Consequences of Implementing Knowledge Management Initaitives in Different Organizational Subcultures

Organizations implementing knowledge management (KM) initiatives are concerned with promoting sharing and transferring of knowledge, within and across different organizational units. Thus, gaining a deeper awareness of the diverse viewpoints and attributes of the various organizational units is one of the important challenges facing organization-wide knowledge management (KM) interventions. It is imperative for large organizations to be sensitive to the inherent differences within different units and align their KM strategies so that the differences are suitably reflected and accommodated in the organization-wide KM strategy. In this context, this paper focuses on the KM strategies of Infosys Technologies, a leading Indian software services and products company recognised globally as a successful KM exponent. Adopting the case study methodology, we conducted an intensive two-month study at Infosys and looked at the consequences of initiating organization-wide KM in two different organizational Business units (BU). Evidence from the case highlights the unfolding of unintended and intended consequences in the two units, and organizational efforts to reconcile them. Taking a subcultural perspective of the two units offered useful insights into the consequences. The Theoretical and managerial contributions of the study to the KM arena are discussed

Escalation and De-Escalation of Commitment to Information Systems Projects: Insights from an Approach-Avoidance Process Model

ICIS 2006 Proceedings - Twenty Seventh International Conference on Information Systems19-3

The roles of opportunity processes in a social business model: insights from China’s e-commerce villages

A social enterprise connects a social purpose with economic rationality and market-based approaches to solve recognized social needs. However, opportunities often far outstrip the resources available to address these needs, making the design of a social business model challenging. It has been suggested that opportunity processes in a social enterprise enable economic, social, and environmental resources to reinforce one another in novel ways. Based on an in-depth case study of a large social enterprise in China, we find that opportunity processes are important components of a social business model. New opportunities are created deliberately while building a social business model, leading to the large-scale mobilization of participation in e-commerce activities. We differentiate endogenous and exogenous opportunities to clarify the roles of various opportunity processes. This study potentially enriches our knowledge of the relationships between opportunity processes and the construction of a successful social business model in the context of e-commerce

An Information Processing Perspective of Digital Social Innovation: Insights from China’s Taobao Villages

Digital social innovation describes new IT-enabled solutions that simultaneously meet a social need and enhance capacity to act. It is an emergent stream of social innovation research and a response to growing social, environmental and demographic challenges. Despite its importance, academic literature is still undeveloped, with ill-defined theoretical boundaries and no coherent knowledge. To address this gap, this study examines how information processing capabilities enable digital social innovation. We conduct an empirical case study on Qing Yan Liu, China’s leading Taobao e-commerce village, an emerging digital social innovation and economic phenomenon in China. From interview data collected from netrepreneurs, we construct a research model that posits information literacy, information immediacy and information liberty, as the required information processing capabilities to achieve digital social innovation. The model represents the first step to better understanding the interrelationships between digital social innovation, netrepreneurs, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship

IT-Enabled Social Innovation in China’s Taobao Villages: The Role of Netrepreneurs

We present a model of IT-enabled social innovation. Our model draws on the theoretical lens of social shaping of technology and the role of villagers-turned-netrepreneurs, as reference actors in the context of rural e-commerce development. The model is built on stage-wise observations of intermediary roles that villagers play and how these roles enhance or decrease in importance in the biography of rural to e-commerce villages’ transformations across China in recent years. In this research-in-progress paper, we present a case study of Daji, China’s first “Taobao performance costumes town”, located in rural Shandong province. Our preliminary model prescribes three mechanisms− advancing, authenticating and attaching−that are enacted by reference actors in the process of negotiating rural e-commerce development and resurrecting heritage in their communities. Our model builds on conjectural discussion in recent IS research on the expanding role of the users in influencing the development of IT-enabled social innovation

Digital Enablement: Social Media in Empowering the Grassroot Environmental Movement of Malaysia

This study examines the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in mobilizing grassroot environmental movements. In recent years, the rise of social media has allowed the community to assume the role of driver without relying on central and formal leadership in people movements. Yet how this new form of technology enables grassroot organizing has remained theoretically obscure. This study provides an in-depth interpretive case study into an environmental movement in Malaysia, where people have rallied against a rare earth refinery plant that is feared would have posed environmental and health risks. By adopting empowerment as a theoretical lens, this paper focuses on understanding how social media empowers the community for grassroot mobilization from different dimensions, thus allowing a grassroot-driven environmental movement. The findings contribute to the literature of ICT-enabled sustainability and digitally empowered grassroot organizing

Managing information technology project escalation and de-escalation: An approach-avoidance perspective

10.1109/TEM.2008.922638IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management56176-94IEEM