Knowledge Management and Entrepreneurship Cases in India

Entrepreneurs in general, do contribute to the development of national economies. We need their innovation and risk-taking to create wealth, generate employment and fuel the economy. Hence, knowledge management – both soft and hard is crucial. The benefits of great entrepreneurial venture using the most advanced technology can be nullified by poor knowledge management practices. It is knowledge and management that is the link between success and growth. The key objective of this chapter is to explain different perspectives on what is meant by the Knowledge Management (KM) in relation to entrepreneurship through two cases from India. It is essential that research and policy development fully take into account the differing perspectives of entrepreneurship and knowledge as no single definition fully captures the concepts, nor their underlying assumptions. The chapter focuses on understanding KM as a tool for developing competitive edge and identifies areas of KM application for entrepreneurship success.

Knowledge Management to Promote Organizational Change in India

This chapter contributes to the literature of knowledge management by providing a conceptual framework to promote organizational change. The chapter demonstrates that knowledge management can be used as a general framework which integrates the approaches of strategic and change management. A business company is an organization that must continually respond to environmental change and adjust to fluctuations to gain competitive advantage. Business intelligence produces tacit and explicit information about the markets that are used in the strategy process. The tools of change management provided in this chapter can be used in different kinds of organisations to increase competitiveness for the future. In addition, this chapter presents cases of successful change management. This chapter is useful for those who want to enhance change to increase competitive advantage of companies and other organisations.

Perceptions of Factors Influencing Knowledge-based Technology Management in Conflict Areas

A challenge for developing countries is to enter the global economy. This is impeded by weak infrastructure, poor educational and other formidable barriers as these countries embark on essential projects to improve living standards and ultimately create some sort of technological base. This chapter describes perceptions of knowledge-based technology management in Afghanistan, one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Afghanistan’s politics and history have always confronted managers with unique demands. The chapter examines the perceptions of Afghan managers regarding technology management by studying the relationship between the importance of different factors in managing new technology, and the extent to which a manager can control them. An importance-control grid framework is used to isolate individual parameters and to assess these in relation to a manager’s environment. The research highlights imbalances between importance and control, and suggests reasons therefore. Some broader implications for managers are also discussed.

Understanding the Behavior of Knowledge Management Pathways

Within small-size firms, it is too difficult to understand how the process of knowledge transfer happens. It is through a close observation of their mind-set and ethos that it is possible to construct a conceptual map of their transfer of knowledge processes. Within the present case; the relations among footwear manufacturers enabled the generation and sharing of knowledge. Thus, this chapter seeks to introduce the behavior of knowledge management and its source by studying the social behavior of micro-entrepreneurs from Peru and Brazil that create relationships, practice communities and other forms of knowledge sharing. Best knowledge-based practices emerged from the adaptation and imitation from others. Three ways were recognized: distance-to-market; distance-to-consumer, and inner circle. And, three ways of social memory creation within the core of the small-firms were observed: memory of product, market report and social memory.

Knowledge Management Enablers and Knowledge Sharing Process

In the knowledge based economy era, the success of an organization lies more in its intellectual capital and system capabilities than its physical assets and financial capital. Therefore, professional intellects such as lawyers, doctors, systems analysts, accountants are an important source of intelligence for most organizations. Knowledge Management (KM) in a public sector organization can take advantage the transfer and sharing process of experiences, ideas and expertise of the organization’s professional intellects for the organization’s knowledge assets with the support of information technology. Therefore, this chapter presents the knowledge sharing model that interconnects KM enablers and knowledge sharing process for KM implementation success in the public sector accounting organization in Malaysia. Survey questionnaires were used as the main instrument to collect data from all public sector accountants working in the Accountant General’s Department (AGD) which is an accounting specialist department of the Federal Government in Malaysia. This selected knowledge intensive accounting organization has a large pool of public sector accountants and the core competencies of the organization are to provide timely accounting information and quality accounting services to all agencies of the Federal Government. Therefore, knowledge management (KM) in this case study organization is concerned with the flow of accounting knowledge during the sharing process of public sector accountants and getting value through the knowledge flow for the organizational performance. Since the main task of the AGD is heavily related to accounting process and technology for its financial data integrity, the statistical results of this case study research provide evidence that knowledge sharing technology has a high significant impact on the knowledge sharing performance as compared to other moderate significant factors such as leadership roles to create knowledge sharing culture, ICT skills and know-how of accountants and the ICT infrastructure and software for the accounting information system.

