Seokwoo Song

An Internet-Mediated Market Orientation (IMO): Building a Theory

A market orientation (MO) has long been an essential concept in the marketing discipline. Advanced information technologies show a great potential for information acquisition, sharing, and dissemination, all of which are the essential processes of an MO. This paper proposes a framework of an Internet-mediated market orientation (IMO), in which the Internet functions as a transformer of the traditional MO into a more efficient and effective way of implementing an MO online toward sustaining competitive advantage. Theories from related disciplines are introduced to explain the relevancy of the use of the Internet on the MO process, and anecdotal evidences are provided to show how the traditional MO becomes an IMO by using various Internet tools in the Internet-mediated environment.

An exploratory examination of knowledge- sharing behaviors: Solicited and voluntary

Purpose – Knowledge sharing (KS) has been a central concern in knowledge management (KM) practice and research. However, KS has remained largely a simplistic concept. This study aims to differentiate between solicited KS and voluntary KS and also to attempt to examine the role of both types of KS in relation to task, culture, technology and KM processes at the work unit level.Design/methodology/approach – The survey method was used. The questionnaire was issued to MBA students enrolled in a major southern universitys cohort‐based program for working professionals, and a total of 149 usable responses were collected.Findings – It was found that task routineness and open communication facilitate only solicited sharing behaviors, while perception of solidarity is significantly related to voluntary sharing behaviors. In addition, knowledge tools and tacit‐oriented KM processes were found to play a significant role in both voluntary and solicited KS.Research limitations/implications – Exploratory analysis poin...

An exploratory study on the roles of network structure and knowledge processing orientation in work unit knowledge management

Knowledge management (KM), which concerns itself with the creation, storage, access and dissemination of intellectual assets, has been a dominant research theme in recent years. However, given the fact that organizational units differ in the way they process their knowledge, there is a need to understand how informational benefits that a unit within the organization accrues by virtue of its relationships with others in the network impact its creativity and KM effectiveness. In this study, we explore the potential contribution of network characteristics to both the creativity and overall KM effectiveness of intra-organizational units. In attempting to reaffirm and extend previous study findings, we accomplish our initial research objective by relating network characteristics to innovative outcomes with a more complete set of network centrality measures. In addition, the study demonstrates that when there is a fit between network structure and knowledge processing orientation, the effectiveness of perceived KM in the units will improve. Our results suggest that fostering an organizational climate that is conducive to extensive interaction and communication between units is likely to make the units more innovative throughout the organization

Entrepreneurship, knowledge integration capability, and firm performance: An empirical study

From the knowledge-based view, an organization is considered an entity that integrates and distributes knowledge to produce products and services. Knowledge is acknowledged as a sustainable basis of competitive advantage that many organizations possess. Entrepreneurial activity also has been viewed as an essential feature for organizations to survive and prosper in today’s turbulent environment. In this study, we explore the effect of entrepreneurship on organizational performance through knowledge integration capability. Our research model depicts the firm as a knowledge integration institution that produces its offerings through specialized knowledge integration capability that consists of learning culture, knowledge management process, and information technology capability. The results show a strong support for the relationship between entrepreneurship and knowledge integration capability. We also found that the effect of entrepreneurial activities on firm performance was mediated by knowledge integration capability.

An Exploratory Examination of Knowledge Sharing Behaviors: Voluntary vs. Solicited

Knowledge sharing (KS) has been a central concern in knowledge management (KM) practice and research. However, KS has remained largely a simplistic concept. In this study, we differentiate between solicited KS and voluntary KS, and attempt to examine the role of both types of actual sharing behaviors in relation to: task structure, culture, and knowledge process at work unit level. We found that task structure and knowledge practices facilitate only solicited sharing behaviors, but not voluntary sharing behaviors. In addition, the results indicate that feeling of solidarity and knowledge tools are significantly related to voluntary sharing behaviors. Our results provide preliminary evidence of significant relationship between environmental antecedents and two different forms of KS.

