A process view of knowledge management:it ain't want you do, it's the way that you do it

Knowledge management needs to consider the three related elements of people, processes and technology. Much existing work has concentrated on either people or technology, often to the exclusion of the other two elements. Yet without thinking about process ? the way people, organisations and even technology actually do things ? any implementation of a knowledge management initiative is at best risky, and at worst doomed to failure. This paper looks at various ways in which a process view has appeared, expl icitly or implicitly, in knowledge management research and practice so far, and reflects on how more 'thinking about process' might improve knowledge management in the future. Consistent with this overall viewpoint, the issues generally centre less on wha t a process view would suggest should be done, but rather on the way that it would be implemented in practice

An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Analysis.

Increases in the complexity and uncertainty of corporate activity indicate that the time is now appropriate to review the analysis process. This proposition forms the central theme of the thesis, i.e. to explore the nature of analysis. Initial research concentrated on the field of hard system methods, to provide a theoretical foundation for conducting analysis. However, from observations undertaken as a reflective practitioner it became clear that, even with theoretical advances, hard system methods could only make a marginal contribution to the analysis process. Hard system methods foiled to account for the feet that experts had an uncertain knowledge of the domain on which they were expected to pronounce. Contemporary literature from the fields of strategic management and organisational behaviour pose fundamental challenges to the accepted origin and nature of requirements for change. Complexity theory, however, offers a new theoretical foundation to ease the plight of the domain expert, i.e. pattern recognition. However to ensure that patterns reflect the cognitive strategies-and priorities of the domain expert, it is necessary to explore the field of cognitive psychology to appreciate the significance of the metaphors selected to construct patterns. Finally, knowledge management claims that the value of knowledge is under endless assault and argues for the domain expert to be engaged in a virtuous cycle of perpetual knowledge creation. The thesis seeks to integrate these themes to redefine the analysis process based on methodological pluralism. The key to methodological pluralism proved eventually to be the introduction of generic ‘behaviour accentuated’ patterns of analysis at the core of the selected techniques. The nature of analysis has changed radically over the last decade and significant research is required to develop themes raised in this thesis. Moreover, further work is required to disseminate the themes to the practitioner community

Productization and interntional product strategy of K-12 education-related services – a case study

Service business has been fast-growing industry during the past decades. Recently, scholars and executives have realized the service industry's dominance in growth of the global economy. However, service development has received remarkably less attention compared to manufacturing. Finnish government officials have newly perceived the opportunity to exploit high appreciation of Finnish education in growing, international education market. The case company aims at increasing its international presence with K-12 education-related services. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to theoretically and empirically analyze the combination of productization and international product strategy with strong focus on K-12 education-related services. The author built the theoretical framework based on literature review that analyses different stages of productization of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) and the characteristics of the international product strategy. The productization process includes three main phases: service offering standardization, service offering tangibilization and concretization, and service process standardization and systematization. In international product strategy, high importance is given to standardization-adaptation dichotomy. The empirical data for this thesis was collected through interviewing the case company professionals and external experts in the field. The results show that K-12 education-related services can be productized to some extent through applying the named methods. Standardization has multiple benefits that can be achieved by developing a core product and supplementing it with more customized or preferably standardized parts and modules. However, flexibility is required in order to match the specific requirements of the target country in terms of culture, legislation and regulations

The brand, culture & stakeholder-based brand management phenomenon: an international Delphi study

