Loo Geok Pee

A Model of Organisational Knowledge Management Maturity Based on People, Process, and Technology

Organisations are increasingly investing in knowledge management (KM) initiatives to promote the sharing, application, and creation of knowledge for competitive advantage. To guide and assess the progress of KM initiatives in organisations, various process models have been proposed but a consistent approach that has been empirically tested is lacking. Based on the life cycle theory, this paper reviews, compares, and integrates existing models to propose a General KM Maturity Model (G-KMMM). G-KMMM encompasses the initial, aware, defined, managed, and optimising stages, which are differentiated in terms of their characteristics related to the people, process, and technology aspects of KM. To facilitate empirical validation and application, an accompanying assessment tool is also developed. As an initial validation of the proposed G-KMMM, a case study of a multi-unit information system organisation of a large public university was conducted. Findings indicate that G-KMMM can be a useful diagnostic tool for assessing and guiding KM implementation in organisations.

Understanding the drivers, enablers, and performance of knowledge management in public organizations

Public organizations are increasingly investing in knowledge management (KM) initiatives. However, most KM concepts, practices, and tools have mainly been developed and studied in the private sector and there is a lack of understanding of KM in public organizations. This paper addresses the gap by discussing the differences between public and private organizations in their KM endeavors. Specifically, KM drivers in the context of public organizations are first identified. Salient KM enablers and how they may differentially affect the success of KM initiatives in public and private organizations are then discussed. Finally, tools for assessing KM performance in public organizations are suggested, in view of their unique organizational objectives.

Mitigating the Impact of Member Turnover in Information Systems Development Projects

Team member turnover presents significant risks to the performance of information systems development (ISD) projects. While prior studies have identified various antecedents of turnover with the general objective of reducing its occurrence, turnover cannot be completely prevented in practice. This study examines practices for mitigating the negative impact of turnover when it occurs. Since ISD is knowledge intensive and turnover typically involves knowledge degradation, this study focuses on key practices for reducing such knowledge degradation, i.e., job enlargement, use of electronic knowledge repositories, and succession planning. Our model for explaining the effects of the practices, based on the human capital and organizational forgetting theories, is tested through a survey of 138 project managers of ISD teams experiencing turnover. The results indicate that the use of electronic knowledge repositories and succession planning reduce the negative effect of turnover on the project performance. In contrast, job enlargement does not have a significant mitigating effect. This study contributes to research by looking beyond the antecedents and prevention of turnover to understand how it can be managed effectively. The findings also offer pragmatic suggestions for alleviating the detrimental effects of team member turnover on the ISD project performance.

Employees’ online knowledge sharing: the effects of person-environment fit

Purpose Various individual and environmental factors influencing employees’ online knowledge sharing have been identified, but the understanding regarding these has been mostly limited because of their independent and direct effects our understanding has been mostly limited to their independent and direct effects. This study aims to propose that the fit between employees and their environments (PE fit) matters. A model explaining how PE fit and misfit affect employees’ knowledge sharing behavior through influencing their affective commitment is developed and assessed. Design/methodology/approach The proposed model was assessed with data collected in a survey of 218 employees. Findings Results indicate that PE fit in the norm of collaboration, innovativeness and skill variety leads to the development of stronger affective commitment and, therefore, more knowledge sharing behavior than when they are in shortfall or excess in the environment (i.e. PE misfit). Originality/value The findings indicate a new direction for knowledge sharing research that focuses on PE fit and suggest that knowledge sharing can be improved more proactively in practice by assessing PE fit during recruitment.

Negative Online Consumer Reviews: Can the impact be mitigated?

This study proposes that managing the marketing variables of product information, price, promotion and product distribution can mitigate the impact of negative online reviews (NOR). NOR are often inevitable, have a much wider reach, dwell much longer and threaten product sales. It is therefore necessary to understand how the negative impact can be managed more actively. The marketing variables are conceptualised for the e-commerce context. Analysis of objective data on 500 books supports the hypotheses and provides empirical evidence for the relative effectiveness of the variables. In addition to adapting the 4Ps framework of marketing management to the e-commerce context, this study highlights the need and potential to extend theoretical development and research efforts beyond the antecedents and effects of NOR to understand how to manage NOR. The findings have practical relevance for e-commerce businesses. Avenues for future research are also identified.

Affordances for sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge on enterprise social media

Abstract Many organizations have implemented enterprise social media (ESM) to better connect employees and promote knowledge sharing. Prior studies indicate that employees often use ESM to access knowledge in other domains or complex knowledge. But connecting employees is only part of the picture – while ESM offer the possibility of accessing domain specific and complex knowledge, the flow of such knowledge might remain inhibited by the perceived effort required to codify them for sharing. This study identifies salient ESM affordances that can alleviate the perceived effort of sharing domain-specific and complex knowledge. Results of a survey of 303 employees working in organizations using ESM indicate that domain-specific knowledge is perceived as less effortful to codify when the affordance of visibility is strong (i.e., the affordance negatively moderates the positive relationship between knowledge specificity and perceived codification effort), and complex knowledge is perceived as less effortful to codify when the affordances of association and editability are strong. These findings indicate that it is necessary to consider both knowledge attributes and ESM affordances and their interactions when understanding knowledge sharing using ESM.

