Luba Torlina

The role of informal groups in organisational knowledge work: Understanding an emerging community of practice

Research has focused on formal and informal groups playing a significant role in organisational knowledge sharing. The concept of the Community of Practice (CoP) has emerged as one such form and has attracted the attention of researchers. This paper reports the initial stages of an ongoing study of an emerging CoP. Specifically, we report the initial stage of a longer-term action research study, investigating how individuals within an informal group in a knowledge intensive organisation perceive themselves, including whether they display the characteristics commonly attributed to a CoP (Wenger, 1998) and how their shared practice might be related to knowledge work. Furthermore, reflecting upon the results reported we capture, in a model, how an emerging CoP might contribute to Knowledge Management (KM) in a knowledge intensive organisation, linking top-down and bottom-up KM strategies.

Inter-organisational knowledge sharing in regional sustainable development communities

There has been an increasing interest in the use of inter-organisational groups to address regional implications in sustainable development. These groups bring together local knowledge and expertise and span boundaries between government and industry organisations. Our focus is in understanding how knowledge is shared in such inter-organisational groups. Utilising interviews, observations and social network analysis, we examine the knowledge sharing implications derived from the mixed membership, multilevel interaction, and the need to span boundaries with external organisations in these collaborations.

SME stakeholder relationship descriptions in website CSR communications

Purpose - – The aim of this paper is to report on an exploratory, qualitative study of how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) describe their firm’s relationships with or impact on stakeholders when communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their websites. Design/methodology/approach - – Qualitative content analysis was conducted on 22 Australian SME websites from the information media and telecommunications sector. Stakeholder theory was used as the basis for analysis. Findings - – An important aspect of CSR communication is reporting the firm’s relationships with stakeholders such as society/communities, ecological environment, employees, customers and suppliers. This paper provides insights into how these relationships are manifested in SME website communications. For example, three-way relationships between the firm and stakeholders were described on some websites, but few explained the impact of their CSR on stakeholders. Research limitations/implications - – This study concentrated on identifying the CSR communication on websites from one industry sector in Australia. These limitations provide the basis for future research to explore and compare CSR communication on websites by SMEs from other industry sectors and countries. Practical implications - – The findings offer SME owner-managers ideas on different ways they can incorporate details of stakeholder relationships in CSR website communications. Originality/value - – There has been little research on how SMEs use channels such as websites to communicate CSR. This paper addresses this gap in knowledge by providing insights into how SMEs describe stakeholder relationships in CSR website communications.

Consumer choice, information product quality, and market implications

The paper concerns with the peculiarities of consumer choice in information product markets. This is a multidisciplinary study based on both information system research and microeconomic theory. An extension is introduced to the conventional general theory of consumer choice for explicitly taking into account the impact of information product quality on consumer behaviour. Multiple quality characteristics, considered against the price of product, are an essential reason for consumer choice of high tech product in general and information product in particular. We assume that consumers are able to aggregate their preferences of multiple product characteristics into a product preference order. On the supply side, the product quality characteristics incur costs. In the case of information product, those costs are the costs of the first copy, and marginal costs are near zero. All of the above constitute the distinctive characteristics of the competitive mechanism in the digital economy and in information product markets. A model, based on the game theory is used to consider two special cases. The first one deals with monopolistic competition for a share of the market with a limited number of customers. Conditions are derived for IT firm survival. The second one considers conditions at which a monopoly is able to successfully introduce a new version if its information product.

How Website Design Options Affect Content Prominence: A Literature-Derived Framework Applied to SME Websites

The literature offers a fragmented view of design options with the potential to affect the prominence of selected content (e.g., privacy information) on organizational websites. This article contributes to knowledge by consolidating the design options into a single framework. It argues that future research should consider how the design options in combination, not just individually, can affect content prominence. The article summarizes the types of qualitative and quantitative studies needed to apply and extend the framework. It presents an example qualitative study showing how the framework can be applied to, and extended by, examining the prominence of ecologically sustainable practices (i.e., green content) on small and medium enterprise websites. The example study emphasizes the value of the framework by illustrating how content prominence may vary depending on interrelationships between design options. The article finally offers suggestions on how practitioners and developers can use the framework when making website design decisions.

Why don't you give me a call?

In a mature mobile phone market, dollars still drive consumers’ decisions, write Gennadi Kazakevitch, Luba Torlina and Sharon Hendricks.