The continuous recombination of codification and personalisation km strategies: A retrospective study

It is increasingly considered important to understand how companies plan their Knowledge Management (KM) strategy. The literature provides evidence that there may be different possible approaches to KM strategy. A significant distinction has been made between "codification" and "personalization". Sometimes, these two approaches have been seen to be alternative to one another. In other cases scholars argued that a company can follow a strategy that mixes the two approaches depending on diverse intertwined factors. Still, on this topic, the literature provides various and sometimes contrasting results that need clarification and confirmation. Especially, there is the need to understand if changes in internal and external conditions may induce modifications in a firm's KM strategy.The goal of the study is to analyse how the mix of codification and personalisation can vary over time in the same company, due to changing organizational and environmental conditions. With this purpose, the evolution of KM initiatives of a multinational company was investigated. The findings of the study confirm that the strategic mix can change over the years due to modifications in the factors of the company's internal and external context. Furthermore, the case shows that the different factors have different weight and play a different role in influencing such changes. Specifically, in the investigated case, the factors related to the competitive context affected the evolution of the KM strategy more significantly than internal factors (which were just enablers or constraints of the evolutionary path). In addition, the study shows that this classic distinction between codification and personalization may not be easy to use in practical terms, due to the complexity of KM activities and needs in a company: This point can represent a fresh start of a future research agenda

Scientific Associations as communities of practice for fostering collaborative knowledge building: Case study of IAKM

Knowledge building is a social process that is driven by the willingness of people to share their expertise and create new knowledge. Scientific Communities of Practice (CoPs) are communities of professors and researchers whose aim is to foster scientific knowledge generation. In the KM literature, research concerning this kind of CoPs has been substantially neglected so far. The present research analyses the case study of the International Association for Knowledge Management (IAKM) seen as a scientific CoP where members are mostly academics with research interests in developing and promoting knowledge management. Based on a collection of quantitative and qualitative data about member collaborations and scientific production, the study investigates the structure of interactions and the collaborative processes of IAKM members and the specific mechanisms of knowledge building within this CoP, seen as a paradigmatic example of scientific community. Members were asked to respond to a survey regarding their collaborative activities carried out with other IAKM members in the period of 2011 - 2020. The descriptive analysis revealed the kind of collaborations, the distribution of interactions across the community, and the dynamic patterns over time. A follow-up social network analysis was used to provide deeper insight into the community structure and dynamics. The research found that a CoP can really be useful for progress in a scientific field because it can provide a platform for trust and mutual acquaintance that reduces barriers to collaboration and knowledge building across different universities, professional roles, countries, and cultures, which is increasingly important for the progress of science. Most importantly, IAKM exhibited a cohesive and active core membership with pivotal roles played by a number of active members, which contributed significantly to the growth of the Association and, in general, to the advancements in the field of KM through collaborative knowledge building

Knowledge management processes and innovation phases: insights from metalworking SMEs

The paper analyses how SMEs manage the knowledge needed to carry out innovation, focusing on how the various knowledge management (KM) processes (acquisition, documentation, sharing, application) come into play during the different phases of the innovation process (idea generation, ideas selection, project development, launch). In fact, little is known about the KM processes and practices that SMEs employ during their innovation activities. Given the novelty of the issue, a multiple case study was carried out on 13 innovative projects implemented by as many Italian manufacturing SMEs. Empirical evidence shows that all KM processes play a role in the various phases of the innovation process, but this role changes from phase to phase. Furthermore, the study highlights that the practices used in the various processes may vary in relation to the type of innovation that is being developed. Lastly, it confirms that SMEs tend to adopt an informal and emergent KM approach

Enterprise social networks for knowledge sharing: Lessons from a medium-sized company

The use of Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) as knowledge management tools has been widely investigated in case of big organizations, while there is little knowledge about advantages and possible implementation problems in small and medium-sized enterprises. To fill this gap, the paper analyses the case of adoption and use of the Yammer platform by a medium-sized Italian company. Yammer is an ESN service platform owned by Microsoft which includes several Web 2.0 features and whose interface resembles a typical public social network like Facebook. The research applied a quantitative approach: A questionnaire was submitted to all users of the ESN platform in the company between January and February 2017, with a response rate of 41%. The study contributes to the literature on social media as KM tools, by providing insights into the possible barriers that can undermine the success of ESN platforms as KM tools in the context of medium-sized enterprises. Specifically, it highlights that two factors (intrinsically connected to the size of the company) are particularly crucial: The limited number of users, and a sort of na\uefve ("me-too") implementation strategy. An important lesson is that the success of ESNs in medium-sized enterprise is influenced by personal (individual) and organizational factors, even more than technical ones. Especially, the need to reach a minimum critical mass of users can be a challenge. A limitation of the study is that it investigated only one company operating in a sector with specific knowledge needs and capabilities

