Industry dimensions of knowledge management: Insights from an industry study

Strong forces of competition and globalisation have created awareness and an urgency to focus how an organisation controls and nurtures its intellectual capital. The knowledge concept and its management have gained currency and momentum as technology has enabled thoughts and ideas to be more easily produced and distributed. With the increased application of recent technologies such as the Internet, CRM and advanced software capabilities, it has been suggested that the time has come for a debate on a new paradigm for knowledge management. As a contribution to this debate, this paper will examine exploratory research conducted in the Australian private hospital industry with a view to better understand issues related to knowledge management from an industry perspective

Knowledge dynamics in communities of practice

With the increased application of recent technologies such as the Internet, CRM and advanced software capabilities, it has been suggested that the time has come for a debate on a new paradigm for knowledge management. As a contribution to this debate, this paper will examine a case study of an outpatients clinic in an Australian public hospital with the objective of gaining a better understanding of the issues related to knowledge transaction in communities of practice. A tentative knowledge dynamics model is proposed to stimulate discussion and future research

Strategic implication of quality management in health care

The considerable interest in quality management has filtered through to health-care organisations. It is now widely used as a basis for continuous operational and customer service improvement management. Although well accepted as an operational improvement tool, the role of quality in strategic management and marketing is less clear. Qualitative research was undertaken within one of Australia's largest private health care providers for the purpose of exploring the role that quality management plays in its operations. Interviews revealed that the organisation's major emphasis on continuous quality management had yielded significant strategic results since its inception. These included an industry first, five-year term accreditation, high-level standing with government, the medical profession and practitioners, health insurance companies and research institutions. Notwithstanding the benefits realised to date, there was a perceived need continuously to evaluate quality management against objective criteria and to integrate the process better with mainstream strategic management activities of the organisatio

Including customers in co-design to market test health services

This paper will explore the concept and meaning of service co design as it applies to the design, development and market testing ofhealth services. The results of a pilot study in health service co design will be used as a research based case discussion, thus providing a platform to suggest future research that could lead to building more robust knowledge of how the consumers of health services may be more effectively involved in the process of developing and delivering the type of services that are in line with expectations of the various stakeholder groups

The importance of trust in relationship marketing and the impact of self services technologies

Technology has dramatically altered the way businesses operate in a Business-to-Business (B2B) context and has had profound influences on services, altering the way services are delivered (Bitner, Ostrom & Meuter, 2002). The increased use of self-service technologies (SSTs) could have a great impact on B2B relationships, yet there is little understanding of this in the literature. In the 1980s and 90s, a shift in marketing focus has seen an increased emphasis on Relationship Marketing (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). This conceptual paper seeks to explain relationship marketing, and the importance of building trust in order to develop a relationship marketing approach. Many authors stress the importance of trust in relationships, however, does not consider the impact of self service technologies on relationships. Further research is needed to understand the impact of SSTs on relationship marketing