Work Unit's Knowledge Processing Style: An Empirical Examination of its Determinants

Intraorganizational units play a critical role in KM processes of acquiring, creating, exchanging, and utilizing knowledge assets. While much attention has been directed to effective knowledge strategies for supporting organizational KM processes, there is a lack of insightful research on knowledge strategy and its implementation at the work-unit level. This study examines two types of work unit knowledge processing styles (i.e., codification and personalization) and explores the relationship between critical determinants (i.e., task, organizational culture, and technology) and knowledge processing styles. The results showed that task variety and task analyzability were strongly associated with both knowledge processing styles. Interestingly, task interdependence and autonomy were significantly related only to personalization, whereas IT support was strongly associated with codification. The findings from this study suggest that the unit’s organizational variables should harmonize appropriately with its knowledge processing styles.

Understanding the influence of network positions and knowledge processing styles

october 2008 | vol. 51 | no. 10 | communications of the acm 123 The creation of knowledge in an organization, as well as the mechanisms for its storage, transfer, and reuse is a result of the interchange of scarce intellectual resources between organizational units. To reap benefits such as learning, knowledge transfer and sharing, access to expertise and skills, economies of scale arising from pooling resources, and collaborative problem-solving, units in an organization must actively engage in the exchange of information/knowledge with other work units. Thus, like actors in a social network, units holding privileged positions in their knowledge network accrue social capital, which provides them access to opportunities and assets that would otherwise be unavailable. 3 One example of a privileged network position is brokerage, where a unit occupies an exclusive passage through which other units communicate. Indeed, researchers have demonstrated that such privileged positions in the knowledge network can influence performance, productivity, knowledge sharing and transfer, and innovation. 8, 11 However, these studies do not take into account the fact that units in an organization are not all alike in the nature of work they do and, therefore, in the type of knowledge they deal with. Each unit may have its own knowledge processing (KP) style, ranging from codification (where knowledge is processed mostly through formal documents) to personalization (where knowledge is processed primarily through personal contacts). We conducted a study to examine network positions and KP styles in organizations, and discovered that the interplay between the two can influence a unit’s overall KM effectiveness.

Modeling Dynamic Organizational Network Structure

The organizational social networks, where the creation and recombination of knowledge typically takes place, are recognized as a crucial enabler for improving the organizational innovation and performance. While the recent research endeavors have been insightful in explaining the effect of the organizational social networks, we may need more effective tools to investigate the dynamics of the evolving network structures within an organization. Agent-based modeling has been considered a powerful tool for thoroughly studying the dynamics of the system. In this study, we propose an agent-based simulation model to provide a deeper understanding the dynamics of organizational network structures along with its task environment.

Exploring effective work unit knowledge management (KM): roles of network, task, and KM strategies

Purpose This paper aims to explore the potential contribution of inter-unit network structure and intra-unit task environment to the overall knowledge management (KM) effectiveness of an organization through different KM strategies. Design/methodology/approach The survey method was used to empirically test the hypotheses. The authors administered two survey forms: a member-survey form that obtained responses from members of each work unit and a leader-survey form issued only to the leader of each unit to obtain his/her perception on inter-unit communications. Findings The findings indicate that both a unit’s boundary-spanning role and its extensive interaction with other units help promote the unit’s overall KM effectiveness. In addition, the authors found that task variety was significantly related to the use of both personalization and codification of KM strategies in the unit, and that a unit’s KM strategy played a mediating role between intra-unit task characteristics and KM effectiveness. Originality/value Few studies have attempted to address what makes some work units within an organization more effective in their use of knowledge than others. This study provides an understanding of the influence of inter-unit social network structure on KM effectiveness, as well as the influence of intra-unit task environment and KM strategies on KM effectiveness. The findings suggest that inter-unit knowledge exchange and a unit’s brokering role can be a vital component of a work unit’s KM strategy, and that for successful KM in a work unit, an organization should not only establish appropriate inter-unit relationship but also develop the unit’s own KM strategies.