Ganesh D. Bhatt

Knowledge management in organizations: examining the interaction between technologies, techniques, and people

Argues that the knowledge management process can be categorized into knowledge creation, knowledge validation, knowledge presentation, knowledge distribution, and knowledge application activities. To capitalize on knowledge, an organization must be swift in balancing its knowledge management activities. In general, such a balancing act requires changes in organizational culture, technologies, and techniques. A number of organizations believe that by focusing exclusively on people, technologies, or techniques, they can manage knowledge. However, that exclusive focus on people, technologies, or techniques does not enable a firm to sustain its competitive advantages. It is, rather, the interaction between technology, techniques, and people that allow an organization to manage its knowledge effectively. By creating a nurturing and “learning‐by‐doing” kind of environment, an organization can sustain its competitive advantages.

Types of Information Technology Capabilities and Their Role in Competitive Advantage: An Empirical Study

During the past two decades, both business managers and academic researchers have shown considerable interest in understanding how information technologies (IT) help to create competitive advantage for a firm. While recently the idea of competitive differentiation through IT has been challenged, this study contrasts the traditional thinking about competitive advantage with the resource-based view. Specifically, it is argued that by demarcating specific types of capabilities, we can contribute to better understanding of the sources of IT-based competitive advantage. Conceptually, we distinguish here between value, competitive, and dynamic capabilities as three distinct types of capabilities. Within each type, we identify specific capabilities, such as quality of the IT infrastructure, IT business experience, relationship infrastructure, and intensity of organizational learning, and present a model that describes relationships between these capabilities and competitive advantage. We then empirically test the model using data collected via a national mail survey from chief IT executives from 202 manufacturing firms. While the quality of the IT infrastructure is hypothesized as a value capability and expectedly did not have any significant effect on competitive advantage, the quality of IT business expertise and the relationship infrastructure (competitive capabilities) did. The results of the study also indicate that the intensity of organizational learning (dynamic capability) was significantly related to all of the capabilities. These results point to the importance of delineating capabilities such as relationship infrastructure that can facilitate differentiation in the marketplace, and dynamic capabilities such as organizational learning as an important antecedent to IT capability building.

Organizing knowledge in the knowledge development cycle

The main aim of the paper is to examine some of the strategies that can be matched to increase the effectiveness of the knowledge development cycle. In manufacturing and operational works, the effectiveness of different organizing strategies to enhance the quality of manufacturing processes and products is well established. In knowledge works, however, we lack such frameworks. Unlike manufacturing and operational processes, knowledge development processes are often chaotic, unstructured, and unsystematic, resulting in intangible products. Therefore, the principles of manufacturing strategies cannot be applied in the knowledge development cycle. In knowledge works, organizing strategies should be defined and initiated based on knowledge development phases (e.g. knowledge creation, knowledge adoption, knowledge distribution, and knowledge review and revision). Each phase, in the knowledge development cycle, needs to be evaluated in context of its characteristics on repetition, standardization, reliability, and specifications.

Management strategies for individual knowledge and organizational knowledge

In the present postindustrial society, knowledge has become a key resource. However, organizations face innumerable challenges in nurturing and managing knowledge. Unlike manufacturing activities, knowledge activities are difficult to monitor and control, because only a part of knowledge is internalized by the organization, the other part is internalized by the individuals. This duality between individual knowledge and organizational knowledge demands different sets of management strategies in knowledge management. This paper provides a framework that explores the differences between individual knowledge and organizational knowledge, and proposes a set of management strategies for knowledge management. The paper also discusses the ways through which an organization can transform individual knowledge into organizational knowledge.

An empirical examination of the effects of information systems integration on business process improvement

Since the mid‐1980s, the subject of information systems (IS) integration and its role in business process improvement (BPI) has been of considerable interest to business managers and researchers. The present study examines the effects of IS integration on BPI. The moderating effects of industry type, information intensity of the industry, and time since the initiation of the existing program in the firm have also been analyzed. The data for the study were gathered through a survey of Fortune 500 US firms at divisional levels. The results of the study support the hypotheses that data integration and communication networks integration affect the dimensions of BPI. However, none of the moderators, except industry type, was found significantly affecting the relationships between networks integration and process improvement effect and customer focus.

