Case Study: The Process Portal – Process-as-a-Service Central Platform for Work-, Information- and Knowledge Processes in the Company

Technical consulting plays an increasingly important role in developing and transferring knowledge in a wide range of industries and sectors. We present a case study of Swift Tech, a leading Scandinavian technical consulting firm, to identify and assess the importance of knowledge cycling—a knowledge process based on scheduled and recurrent rotation of technical consultants among organizational and problem-solving contexts. Our study identifies four main phases of knowledge cycling: entering an assignment, building experience, contributing to the project, and shifting to a new assignment. These phases underpin our model of knowledge cycling, which demonstrates that two aspects of local knowledge processes are critical: project task familiarization and project organization familiarization. We show that knowledge cycling relies on a dynamic interaction between client organization, consulting firm, and individual consultant in the ongoing transfer of knowledge among distinct contexts and communities. Knowledge cycling demonstrates the significance of “mobile knowledge” for the development of situated knowledge; hence, our results have important implications for situated learning theory.

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Managing Information Technology Component of Knowledge Management

Global Information Technologies ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-939-7.ch200 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 2774-2795 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Adekunle Okunoye

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Knowledge Management ◽

Core Competencies ◽

The Other ◽

Technology Infrastructure ◽

Organizational Variables ◽

Information Technology Infrastructure ◽

Knowledge Processes ◽

Organizational Information

Information technology and social-cultural, organizational variables are considered major components to support knowledge processes in knowledge management. These components have to be carefully managed and be supported in balanced proportion for organization to create and retain greater value from their core competencies. The peculiar situation of developing countries, where there is lack of adequate information technology infrastructure, emphasizes the importance of strategic management of organizational information technology. Using a case study, we discuss the possibility of outsourcing the management of the information technology in order to have more focus on the other components in knowledge management.

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Combining Technologies' Properties to Cope with Uncertainty

International Journal of E-Entrepreneurship and Innovation ◽

10.4018/ijeei.2016010101 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 1-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cécile Godé ◽

Pierre Barbaroux

Keyword(s):

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Communication Technologies ◽

Basic Material ◽

Special Forces ◽

Team Members ◽

Text Chat ◽

Knowledge Processes ◽

Knowledge Types ◽

Information And Communication

This article investigates how teams aim at harnessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to coordinate under uncertainty. An explorative case study analyses the way NATO Special Forces use text-chat in Afghanistan. The findings suggest that team members combine basic material properties, knowledge processes and knowledge types to cope with various forms of uncertainty. Such combinations might trigger the emergence of unexpected biases which, in turn, generate mitigated final results. Building on the authors' findings, they develop a model of ICTs' uses based on the concepts of emergence and combination.

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African Shenzhen: China's special economic zones in Africa

The Journal of Modern African Studies ◽

10.1017/s0022278x10000649 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 49 (1) ◽

pp. 27-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 125

Author(s):

Deborah Bräutigam ◽

Tang Xiaoyang

Keyword(s):

Developmental State ◽

Development Cooperation ◽

Chinese Government ◽

Chinese Enterprises ◽

New Approach ◽

Social Challenges ◽

Central Platform ◽

Political Economic ◽

Economic Zones

ABSTRACTThis article examines recent Chinese efforts to construct a series of official economic cooperation zones in Africa. These zones are a central platform in China's announced strategy of engagement in Africa as ‘mutual benefit’. We analyse the background, motives and implementation of the zones, and argue that they form a unique, experimental model of development cooperation in Africa: market-based decisions and investment by Chinese companies are combined with support and subsidies from an Asian ‘developmental state’. Though this cooperation provides a promising new approach to sustainable industrialisation, we also identify serious political, economic and social challenges. Inadequate local learning and local participation could affect the ability of the zones to catalyse African industrialisation. The synergy between Chinese enterprises, the Chinese government and African governments has been evolving through practice. A case study of Egypt provides insight into this learning process.

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Architecting an Enterprise Data Lake, A Covid19 Case Study

Journal of Software ◽

10.17706/jsw.16.4.174-181 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174-181

Author(s):

Bushra ◽

◽

Mohsin Ali Memon ◽

Salahuddin Saddar

Keyword(s):

Metadata Management ◽

Business Analytics ◽

Data Governance ◽

Business Decision ◽

Central Platform ◽

Rate Of Increase ◽

Access Controls ◽

Data Lifecycle ◽

Lifecycle Management

Data is increasing at an enormous rate every day. Traditionally data has resided in silosacross any organization,so it’s difficult to have a complete picture for data driven business decision making. Data lake addresses the problem of rate of increase of data by providing “schema on read”, better integration and cheaper storage. It also solves the data silos problemby providing a central platform for a variety of data housing needs. However, implementing a data lake becomes challenging as the implementation needs to address the additional needs like metadata management, data discovery, data governance, data lifecycle management, security and centralized access controls mechanisms. This paper intends to provide a comprehensive architecture of data lake to address these challenges. We have also conducted and documented our experiments with publicly available datasets about COVID19 to validate the design and applicability of the proposed architecture for business analytics purposes.

