Jae-Hyeon Ahn

Reward systems for intra-organizational knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing is one of the most critical steps in knowledge management activities. To achieve effective knowledge sharing, it is important to encourage workers to share their knowledge for the best interests of the firm. However, successfully exerting this encouragement is very challenging. In this paper, we develop a formal model and analyze reward systems for intra-organizational knowledge sharing. Specifically, two common forms of reward systems are considered; individual-based reward which is based on the individual contribution of valuable knowledge, and group-based reward which is based on the contribution of the whole group through knowledge sharing to the firm performance. Through the analysis, we derive a simple optimal individual-based reward system which depends on the amount and the productivity of shared knowledge. The system balances the benefit from knowledge sharing of each worker with the costs related with it. Next, it is found that group-based reward is not only less efficient than individual-based reward, but it also subject to a potential productivity problem, in which workers with more productive knowledge do not participate in knowledge sharing. Finally, it is shown that several organizational factors can complement reward systems in increasing the performance of KM and can mitigate the productivity problem. Insights from our analysis could help managers to understand important considerations in rewarding knowledge sharing, and could provide them with guides to implement reward systems.

Managing consumer privacy concerns in personalization: a strategic analysis of privacy protection

Advances in information technology and e-commerce enable firms to make personalized offers to individual consumers based on information about the consumers. However, the collection and use of private information have caused serious concerns about privacy invasion by consumers, creating a personalization ᾢ privacy tradeoff. The key approach to address privacy concerns is via the protection of privacy through the implementation of fair information practices, a set of standards governing the collection and use of personal information. In this paper, we take a game-theoretic approach to explore the motivation of firms for privacy protection and its impact on competition and social welfare in the context of product and price personalization. We find that privacy protection can work as a competition-mitigating mechanism by generating asymmetry in the consumer segments to which firms offer personalization, enhancing the profit extraction abilities of the firms. In equilibrium, both symmetric and asymmetric choices of privacy protection by the firms can result, depending on the size of the personalization scope and the investment cost of protection. Further, as consumers become more concerned about their privacy, it is more likely that all firms adopt privacy protection. In the perspective of welfare, we show that autonomous choices of privacy protection by personalizing firms can improve social welfare at the expense of consumer welfare. We further find that regulation enforcing the implementation of fair information practices can be efficient from the social welfare perspective mainly by limiting the incentives of the firms to exploit the competition-mitigation effect.

Management of trust in the e-marketplace: the role of the buyer's experience in building trust

The e-marketplace, or broker-managed online market, is one of todays most profitable e-business models. In these marketplaces, buyers routinely engage with businesses and individual sellers with whom they have had little or no prior interaction, making trust one of the most important issues in the e-marketplaces. Therefore, a clear understanding of the trust building process in the e-marketplace is important for the success in the market. In this study, we analyze the process by which e-marketplace customers develop trust in both a market-maker and sellers. Additionally, this analysis provides a theoretical framework to identify the antecedents of trust. In the framework, we suggest that the impact of trust on transaction intention is moderated by the customers previous experiences in the e-marketplace. The theoretical model presented here was tested on survey and transaction data collected from 692 respondents. The results indicate that customers value the importance of trust in the market-maker and sellers differentially by the level of transaction experience. It is also shown that market-makers characteristics (reputation, websites usability and security) and sellers characteristics (expertise) play an important role in the formation and development of trust toward a market-maker and sellers, respectively.

Product and process knowledge in the performance-oriented knowledge management approach

Purpose – The paper proposes first, to understand how and how much knowledge contributes toward explicit business performance improvement and, second, through the understanding of knowledge contribution, to provide a guiding principle for the effective knowledge management activities.Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a Cobb‐Douglas type production function to model the relationship between knowledge and performance. Then, regression analysis is used to estimate the knowledge elasticity of performance. Finally, a laboratory experiment is used to demonstrate the whole process.Findings – A performance‐oriented knowledge management approach was developed. Through the analysis of knowledge‐intensive production function, it is shown that the knowledge elasticity of performance for each knowledge entity (product knowledge and process knowledge) can be estimated and can be used with great managerial implications.Research limitations/implications – Extensive empirical analyses in the real world busines...