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Docter of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Most recently in academic literature, over the past decade, it has been observed that the cultural approach to brand management represents a new school of thought. This has emerged from relational and community based brand perspectives: which chart the rising role, significance and influence in brand management of connected and savvy consumers. Furthermore, the researcher has identified that economic migrancy; the increase in multi-racial and multicultural relations, evident in childbirth; urbanism and urbanization; Globalization; conspicuous branded consumption; and Web2.0 continue to drive new methods and channels for information exchanges, collaboration and societal understanding. These in turn are shaping and changing the way in which branding, management and consumption are being understood and practiced. Brands have gravitated towards a position of offering individual and societal meaning. In doing so they have become cultural artefacts and language shapers. In tandem the conceptual argument for a brand being understood and used as a ‘human’ has grown in prominence. Collectively, these represent a global cultural phenomenon where the management of brands appears to be a cultural, diffused and self-defined practice. The purpose of this study was to examine this identified phenomenon in greater detail, from a brand management perspective. The aim was to investigate the nature of the relationship between culture and brands – to the benefit of brand managers. The method of qualitative investigation elicited iterated views from an international panel of academics and practitioners -­ in the form of a 16 month Expert Delphi Study. Through the Delphi process, they were encouraged to arrive at a consensus of opinions and understanding. Findings of this doctoral study suggest that culture and brands share strong relationship bonds, brought into existence by human desires. Equally, brands and culture both have the ability to influence each other. Furthermore, the successful management of brands requires a cultural approach, which mediates dynamic and complex networks of brand stakeholder relations. It was concluded that the understandings of brands, culture and management have to take into account: context, space and time – as porous boundaries of transience and transcendence. A new, grounded theoretical framework for brand management was developed - which took its inspiration from Aristotle’s Praedicamenta. In addition, alternative criteria for collecting and analysing biographical data were proposed

Developing a holistic framework of key categories of influences that shape knowledge sharing from an individual perspective

The aim of this thesis is to develop a holistic framework that depicts key categories of influences that shape individual perceptions of knowledge sharing within an organisational setting. This aim stems from a systematic literature review that indicates that despite the large volume of literature in regards to knowledge sharing, the field has not yet arrived at a consensus as to the key categories of influences, defined at a high level, that shape individuals’ knowledge sharing perceptions. In order to uncover the key categories of influences, an exploratory and qualitative case study strategy was executed. Empirical data were gathered from a total of 24 interviewees that were based in four different country branches (i.e. China, the Netherlands, the UK and the US) of a single IT services organisation. Using constant comparison, findings point towards a holistic framework that depicts four key categories of influences that shape knowledge sharing from an individual perspective. The first key influence revolves around institutions which act as a united entity on individual perceptions of knowledge sharing. The second key influence fundamentally different in nature concentrates on relations between individuals sharing knowledge. The third key influence focuses on the individuals themselves (called sharers) and how their attitudes and characteristics can shape their knowledge sharing perceptions. The fourth and final key influence centres on knowledge itself and how this can shape individual perceptions of knowledge sharing. In addition, findings suggest that the four key influences not only shape knowledge sharing independently but that all four key influences are intertwined and together form a holistic framework. Combined, these two sets of findings indicate that knowledge sharing from an individual-level perspective is a more complex phenomenon than currently portrayed in the literature, which has focused on some of the key influences or depicted some of the interrelationships. Yet to better understand the knowledge sharing phenomenon from an individual perspective all four key influences, each being fundamentally different in nature, and their relationships should be taken into account

Knowledge management in learning software SMMEs in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2017.The study investigated the nature and causes of software development failures and knowledge management practices adopted to mitigate the failures in small, micro, and medium software developing enterprises (SMMEs) in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study adopted an interpretive, qualitative multiple case study approach to investigate the problem. Twelve software development SMMEs were involved in the study. Interviews were conducted with 12 information technology (IT)/software development project managers and eight software developers identified through purposive sampling. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse and interpret the data. The findings reveal that software development SMMEs in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, experience software development failures. Ten causes of failure were identified. They are bureaucracy in IT departments, compatibility issues, complacency of developers, involvement of the wrong people in the planning stages of projects, a lack of detailed documentation, lack of resources, lack of user commitment/non-adoption of systems, miscommunication/misrepresentation of requirements, unrealistic customer expectations, and work overload. The results also indicate that software organisations and individual software developers experience knowledge gaps during the course of their work. Six knowledge management practices are adopted by the organisations and the individual developers to fill the knowledge gaps. The practices are knowledge acquisition, creation, storage, sharing, organisation and application. These practices are supported by Internet technologies such as blogs, Wikis, search engines, social networks, organisational databases and computer hardware such as servers and personal computers. The study reveals two important knowledge management practices that are ignored by software organisations, namely post-mortem reviews, which are essential in software development, and formal training of the developers. The findings further reveal that knowledge management has enabled the organisations and individual developers to save time, retain their intellectual property (IP), become more efficient and effective in knowledge reuse. Organisations face a number of knowledge management related challenges. The challenges are lack of formal knowledge management procedures, difficulty protecting knowledge, expensive knowledge storage costs, increasing information needs, lack of the time to fully adopt knowledge management practices, difficulty finding information, and the ever-changing nature of knowledge. The study concluded that software development failures are prevalent in software SMMEs and that the organisations have informally adopted knowledge management. Moreover, knowledge management has brought benefits to the organisations but the role played by knowledge management in eliminating project failures is not clear. It is recommended that software organisations should consider formally adopting knowledge management so that knowledge management specialists can be employed to drive the knowledge management initiatives and so help in conducting post-mortem reviews and the training of staff. In addition, further research is recommended to investigate the role of knowledge management in reducing or eliminating software project failures. Quantitative studies are also recommended to objectively measure the benefits brought by knowledge management. Such studies would measure how much time and which costs are saved by adopting knowledge management. The study contributes to theory and practice (software development industry). Theoretically, the study developed and used a conceptual framework developed from software engineering and knowledge management that could be used to investigate knowledge management activities in organisations. The study also contributes to the existing body of knowledge on the subject software learning organisations from a developing country perspective. It is envisaged that software development organisations will adopt the recommendations proffered to improve their knowledge management practices