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Shaping the Noosphere: Geoethical values and spiritual resistance in Terres de l’Ebre, Catalonia, Spain

Resistances. Journal of the Philosophy of History ◽

10.46652/resistances.v2i3.38 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. e210038

Author(s):

Francesc Bellaubi

Keyword(s):

Natural World ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Human Beings ◽

Human Community ◽

Knowledge Processes ◽

Ecological Justice ◽

Spiritual Activism ◽

Spiritual Resistance

The concept of the Noosphere is of great importance when looking at the values underpinning the technocratic artifacts and technocracies (human physical technological objects and knowledge processes) by which Humans relate to the Geosphere through other human beings. In this sense, the Noosphere may inform geoethics as an environmental, social, and spiritual praxis and thinking aiming at ecological justice. The concept of the Noosphere represents the coexistence and coevolution of Humans and the Geosphere, overcoming the dichotomy between instrumental materialistic and intrinsic ecocentric values but considering the meaning of a constitutive dimension. Thus, the Noosphere becomes a concept for reconnection with the human community, the natural world, and the Divine, and develops into an ecological mysticism that, in turn, unfolds in resistance in hope as a kind of spiritual activism. The theoretical framework is illustrated with the case study of the Terres de L’Ebre in Catalonia (Spain).

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Slow Knowledge

Knowledge Management Innovations for Interdisciplinary Education ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-1969-2.ch014 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 274-297

Author(s):

John Tull

Keyword(s):

Absorptive Capacity ◽

Information Access ◽

Key Factors ◽

Capability Development ◽

Daily News ◽

Daily Work ◽

Knowledge Practices ◽

Organisational Capabilities ◽

Knowledge Processes

Breathless announcements of the latest information access devices occupy whole sections of our daily news, itself increasingly accessed online and on-the-go. This reinforces to the manager or educator the conventional wisdom that strategies for developing organisational capabilities inherently involve ever-quicker access and sharing of information—a belief reflected widely in organisational learning and strategy literatures. However, Knowledge Management’s role in translating learning into performance-enhancing capabilities remains opaque; “macro” evaluations are too abstract, leading to recent calls for empirical or “micro” studies. Furthermore, while rare breakthroughs attract headlines and research, customers and clients are mostly won or lost in the more mundane interactions of daily work. The evolution of organisational capabilities and how they rely on the medium of knowledge practices can be unpacked using the construct of an organisation’s “absorptive capacity,” a construct essentially unknown to KM. That construct can be improved by incorporating “tempo” as a crucial design and governance element. Analysing KM practices as supporting absorptive capacity is a new idea that provides both the manager and the educator with implementable recommendations. A detailed case study identifies the four key factors of capability development via KM, highlighting that “slow knowledge”—gearing knowledge processes to the appropriate absorptive capacity framework—can yield more effective organisational outcomes.

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Managing Information Technology Component of Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-933-5.ch218 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 2670-2679

Author(s):

Adekunle Okunoye

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Knowledge Management ◽

Core Competencies ◽

The Other ◽

Technology Infrastructure ◽

Organizational Variables ◽

Information Technology Infrastructure ◽

Knowledge Processes ◽

Organizational Information

Information technology and social-cultural, organizational variables are considered major components to support knowledge processes in knowledge management. These components have to be carefully managed and be supported in balanced proportion for organization to create and retain greater value from their core competencies. The peculiar situation of developing countries, where there is lack of adequate information technology infrastructure, emphasizes the importance of strategic management of organizational information technology. Using a case study, we discuss the possibility of outsourcing the management of the information technology in order to have more focus on the other components in knowledge management.

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Mobilizing to Advance Creative Projects: NewCar’s Prototype Parts Purchasing Activity

Getting New Things Done ◽

10.11126/stanford/9780804760508.003.0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

David Obstfeld

Keyword(s):

Field Data ◽

Contingency Management ◽

Ethnographic Case Study ◽

Knowledge Processes ◽

Knowledge Articulation ◽

Cowboy Culture

This chapter illustrates the BKAP model through an extended ethnographic case to show how network and knowledge processes interact to produce project-based innovation. An ethnographic case study in the same automotive setting found in Chapter 4 illustrates the emergence of creative projects launched in pursuit of innovation. Specifically, this chapter depicts how an automobile manufacturer’s prototype parts purchasing routine contrasts with two creative projects undertaken to redesign it. The chapter elaborates how trajectory strategy, consisting of the trajectory projection and scheme, and trajectory management, consisting of knowledge articulation, brokerage activity, and an additional category emerging from the author’s field data—contingency management—impact the two projects’ adoption. To lay the groundwork for how the two creative projects emerged, the author describes the “cowboy culture” presented in the Introduction, a culture imprinted within NewCar that gave rise to behaviors through which creative projects were pursued.

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A Process-Oriented and Technology-Based Model of Virtual Communities of Practices

Web-Based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-711-9.ch017 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 249-262

Author(s):

Giustina Secundo ◽

Gianluca Elia ◽

Cesare Taurino

Keyword(s):

Virtual Communities ◽

Virtual Community ◽

Point Of View ◽

Just In Time ◽

Community Members ◽

Management Platform ◽

Knowledge Processes ◽

The People ◽

Process Oriented

This paper hypothesizes that Virtual Community of Practices (VCoPs) are valuable to Business Schools and Universities because they contribute to the emerging paradigms of just-in-time, action based and informal learning. It presents a real case study of a VCoPs called “Virtual eBMS”, that was built by applying the participative observation (Yin, 1994). In particular, the paper provides a process-oriented model of the “Virtual eBMS”, that is composed by four main elements: The People participating in the community, the Processes and the Purpose of the community in terms of value created for the Business School, and the Technology enabling the interactions between the community members. Indeed, from a technological point of view, the community is supported by an integrated Web Learning and Knowledge Management platform, described in terms of the main knowledge processes triggered and the correspondent technologies supporting the actions. Finally, the work presents some preliminary results and the value created through the use of the “Virtual eBMS”.

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