HRM Adaptation to Knowledge Management Initiatives

Organizational knowledge and human capital are increasingly regarded as key levers of competitive advantage in today’s global, dynamic and complex business environment. People are the ultimate knowledge creators and bearers; although organizations may have memory systems, they do not think by themselves. Human resource management (HRM) has a strategic role facilitating knowledge management (KM) initiatives, specifically in activities such as: recruitment, training and compensation. Although many studies raise the question of how HRM shapes KM, limited research in Latin America has explored this matter. This chapter aims to explore how HRM policies and practices have been designed in three organizations located in Mexico, in order to support KM initiatives. The findings suggest that the strategic role of HRM in supporting KM initiatives must be expanded. HRM policies, practices, and compensation systems, such as incentives and bonus packages to motivate employees to create and share knowledge, need to be redefined. Recruitment, selection and, training and development must be tailored to obtain a successful implementation of the KM program.

Cross-Cultural Knowledge Management Practices to Support Offshore Outsourcing

In offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) arrangements between US client firms and Indian vendor firms, a ”culture gap” has been reported between the organizations. This gap originates from (1) macro level differences between the two firms in their operating procedures and (2) micro level differences in the cultural proclivity of the individual workers. This gap often hinders the much needed bi-directional knowledge sharing in the outsourcing organization. To close this gap and improve knowledge sharing, effective organizational practices are needed. This chapter studies a case where a set of technical support processes were outsourced by an US based multinational client to an Indian vendor. Data was collected using interviews of client-side, process and business managers to understand what challenges were faced in the organization after BPO and what practices facilitated cross cultural knowledge sharing. A set of organizational enablers and collaboration tools were reported by the interviewees to be successful in bridging the gaps and enhancing bi-directional knowledge sharing. This case demonstrates the benefits of three organizational practices – (1) bridging, (2) bonding and (3) linking, that build social capital in the form of relational norms and connections among workers. These relational practices, together with social capital, complement the use of collaboration tools and technologies to improve knowledge sharing between the client and vendor teams.

Knowledge Management in High-Growth Companies

This case study describes knowledge management practices in Mozzartbet, the major and fastest growing division of Stepanovic & Šipka Corporation. Mozzartbet started as sport betting business in 2001. Since then, Mozzartbet’s size has increased a few hundred times in just eight years and knowledge increase followed that pace. It can therefore be an example of knowledge management practices in high-growth companies. Technical, organizational and behavioral practices, successes and problems of knowledge management in Mozzartbet are covered, and future plans of top managers in that area are revealed. In this case study the authors describe a relaxed, academic-like organizational culture, organizational structure, strategy of development, industry and regional environment, and other internal and external factors important for knowledge management. Afterwards they present conclusions about knowledge management in Mozzartbet and future directions, according to contingency approach.

Knowledge Management Practices in Brazilian Software Organizations

This chapter explores knowledge management practices in a software organization. It argues that software companies are knowledge intensive organizations and therefore they must properly address the matter of knowledge management. This case study highlights the importance of understanding the practices of knowledge management and describes knowledge acquisition, protection, transfer, and application practices in the context of a Brazilian software organization. The authors hope that this chapter increases understanding of existing knowledge practices in software organizations.

Production Competence and Knowledge Generation for Technology Transfer

The ability to execute the physical part of manufacturing will assume greater importance as new technology and knowledge become significant drivers of strategic direction. The case studies described in this chapter address the interaction between technology transfers (TT), production competence and knowledge in enhancing performance in manufacturing organizations. Reference to British and South African case studies provides a useful comparison of production competence in the developed and developing world. In both countries, operators and maintainers lacked detailed knowledge of equipment functionality and performance parameters. United Kingdom (UK) companies demonstrated a deeper understanding of fundamental principles of the underlying production process, enabling them to remedy production deficiencies more thoroughly. South African companies showed greater management commitment to training and group solving approaches.