Knowledge management and learning for innovation in smes

Knowledge is commonly considered the key ingredient of innovation, and hence the effectiveness of innovation activities depends on how companies manage their learning processes. This requires that companies fill their “knowledge gaps” and reduce uncertainty regarding various innovation-related issues about technical, economic, and market aspects. Especially in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), there is evidence that companies go through learning processes and manage innovation-related knowledge, but this is often done in an informal and substantially “unconscious” way. In particular, the adoption and use of systematic knowledge management (KM) practices for collecting, creating, and exploiting useful knowledge is scarcely diffused among SMEs. This topic deserves further investigation, considering that those companies are an essential part of the economy. By investigating a sample of 12 cases of innovative projects in SMEs, this study examines the critical KM issues in innovation implementation. The goals are: a) to detect and categorize the need of companies to fill their knowledge gaps in relation to the various elements and activities that are involved in the innovation process; b) to examine what KM practices are adopted and the success or limits of these practices; and c) to investigate whether and how systematic KM approaches are or can be used to effectively perform these learning processes, and the possible problems in their adoption. The study contributes to the literature about KM in SMEs, especially in relation to innovation. From a practical point of view, it offers food for thought to SME managers about the key role played by knowledge in the innovation processes and about how to better manage it

Collaboration for innovation in small KIBS companies: Implications for knowledge management

The development and introduction of innovations in small KIBS (Knowledge Intensive Business Services) companies raises significant challenges in terms of knowledge management (KM). In the case of small KIBS, especially due to the lack of resources and managerial attitudes. KIBS companies may need to engage in knowledge exchanges with other business partners for the development of common projects, which, in turn, brings up specific KM issues. The paper explores the special KM problems emerging in the management of knowledge exchanges between two small KIBS companies collaborating for the development of a service innovation for the HORECA (Hotel-Restaurant-Catering) sector that consists of an online platform for clients. The case shows that, on the one hand, it was not possible, for the company, to develop all the knowledge that was necessary for delivering the service (especially, the company lacked technical competencies). On the other hand, it was difficult to simply acquire this knowledge "on the market". Eventually, a joint venture was established with another small KIBS provider of online services. The basic idea was to integrate and exploit the different specializations and complementary knowledge of the two companies, for a common business goal. But, as the case shows, this operation of joining and integrating different pieces of knowledge possessed by the two distinct companies is all but easy, and it requires proper conditions that may be hard to find in real situations. The study thus gives useful lessons for KM research and business management of small KIBS companies

The continuous recombination of codification and personalisation KM strategies: A longitudinal study

The notion of Knowledge Management (KM) strategy has long attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners. The literature provides evidence of different possible KM strategies. Particularly, an important distinction has been made between codification and personalization. While these can be seen to be alternative to one another, some studies argue that a company can follow a strategy that mixes the two approaches. The effective combination of personalization and codification may depend on the interaction of diverse factors, such as competition, leadership, politics, culture, technology. On this issue, however, the literature still provides mixed and sometimes contrasting results. Furthermore, available empirical studies are based on case studies of the KM strategic approach of one or more companies at a specific point in time. Instead, it may be interesting to check if conditions that change through time may also induce changes in a firm\u2019s KM strategy. This study aims to analyse how the mix of codification and personalisation can vary over time in the same company, due to changing organizational and environmental conditions. With this purpose, the evolution of KM initiatives of a multinational company has been investigated. The findings not only add to what already emerged in previous literature, but also better highlight the interrelations between the various factors that influence these changes. Lastly, the study raises the question of whether the classic distinction between codification and personalization strategies has still a practical usefulness or is just a simple abstract reference: this point can represent a fresh start of a future research agenda

Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Knowledge Management

Proceedings della 19^ edizione della Conferenza ECK

Collaborative knowledge building: The case of iakm as a scientific community of practice (cop)

This study addresses the special context of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in the case of scientists and academics, which is still a little studied environment. The paper considers the case of Scientific Associations and, particularly, the International Association for Knowledge Management (IAKM). As will be examined in the paper, IAKM (www.iakm.net) can be considered as a sort of CoP for the international community of KM researchers. It was established in 2012 with a mission to address existing challenges in knowledge management (KM) research, and to contribute to a unified view of KM. This study analyzes the structure and collaborative processes of IAKM members to better understand the community's knowledge development behaviour and performance. It combines a qualitative representation of the "history" of IAKM and its salient characteristics and milestones as a CoP and a quantitative analysis of data on collaborative activities, collected from all IAKM members via email. Members were asked to fill in a spreadsheet form with the following data for each of their collaborative activities carried out in the period 2011-2020: (a) collaborating members, (b) type of collaboration, (c) year when carried out and (d) short description of collaborative activity. The initial analysis was performed by simple frequency count. A follow-up social network analysis (SNA) was used to provide deeper insight into the community dynamics. The initial analysis revealed some interesting points, in particular concerning the kind of collaboration, the distribution of interactions across the community, and the dynamic patterns of these interactions over time. Overall, these findings contributed to our enhanced understanding of the nature of a scientific association as a CoP, and how it informed KM-related scholarship over the past decade. Specifically, the study found that IAKM exhibited a cohesive and active core membership that contributed significantly to the development of the field. The study also pointed to areas for further improvement that could serve as a basis for future planning of scientific associations as CoPs