Knowledge Broker Bots in Enterprise Social Media: An Exploratory Study

Enterprise social media (ESM) platforms are a central hub for team collaboration. While they can effectively facilitate communication among distributed individuals and teams, promoting knowledge sharing remains a major challenge. ESM users are often unaware of others’ knowledge and therefore are unable to seek experts or share knowledge with those who need it. A potential solution could be the use of knowledge broker bots that automatically connect knowledge seekers with knowledge providers to facilitate knowledge sharing. However, given the focus of existing literature on the human element of knowledge brokering, our understanding of the use and impact of such bots on knowledge sharing in ESM is limited. Therefore, we conducted a two-month, exploratory study with five student teams on Slack. Our findings provide initial insights into how users interact with a knowledge broker bot and how the bot establishes connections between users as a critical conduit to successful knowledge brokering

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

Trust and reciprocity effect on electronic word-of-mouth in online review communities

Purpose Social media developments in the last decade have led to the emergence of a new form of word of mouth (WOM) in the digital environment. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is considered by many scholars and practitioners to be the most influential informal communication mechanism between businesses and potential and actual consumers. The purpose of this paper is to extend knowledge about WOM in this new context by proposing a conceptual framework that enables a better understanding of how trust and reciprocity influence eWOM participation in ORCs. Design/methodology/approach This study applies non-probability convenience sampling technique to conduct a quantitative study of data from an online survey of 189 members of ORCs. Partial least squares (PLS) is used to analyse the correlations between individuals’ intention to seek opinion, to give their own opinion and to pass on the opinion of another within ORCs. Findings The data analysis reveals that opinion seeking within ORCs had a direct effect on opinion giving and opinion passing. Ability trust and integrity trust had a positive effect on opinion seeking, while benevolence trust had a direct positive effect on opinion passing. Reciprocity had a direct impact on opinion passing. While reciprocity did not affect opinion giving, the relationship between these two concepts was mediated by integrity trust. Research limitations/implications By studying the complexities that characterise the relationships between reciprocity, trust and eWOM, the study extends understanding of eWOM in ORCs. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of only a few papers that have examined the complex interrelationships between reciprocity, trust and eWOM in the context of ORCs

Collaborative knowledge management - A construction case study

Due to the new threats and challenges faced by the construction industry today, construction companies must seek new solutions in order to remain ahead of the competition. Knowledge has been identified to be a significant organisational resource, which if used effectively can provide competitive advantage. A lot of emphasis is being put on how to identify, capture and share knowledge in today's organisations. It has been argued over the years that due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry and ad-hoc nature of the construction projects, capture and reuse of valuable knowledge gathered during a construction project pose a challenge. As a result critical mistakes are repeated on projects and construction professionals have to kee

Web Data Extraction, Applications and Techniques: A Survey

Web Data Extraction is an important problem that has been studied by means of different scientific tools and in a broad range of applications. Many approaches to extracting data from the Web have been designed to solve specific problems and operate in ad-hoc domains. Other approaches, instead, heavily reuse techniques and algorithms developed in the field of Information Extraction. This survey aims at providing a structured and comprehensive overview of the literature in the field of Web Data Extraction. We provided a simple classification framework in which existing Web Data Extraction applications are grouped into two main classes, namely applications at the Enterprise level and at the Social Web level. At the Enterprise level, Web Data Extraction techniques emerge as a key tool to perform data analysis in Business and Competitive Intelligence systems as well as for business process re-engineering. At the Social Web level, Web Data Extraction techniques allow to gather a large amount of structured data continuously generated and disseminated by Web 2.0, Social Media and Online Social Network users and this offers unprecedented opportunities to analyze human behavior at a very large scale. We discuss also the potential of cross-fertilization, i.e., on the possibility of re-using Web Data Extraction techniques originally designed to work in a given domain, in other domains.Comment: Knowledge-based System

Towards a People's Social Epidemiology: Envisioning a More Inclusive and Equitable Future for Social Epi Research and Practice in the 21st Century.

Social epidemiology has made critical contributions to understanding population health. However, translation of social epidemiology science into action remains a challenge, raising concerns about the impacts of the field beyond academia. With so much focus on issues related to social position, discrimination, racism, power, and privilege, there has been surprisingly little deliberation about the extent and value of social inclusion and equity within the field itself. Indeed, the challenge of translation/action might be more readily met through re-envisioning the role of the people within the research/practice enterprise-reimagining what "social" could, or even should, mean for the future of the field. A potential path forward rests at the nexus of social epidemiology, community-based participatory research (CBPR), and information and communication technology (ICT). Here, we draw from social epidemiology, CBPR, and ICT literatures to introduce A People's Social Epi-a multi-tiered framework for guiding social epidemiology in becoming more inclusive, equitable, and actionable for 21st century practice. In presenting this framework, we suggest the value of taking participatory, collaborative approaches anchored in CBPR and ICT principles and technological affordances-especially within the context of place-based and environmental research. We believe that such approaches present opportunities to create a social epidemiology that is of, with, and by the people-not simply about them. In this spirit, we suggest 10 ICT tools to "socialize" social epidemiology and outline 10 ways to move towards A People's Social Epi in practice