Abstract: Knowledge-based e-mail systems focus on
incorporating knowledge management approach in order to enhance
the traditional e-mail systems. In this paper, we present a knowledgebased
e-mail system called KS-Mail where people do not only send
and receive e-mail conventionally but are also able to create a sense
of knowledge flow. We introduce semantic processing on the e-mail
contents by automatically assigning categories and providing links to
semantically related e-mails. This is done to enrich the knowledge
value of each e-mail as well as to ease the organization of the e-mails
and their contents. At the application level, we have also built
components like the service manager, evaluation engine and search
engine to handle the e-mail processes efficiently by providing the
means to share and reuse knowledge. For this purpose, we present the
KS-Mail architecture, and elaborate on the details of the e-mail
server and the application server. We present the ontology mapping
technique used to achieve the e-mail content-s categorization as well
as the protocols that we have developed to handle the transactions in
the e-mail system. Finally, we discuss further on the implementation
of the modules presented in the KS-Mail architecture.
Abstract: Science parks are often established to drive regional
economic growth, especially in countries with emerging economies.
However, mixed findings regarding the performances of science park
firms are found in the literature. This study tries to explain these
mixed findings by taking a relational approach and exploring
(un)intended knowledge transfers between new technology-based
firms (NTBFs) in the emerging South African economy. Moreover,
the innovation outcomes of these NTBFs are examined by using a
multi-dimensional construct. Results show that science park location
plays a significant role in explaining innovative sales, but is
insignificant when a different indicator of innovation outcomes is
used. Furthermore, only for innovations that are new to the firms,
both science park location and intended knowledge transfer via
informal business relationships have a positive impact; whereas
social relationships have a negative impact.
Abstract: Knowledge of an organization does not merely reside
in structured form of information and data; it is also embedded in
unstructured form. The discovery of such knowledge is particularly
difficult as the characteristic is dynamic, scattered, massive and
multiplying at high speed. Conventional methods of managing
unstructured information are considered too resource demanding and
time consuming to cope with the rapid information growth.
In this paper, a Multi-faceted and Automatic Knowledge
Elicitation System (MAKES) is introduced for the purpose of
discovery and capture of organizational knowledge. A trial
implementation has been conducted in a public organization to
achieve the objective of decision capture and navigation from a
number of meeting minutes which are autonomously organized,
classified and presented in a multi-faceted taxonomy map in both
document and content level. Key concepts such as critical decision
made, key knowledge workers, knowledge flow and the relationship
among them are elicited and displayed in predefined knowledge
model and maps. Hence, the structured knowledge can be retained,
shared and reused.
Conducting Knowledge Management with MAKES reduces work
in searching and retrieving the target decision, saves a great deal of
time and manpower, and also enables an organization to keep pace
with the knowledge life cycle. This is particularly important when
the amount of unstructured information and data grows extremely
quickly. This system approach of knowledge management can
accelerate value extraction and creation cycles of organizations.
Abstract: The literature has argued that firms based in industrial districts enjoy advantages for creating internal knowledge and absorbing external knowledge as a consequence of to the knowledge flows and spillovers that exist in the district. However, empirical evidence to show how belonging to an industrial district affects the business processes of creation and absorption of knowledge is scarce and, moreover, empirical research has not taken into account the influence of variations in the flows of knowledge circulating in each cluster. This study aims to extend empirical evidence on the effect that the stock of shared competencies in industrial districts has on the business processes of creation and absorption of knowledge, through data from an initial study on 952 firms and 35 industrial districts in Spain.
Abstract: Effective knowledge support relies on providing
operation-relevant knowledge to workers promptly and accurately. A
knowledge flow represents an individual-s or a group-s
knowledge-needs and referencing behavior of codified knowledge
during operation performance. The flow has been utilized to facilitate
organizational knowledge support by illustrating workers-
knowledge-needs systematically and precisely. However,
conventional knowledge-flow models cannot work well in cooperative
teams, which team members usually have diverse knowledge-needs in
terms of roles. The reason is that those models only provide one single
view to all participants and do not reflect individual knowledge-needs
in flows. Hence, we propose a role-based knowledge-flow view model
in this work. The model builds knowledge-flow views (or virtual
knowledge flows) by creating appropriate virtual knowledge nodes
and generalizing knowledge concepts to required concept levels. The
customized views could represent individual role-s knowledge-needs
in teamwork context. The novel model indicates knowledge-needs in
condensed representation from a roles perspective and enhances the
efficiency of cooperative knowledge support in organizations.