were restricted to a list of the largest Taiwanese corporations which was compiled by the China Credit Information Service (2005), and from which 500 corporations were selected. The content and validity of the draft questionnaire was evaluated by performing interviews in

Conclusion

Companies have long recognized the value of harnessing the data and information that reside and are created within the organization; thus, information management has been practiced for a long time primarily through the implementation and use of IT (Ford & Chan, 2003). Every organization has its own way of dealing with data, information and knowledge, and creates its own structures, jobs and systems for that purpose (Nonaka et al., 2000). Therefore, there is no standard method for introducing KM

Acknowledgement

The research was supported by NSC 94-2416-H- 432 - 002- (Taiwan National Science Council).

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