DECIDING ELIGIBILITY FOR TRANSPLANTATION WHEN A DONOR KIDNEY BECOMES AVAILABLE

The expectation of transplant success for some patient/donor-kidney matches can be so low that transplantation is not considered an option. The issue may be framed as deciding the minimum expectation of transplant success that would justify a patients eligibility for transplantation with an available donor kidney. If the minimum is set too high, the patient will be eligible for very few donor kidneys and will wait excessively for transplantation. If the minimum is set too low, the patient has a greater risk of graft failure once transplantation has been done. A decision model calculates the minimum predicted one-year graft survival rate that would determine eligibility for an available donor kidney, with the goal of maximizing quality-adjusted life expectancy. The minimum predicted one-year graft survival rate depends on the patients health and demographic characteristics and attitudes about quality of life with kidney-replacement therapies. Graft survival rates and quality-adjusted life expectancies may increase by as much 6.7% and 1.6 months, respectively, with only a slight increase (<0.4 months) in the quality-adjusted waiting time until transplantation. Key words: transplantation; health services research; decision analyses; rationing. (Med Decis Making 1997;17: 160-170)

Managing risk in a new telecommunications service development process through a scenario planning approach

Managing risk in a new product and service development process is one of the major challenges for many business managers. A scenario planning approach was incorporated into a new telecommunications service development process in order to understand the uncertainties shaping the future economic, business and technological environments. Understanding the major drivers for uncertainties helped in gaining insight and thereby generated new strategies for reducing risks and taking advantage of opportunities from uncertainty. In order to demonstrate the process and value of the approach, it was applied to a new telecommunications service concept, the Phoneweb service, which allows Internet access through telephones rather than a computer interface.

Resolving conflict of interests in the process of an information system implementation for advanced telecommunication services

From many empirical studies, organizational issues have been considered the most critical bottleneck for successful information system (IS) implementations. In this paper, an organizational issue of resolving conflict of interests among the stakeholders is addressed. Using the decision analytic approach, the major sources of disagreement among the stakeholders were identified, discussed and resolved. The approach was applied to a problem of implementing an information system for advanced telecommunication services. The case presented here showed how to resolve the conflicting interests proactively and demonstrated the value of the approach. The decision analytic approach presented in this paper was a viable and very useful tool in resolving the conflict of interests among the people included in the negotiation process. As a result of the successful negotiation, it was estimated to have saved

Channel Capabilities, Product Characteristics, and Impacts of Mobile Channel Introduction

6.9 million dollars after tax for AT&T.

Valuation of knowledge: a business performance-oriented methodology

Drawing on the notion of channel capability, we develop a theoretical framework for understanding the interactions between mobile and traditional online channels for products with different characteristics. Specifically, we identify two channel capabilities — access and search capabilities — that differentiate mobile and online channels, and two product characteristics that are directly related to the channel capabilities — time criticality and information intensity. Based on this framework, we generate a set of predictions on the differential impacts of mobile channel introduction across different product categories. We test the predictions using a counterfactual analysis based on vector autoregression and a large panel dataset from a leading e-market in Korea that covers a 28-month period and contains all the transactions made through the online and mobile channels before and after the mobile channel introduction. Consistent with our predictions based on the theoretical framework, our results suggest that the performance impact of the mobile channel depends crucially on the two product characteristics and the resulting product-channel fit. We discuss implications for theory and multichannel strategy.

Decision support for real-time telemarketing operations through Bayesian network learning

For the successful management of knowledge, knowledge needs to be measured. Without valid measurement, it is hard to manage it effectively. However, the intangible characteristic of knowledge makes knowledge measurement very challenging. In this paper, we do not measure knowledge directly, but assess how much knowledge contributes to the business performance. KP/sup 3/ methodology developed in this paper assesses the contribution of knowledge to business performance by employing product and process as intermediaries between the two.