Governing regional telecommunication networks in a developing region: the SADC case

Includes bibliographical referencesOne of the political and economic responses to globalisation and the associated rise of multilateral trade agreements is the integration of national markets and their governance within regions. As developing economies have become increasingly integrated into the global economy, the harmonisation of policies and standardisation of regulations to create economies of scale and scope, has been one of the primary strategies to improve regional competitiveness. With the global economy underpinned by a dynamic communication infrastructure, African regional economic communities (RECs) have increasingly recognised the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in realising the vision of regional integration, and as a major determinant of national and regional competitiveness. Despite member states' acknowledgement of the need for regional connectivity, many initiatives across Africa aimed at supporting and establishing harmonised ICT policy frameworks have not had the intended outcomes. Strategies for developing seamless regional ICT infrastructures - necessary for the achievement of universal policy objectives of improved access to, and usage of, affordable broadband services now widely demonstrated to drive economic growth - have not been realised. Through a case study of regional policy-making in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the thesis examines the political economy underlying regional processes and structures for the development and the implementation of ICT policy frameworks, as shaped by epistemic communities. A conceptual framework is constructed as a lens through which to assess the role of capacity building as a tool in foreign affairs in the institutional arrangements within SADC countries and ICT policy outcomes in the region. This reveals the wider political, economic and more specific policy and regulatory constraints hampering the development of the information society from a developing region perspective. Applying a hybrid methodology, empirical information was gathered through quantitative secondary data but using qualitative methods to gather the primary evidence for the case. This evidence from multiple sources is examined through a broad political economy framework to contextualise the research problem and develop a rich narrative of regional integration efforts in the area of information communication technologies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Following rigorous and extensive gathering of information from face to face interviews following an exhaustive document analysis, detailed coding of the data and triangulation of findings enable d an analysis of how institutional arrangement s in the region -despite the accepted rationale and logic of market integration -have largely failed to achieve the intended IV ICT policy objectives stated in SADC protocols and declarations despite considerable advances in the formal harmonisation of aspects of ICT policy and regulation

Rethinking EU Consumer Law

In Rethinking EU Consumer Law, the authors analyse the development of EU consumer law on the basis of a number of clear themes, which are then traced through specific areas. Recurring themes include the artificiality of the EU’s consumer image, the problems created by the drive towards maximum harmonisation, and the unexpected effects EU Consumer Law has had on national law. The book argues that EU Consumer Law has the potential of enhancing the protecting of consumers throughout the EU and could offer a model for consumer law elsewhere in the world, but in order to unlock this potential, there needs to be a rethink with regard to the EU’s approach to consumer law and policy

Rethinking EU Consumer Law

In Rethinking EU Consumer Law, the authors analyse the development of EU consumer law on the basis of a number of clear themes, which are then traced through specific areas. Recurring themes include the artificiality of the EU's consumer image, the problems created by the drive towards maximum harmonisation, and the unexpected effects EU consumer law has had on national law.Peer reviewe