“Thanks for sharing”—Identifying users’ roles based on knowledge contribution in Enterprise Social Networks

While ever more companies use Enterprise Social Networks for knowledge management, there is still a lack of understanding of users' knowledge exchanging behavior. In this context, it is important to be able to identify and characterize users who contribute and communicate their knowledge in the network and help others to get their work done. In this paper, we propose a new methodological approach consisting of three steps, namely "message classification", "identification of users' roles" as well as "characterization of users' roles". We apply the approach to a dataset from a multinational consulting company, which allows us to identify three user roles based on their knowledge contribution in messages: givers, takers, and matchers. Going beyond this categorization, our data shows that whereas the majority of messages aims to share knowledge, matchers, that means people that give and take, are a central element of the network. In conclusion, the development and application of a new methodological approach allows us to contribute to a more refined understanding of users' knowledge exchanging behavior in Enterprise Social Networks which can ultimately help companies to take measures to improve their knowledge management. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Behavioural Dimensions for Discovering Knowledge Actor Roles Utilising Enterprise Social Network Metrics

The identification of distinct user roles is an important theme in social media research. However, for Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), the use of social media within organisations, research identifying such roles is still lacking. Yet, understanding user roles, in particular regarding their knowledge con-tributions and communication behaviour, might usefully support companies in managing critical knowledge resources. Against this backdrop, in this research-in-progress paper we derive 16 metrics characterising the participation behaviour, message content and structural position of ESN users of an Australian professional services firm. Based on a factor analysis, we identify four distinct dimensions of ESN user behaviour: Contribution & networking, information provision, contact dispersion and invisible usage. With this research we contribute to the literature by transferring concepts and meth-ods of organisation science and social media research to an ESN context. Further, our approach forms the basis for the identification of different types of knowledge actors, which might ultimately help to improve organisational knowledge transparency

Identification of User Roles in Enterprise Social Networks: Method Development and Application

The importance of gaining insights into informal organizational structures for management purposes is acknowledged by both research and practice. However, “traditional” approaches to analyzing informal organizational social networks involve significant manual effort and do not scale for larger datasets. Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) have emerged as important tools for informal employee interactions, such as for problem-solving and information sharing. While the analysis of ESN back end data might provide insights into the informal fabric of organizations, and in particular employees’ roles in such networks, there is a lack of systematic approaches for carrying out ESN analytics, such as for user role identification. Following a design science research process, a process-based method to identify user roles from ESN data was developed and evaluated. The method’s efficacy is demonstrated through an in-depth application in a case study of Australian professional services firm Deloitte. In doing so the paper shows how ESN data can be utilized to derive metrics that characterize participation behavior, message content, and structural network positions of ESN users

Identifying Value-adding Users in Enterprise Social Networks

Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) have been gaining increasing attention both in academia and practice. In previous works, different user types were identified in ESN. However, there is no clear definition of value-adding users, their characteristics and how this type of user can be identified. Based on a literature review, we show that value-adding users are defined in different ways in respect to different objectives, for example spreading knowledge, vivacity of the network or real-time feedback. Each of the value-adding users shows different characteristics that are allocated to the following dimensions: network structure, message, behavior, and social network affinity. Based on the objectives and characteristics, we conduct a single case study, analyze a dataset of a cooperating company, conduct several interviews, and thereby identify value-adding users with respect to objectives. So, we can show that our approach is applicable, useful and that it is a valuable means to take decisions

Successful Projects - What Makes Them Work? A Cross-National Analysis

[Excerpt] This cross national analysis is based on national studies made by research teams in India, Kenya, Romania and South Africa. It aims to draw out the lessons learnt from successful social development processes in these countries. In each country, studies have been made of projects identified as interesting, successful and/or outstanding in the way they have improved the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities. In national reports, the respective teams have made their own national conclusions. This comparative report briefly describes the national studies. It then continues with a cross national analysis attempting to identify circumstances or factors that are common to these successful projects. Finally, the report summarises the conclusions and their implications. We hope that the findings presented in the report will be used as inspiration in future planning, implementation and funding of projects aiming at improving life conditions of groups that are marginalised in society. Chapter 1 and 2, describing the research process and the national reports have been written by Annika and Lennart Nilsson. Anders Gustavsson and Johans Sandvin are responsible for the cross national analysis in chapter 3 to 7. The conclusions and implications in chapter 8 have been written jointly. The study has been commissioned by Inclusion International and financed by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida)

Knowledge as Culture

Culture must not be seen as something that merely reflects an organization’s social reality: rather, it is an integral part of the process by which that reality is constructed. Knowledge management initiatives, per se, are not culture change projects; but, if culture stands in the way of what an organization needs to do, they must somehow impact

Mapping Big Data into Knowledge Space with Cognitive Cyber-Infrastructure

Big data research has attracted great attention in science, technology, industry and society. It is developing with the evolving scientific paradigm, the fourth industrial revolution, and the transformational innovation of technologies. However, its nature and fundamental challenge have not been recognized, and its own methodology has not been formed. This paper explores and answers the following questions: What is big data? What are the basic methods for representing, managing and analyzing big data? What is the relationship between big data and knowledge? Can we find a mapping from big data into knowledge space? What kind of infrastructure is required to support not only big data management and analysis but also knowledge discovery, sharing and management? What is the relationship between big data and science paradigm? What is the nature and fundamental challenge of big data computing? A multi-dimensional perspective is presented toward a methodology of big data computing.Comment: 59 page

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history