Alton Yeow-Kuan Chua

Why KM projects fail: a multi‐case analysis

Purpose – This paper attempts to understand the reasons for knowledge management (KM) project failure.Design/methodology/approach – Five well‐documented cases of KM project failure in the current literature are reviewed. For each case, the authors examine the circumstantial elements of the failure, including the rationale and intended objectives of the KM project, the outcomes of the project and the reasons that led to project failure.Findings – From the review, two observations are made. First, KM failure factors fall into four distinct categories, namely, technology, culture, content, and project management. Second, KM projects can be traced along a three‐stage lifecycle, comprising initiation, implementation, and integration.Research limitations/implications – The findings are discussed and finally synthesized into a model of KM project failure. The model serves as a starting‐point for future research in KM project implementation.Practical implications – Practitioners may use the model as a risk identi...

Knowledge management system architecture: a bridge between KM consultants and technologists

Many scholars and practitioners recognise the power of technology in supporting knowledge management (KM) activities. However, in most KM literatures, the discussion on related technology is either given cursory treatment or confined largely to product-specific features. This reflects a division between KM consultants and KM technologists. For this reason, the objective of this paper is to develop a knowledge management systems architecture that seeks to bridge the gap between consultants and technologists. The architecture is intended to provide a common framework for both to review how technologies are used to support KM processes.

The influence of social interaction on knowledge creation

Examines the influence of social interaction on the process of knowledge creation. A cross‐sectional study was conducted in an Institute of Higher Education to determine the relationship between the level of social interaction and the quality of the knowledge created. The knowledge creation process was operationalised for the curriculum development process while the quality of the knowledge created was operationalised for the quality of the modules developed. The findings show a positive correlation between the level of social interaction and the quality of the modules developed. Among the three dimensions of social interaction, the relational dimension was shown to be the strongest predictor to the quality of the modules developed. Practitioners are, therefore, advised to prioritise the development of the relational dimensions of the social interaction. In addition, the findings confirm the difficulty associated with knowledge measurement. Suggests that in measuring knowledge, meaningfulness and context take greater importance over objectivity.

Knowledge sharing: a game people play

Examines the dynamics of knowledge sharing using the multi‐person game‐theoretic framework. Proposes that an individual’s knowledge sharing tendency is driven by a set of contextualised concerns and interests not unlike the notion of payoff in game theory. Furthermore, the decision to share or withhold knowledge depends on that which yields a higher payoff. With this premise, submits two objectives. One is to investigate if an individual’s perceived payoff of sharing knowledge is contingent on the knowledge sharing behaviour of others. The other is to analyse the perceived payoff of knowledge sharing and determine if it can be characterised by an archetypical game in the game‐theoretic model. An empirical study was conducted among nearly 100 students in a local institute of higher education. The scope was confined to the students’ willingness to post asynchronous entries to an electronic discussion forum. Finds that the individual student’s perceived payoff of sharing knowledge was contingent on the knowledge sharing behaviour of others. Furthermore, the perceived payoff of knowledge sharing among them could be characterised by a multi‐person assurance game. In conclusion, discusses three implications for managers who aim to sustain asynchronous knowledge sharing in their organisations.

A checklist for evaluating open source digital library software

Purpose – Many open source software packages are available for organizations and individuals to create digital libraries (DLs). However, a simple to use instrument to evaluate these DL software packages does not exist. The objectives of the present work are to develop a checklist for DL evaluation and use this checklist on four DL software packages.Design/methodology/approach – Features that characterized “good” open source DL software were determined from the literature. First identified were essential categories of features that DL software should possess. These categories were then decomposed into supporting features. From these, a checklist that covered all such features was developed. The checklist was then used to evaluate four popular open source DL software packages (CDSware, EPrints, Fedora, and Greenstone) for the purposes of assessing suitability for use in a DL project to be undertaken by the authors.Findings – A checklist consisting of 12 categories of items was developed. Using this, Greenst...