Building and leveraging information in dynamic environments: The role of IT infrastructure flexibility as enabler of organizational responsiveness and competitive advantage

Understanding how IT contributes to a firms competitive advantage has long been of interest. While managers have made significant investments in IT, inflexible legacy systems hinder their ability to respond quickly to market opportunities. Our study examined how the flexibility of an organizations IT infrastructure enhanced information generation and dissemination and that this increased their ability to respond to rapidly changing environments. Our discussion of these information building and information leveraging effects was grounded in the resource-based view of the firm. We empirically tested our model using data collected from senior executives of 105 manufacturing and service firms. We found that IT infrastructure flexibility was positively related to information generation and dissemination. Moreover, information generation was significantly related to organizational responsiveness. Finally, organizational responsiveness was positively related to the firms competitive advantage. These results showed the importance of developing a flexible IT infrastructure that can be quickly adapted and reconfigured to meet information processing demands in dynamic environments.

Information dynamics, learning and knowledge creation in organizations

Managers in a wide array of organizations are concentrating on knowledge creation as a way to achieve competitiveness. Organizational knowledge, they hope, enables them to bring innovative products/services continuously in the marketplace. However, many are finding it difficult to understand how organizations create knowledge. By using the concepts of individual learning capability and the learning culture of organizations, the present study shows how the sum of individual knowledge does not equate to organizational knowledge. This distinction between individual knowledge and organizational knowledge is an important one, as a majority of studies do not clearly show how individual knowledge is different from organizational knowledge. The study also offers a set of suggestions to managers to develop a learning culture in the organizations.

The enabling role of decision support systems in organizational learning

Organizations routinely process information, make decisions, and implement them. Recent advances in computer and communications technologies have changed the way in which organizations perform these functions. Decision support systems (DSSs) are a major category of tools that an organization utilizes to support and enhance its decision-making activities. Traditionally, organizations are considered to have a predefined and static set of goals. However, in order to stay competitive and survive in todays dynamic environment, organizations must be able to quickly respond and adapt to changes in their business settings. Such changes could be due to technological advances, growing and changing customer demands, competitive forces, changes in the labor force, environmental and political concerns, societal impacts, security concerns, and others. In recent years, the field of DSS has become more sophisticated to encompass such paradigms as expert systems (ESs), intelligent DSSs, active DSSs, and adaptive DSSs. Artificial intelligence (AI)-based techniques are being embedded in many DSS applications, thus enhancing the support capabilities of the DSS. Such paradigms have application potential in both individual and organizational learning contexts. However, the degree to which current DSSs can support organizational learning has yet to be investigated in depth. This paper examines the learning strategies employed by organizations and DSSs and provides a framework to demonstrate how a DSS can enhance organizational learning.

An analysis of the virtual value chain in electronic commerce

In electronic commerce, businesses require to integrate two kinds of activities – ones that are embedded into the physical value chains and the others that are built through information into the virtual chain. Although the relative importance of these two kinds of chain depends on the characteristics of the products and services, their integration, nevertheless, plays a critical role in the success of e‐commerce. In e‐commerce, more and more value chain activities are conducted electronically, therefore, businesses should understand the implication of the virtual value chain activities. The virtual chain offers a number of distinct advantages over the physical value chain. Some of these advantages lie in forging alliances between customers and manufacturers, advertising products and services selectively with effects of audio, video, and graphics, and saving time and money in efficiently processing customer orders and enquiries. Besides, e‐commerce offers flexibility in option pricing and customization of products and service, by reducing the constraints of time and space.

An exploratory study of groupware use in the knowledge management process

– Aims to explore the relationships between groupware use and the knowledge management process., – The activities comprising the knowledge management process are conceptualized as: knowledge creation, knowledge maintenance, knowledge distribution, and knowledge review and revision. The data for this exploratory study were gathered through a telephone survey of managers at Fortune 1000 firm divisions. Based on the prior literature, it was expected that use of certain types of groupware and certain aspects of the knowledge management process would be significantly associated with each other., – The results of this exploratory study show that the groupware tools which enhance or support traditional aural media were significantly associated with most of the knowledge management processes we identified. However, e‐mail is the sole groupware tool that is significantly associated with knowledge distribution., – As an exploratory study, this research highlights some interesting trends in the knowledge management process, and suggests multiple lines of future research.