Using Actor-Network Theory to Facilitate a Superior Understanding of Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Transfer

Given today’s dynamic business environment it becomes essential for organisations to maximise their intellectual assets in order to ensure that they are able to support flexible operations and sustain their competitive advantage. Central to this is the ability to extract germane knowledge to enable rapid and effective decision making. At present, knowledge creation techniques tend to focus on either human or technology aspects of organisational development and less often on process-centric aspects of knowledge generation. However, to truly understand knowledge creation and transfer, thereby enabling an organisation to be better positioned to leverage the full potential of its intellectual capital, it is important to view knowledge creation and all sociotechnical organisational operations that result in knowledge generation through a richer lens. Actor-network Theory is proffered in this article as such a lens

Who is pulling the strings? : technology and regulatory risks at the services provided by credit fintechs in the light of the actor-network theory

Orientadora: Prof. Dra. Ana Paula Mussi Szabo Cherobim.Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Administração. Defesa : Curitiba, 13/05/2022Inclui referências: p. 149-160Resumo: As FinTech de Credito têm sido objeto de atenção dos Reguladores Brasileiros pelo seu potencial disruptivo: viabilizam rápido acesso a crédito ou a serviços de financiamento. Nessa relação, entra em cena a dualidade entre tecnologia e regulação, respondendo por conexões que usualmente não estão previstas nas análises. Este estudo analisa como a relação entre o Banco Central do Brasil e as FinTechs de Credito atua nos aspectos de risco, considerando a relação entre tecnologia e regulação. O suporte teórico se baseia na Teoria Ator-Rede, que afirma que entidades não humanas (por exemplo, sistemas de informação e regulamentos) podem ser atores que criam agência. Portanto, eles devem ser levados em consideração para a análise. Essa abordagem permitiu estabelecer a cadeia de conexões entre os diferentes atores, levando assim a avanços tanto para a teoria quanto para a prática, uma vez que se destacou o que explica a o funcionamento (ou não) dessa relação.Abstract: Credit FinTechs have been the object of attention from Brazilian Regulators for their disruptive potential: they enable quick access to credit or financing services. In this relationship, the duality between technology and regulation comes into play, accounting for connections that are usually not foreseen in the analyses. This study analyzes how the relationship between the Central Bank of Brazil and Credit FinTechs acts in the aspects of risk, considering the relationship between technology and regulation. The theoretical approach is based on the Actor- Network Theory, stating that non-human entities (eg. information systems and regulations) can be actors that create agency. Therefore, they must be taken into account for analysis. This approach allowed the chain of connections to be determined between different actors, thus leading to advances both in theory and in practice since what explains the functioning (or not) of this relationship was highlighted

The impact of new technology on the news production process in the newsroom

The change brought about by new technology in the television newsroom has become a key aspect of the development of the television industry in Iraqi-­‐ Kurdistan; since the newsroom has begun to adopt a new automated system, it has particularly shaped journalists’ practice and the method of news production within their workplace network. This change has led to the creation of a new form of journalistic practice, particularly with regard to multi-­‐skills, multi-­‐ media and multi-­‐tasks within the newsroom network. Hence, these technological changes have provided the news practitioner with more opportunities to obtain a detailed understanding of their practices, interactions and actions. This research project provides an ethnographic account of newsroom culture and journalists’ practice using automation and non-­‐automation systems (see, chapter two distinction) in two Kurdish news channels in Iraqi-­‐Kurdistan. It draws upon in-­‐depth interviews with journalists; non-­‐participant observation and collected documentation related to the research questions. The current research project is based upon two models: One is Community of Practice (COP)(see chapter 3), developed by Etienne Wenger (1998) and Jean Lave (1991). The COP approach provides a focus on subjects related to the workplace culture, mutual engagement, identity of the members, shared history of learning, exchange of information, experience and shared knowledge. The other is the Actor-­‐Network Theory (ANT) (Bruno Latour, 1992. Michel Callon, 1992. John Law, others), which offers a better means of carrying out an examination related to socio-­‐technical phenomena in the newsroom network (see chapter 3). The ANT approach is suitable for discovering the interactions and relationships between heterogeneous actors (human and nonhuman) in the workplace network. The research project examines how Kurdish newsroom practice and culture and journalists deal with new technology within the framework of the workplace. Alongside this, the project addresses the key characteristics and compared automation and non-­‐automation systems when conducting news practice in the newsroom. In this context, the research investigates the roles of journalists in each system and their everyday interactions and practices in their particular circumstances. This study examines journalists’ relationships and involvement in their workplace learning, their interaction within their community, their understanding of their practice and the shaping of their production in the newsroom network. In addition, this study looks at the extent to which new technology has a role in improving the skills that journalists need to conduct their profession. To achieve this, the researcher has conducted in-­‐depth interviews newsroom journalists and news workers working for two TV channels, GK and KNN. The findings show that the use of new technology in the KNN newsroom has had a big impact on the news practice and everyday life of journalists in the workplace, particularly, in comparison with the findings from the non-­‐ automation system used in the GK channel. The overall responses to these questions in the interviews reveal that the automated newsroom has impacted on news management production, and has increased the amount of news production, interaction of news workers, and exchange of experience and knowledge within the framework of their environment. However, there was no increase in news production associated with the non-­‐automation system used in the GK newsroom network