A predictive framework for retrieving the best answer

In a question answering (QA) system, each user interaction with the system is different and since there are a variety of arguably correct answers to complex questions, identifying factors for improving the quality of the retrieved answer is difficult. This research aims to develop a framework that identifies predictive variables for the best quality answer in a QA system. It was found that accuracy, completeness and relevance were predictors of best answer. We believe that these findings can serve to guide future developments in the answer extraction modules in the QA systems.

Web 2.0 applications in government web sites: Prevalence, use and correlations with perceived web site quality

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which Web 2.0 applications are prevalent in government web sites, the ways in which Web 2.0 applications have been used in government web sites, as well as whether the presence of Web 2.0 applications correlates with the perceived quality of government web sites.Design/methodology/approach – Divided equally between developing and advanced economies, a total of 200 government web sites were analysed using content analysis and multiple regression analysis.Findings – The prevalence of seven Web 2.0 applications in descending order was: RSS, multimedia sharing services, blogs, forums, social tagging services, social networking services and wikis. More web sites in advanced countries include Web 2.0 applications than those in developing countries. The presence of Web 2.0 applications was found to have a correlation with the overall web site quality, and in particular, service quality.Research limitations/implications – This paper only covers g...

Why We Share: A Study of Motivations for Mobile Media Sharing

Mobile phones equipped with cameras have become popular among consumers, and this has fuelled an increase in mobile media sharing. The present research investigates the sharing of mobile media by conducting a diary study to specifically understand the type of media captured and shared, and the motivations behind these activities. Participants maintained a month-long diary, documenting their media sharing activities. Post-study interviews were also conducted to elicit additional information not captured in the diary. Results suggest a range of motivational factors, and that social and emotional influences played an important role in media sharing behavior. Participants were also more inclined to share photos that any other media due to cost and transmission time considerations. Implications of our work are also discussed.

An analysis of the delayed response to Hurricane Katrina through the lens of knowledge management

In contrast to many recent large-scale catastrophic events, such as the Turkish earthquake in 1999, the 9/11 attack in New York in 2001, the Bali Bombing in 2002, and the Asian Tsunami in 2004, the initial rescue effort towards Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. in 2005 had been sluggish. Even as Congress has promised to convene a formal inquiry into the response to Katrina, this article offers another perspective by analyzing the delayed response through the lens of knowledge management (KM). A KM framework situated in the context of disaster management is developed to study three distinct but overlapping KM processes, namely, knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, and knowledge reuse. Drawing from a total of more than 400 documents—including local, national, and foreign news articles, newswires, congressional reports, and television interview transcripts, as well as Internet resources such as wikipedia and blogs— 14 major delay causes in Katrina are presented. The extent to which the delay causes were a result of the lapses in KM processes within and across the government agencies are discussed.

The dark side of successful knowledge management initiatives

– This paper aims to cast the spotlight on a class of KM initiatives whose very success has ironically bred negative consequences not usually detected in the short‐term or on the surface., – Grounded theory approach was adopted in this paper since there is a lack of prior research in this area. Data was collected primarily through face‐to‐face interviews with personnel using purposive sampling. In addition to the interviews, archival data in the form of annual reports, web sites, in‐house publications and e‐mail correspondences were collected., – A typological framework which identifies four archetypes of KM initiatives, their success and dark side is developed. In particular, the dark sides include competency trap hyperbolic discounting dogmatism and social alienation and opportunistic behaviors and ethically‐questionable practices., – Given the exploratory nature of this study and the limited cases involved, the findings may likely be influenced by the peculiarities of the case, including the nature of the organizations, the state of the KM initiatives and the sentiments of the stakeholders at the point of data collection., – The message of this paper for practitioners is not to be easily contented with the early and outward form of success, but be cognizant and pre‐empt the dysfunctional outcomes as the KM initiative progresses., – This paper is one of the earliest efforts to examine the dark side of successful KM initiatives, a subtle KM implementation issue that receives little attention from practitioner and scholars alike.