Customer co-creation in B2C e-commerce: does it lead to better new products?

The business-to-consumer e-commerce platform facilitates direct reach to customers and is especially conducive to large-scale customer co-creation. Many major e-commerce businesses have begun to leverage the platform to co-create with customers in new product development (NPD), in anticipation of new products that are more innovative and sell better. Yet, empirical evidence for the impact of customer co-creation is still scarce. This study investigates the impact by distinguishing among different co-creation tasks (idea co-creation and decision co-creation) and NPD stages (product design and commercialization). Based on the co-creation and innovation literature, it is hypothesized that idea co-creation has a stronger impact when there is also decision co-creation. Further, co-creation in the product design stage is expected to have a stronger effect on product innovativeness, while co-creation in the commercialization stage has a stronger effect on product sales. The hypotheses were tested with data on 107 actual products. Looking beyond a homogenous conceptualization of co-creation enhances our understanding of how it influences different aspects of new product success. This is also one of the earliest studies to report empirical evidence for the impact of customer co-creation in e-commerce. The findings offer specific insights into the co-creation tasks and NPD stages to open for customer co-creation in practice.

Trait motivations of crowdsourcing and task choice: A distal-proximal perspective

Abstract Research on crowdsourcing participation has identified the four primary motivators to be payment, job-market signaling, competence development, and fostering social affiliation. These motivators have mostly been understood in terms of the intrinsic-extrinsic perspective, and participation has been treated as a black box. This study extends understanding of the primary motivators by clarifying their differential effects in terms of the distal-proximal perspective of motivation, and distinguishing among participation in (i.e., choice of) unstructured tasks, high-commitment tasks, and interdependent tasks. Findings based on a survey of 283 crowdsourcing participants indicate that those motivated to develop competence (i.e., learn new knowledge and skills) tend to choose high-commitment tasks requiring more effort and therefore opportunities to improve ability, rather than focusing on task structuredness or interdependence. Those who are motivated to foster social affiliation tend to focus more on choosing highly interdependent tasks requiring coordination and collaboration with other participants. Those motivated by payment tend to focus on demonstrating competence relative to others and are therefore more likely to choose structured tasks with clear, comparable output. These findings enhance the conceptual clarity of different motivators, and inform crowdsourcing organizers on the motivator to focus on based on task characteristics.

Signaling effect of website usability on repurchase intention

Abstract After-sale service quality is a key to differentiating an online seller from numerous others and attracting returning customers. However, new customers cannot readily discern the quality of unfamiliar sellers. Sellers often try to reduce the information asymmetry and signal their quality by ensuring good website interface usability, considering that the website is the main point of contact with online shoppers. Most research on signaling has focused on its pre-purchase effects. Although researchers have argued that signaling could affect future purchase decisions, how signaling influences repurchase intention has not been detailed. This study proposes a model of the influence based on the signaling theory and expectation-confirmation model. The model posits that a signal influences an online shopper’s expectation and the expectation-confirmation subsequently determines repurchase intention. The model was tested with pre-purchase and post-purchase data collected in a two-stage survey and analyzed with structural equation modeling. Findings indicate that signaling goes beyond the pre-purchase stage of initial purchase to influence repurchase intention. This indicates that signaling has longer-term effect than that typically examined in signaling research and further research on the effect is needed. For practice, the findings indicate that online sellers need to send realistic signals to attract returning customers.

E-store loyalty: Longitudinal comparison of website usefulness and satisfaction

Customer loyalty is vital to the survival of online stores. Many cross-sectional studies have shown that e-store loyalty is strongly affected by perceived website usefulness (PU) and satisfaction with a purchase experience. By its very nature, loyalty develops cumulatively over multiple purchases. Yet, our understanding of how longitudinal changes in PU and satisfaction influence the development of (i.e., change in) loyalty remains limited. Drawing upon the information-processing perspective and experiential perspective of customer evaluation, this study shows that PU has a stronger effect on loyalty in the first purchase. In subsequent purchases, PU changes less (i.e., is more stable) than satisfaction. Furthermore, change in satisfaction has a stronger effect in the development of (i.e., change in) loyalty. This study extends research by clarifying the differential longitudinal changes and effects of two important antecedents of e-store loyalty. For practitioners, the findings suggest a longitudinal approach to initiate and nurture e-store loyalty that focuses on clarifying the usefulness of website to new customers, while increasing the satisfaction of returning customers.