Knowledge is a broad and abstract notion that has defined epistemological debate in western philosophy since the classical Greek era. In the past few years, however, there has been a growing interest in treating knowledge as a significant organizational resource. Consistent with the interest in organizational knowledge and knowledge management (KM), IS researchers have begun promoting a class of information systems, referred to as knowledge management systems (KMS). The objective of KMS is to support creation, transfer, and application of knowledge in organizations. Knowledge and knowledge management are complex and multi-faceted concepts. Thus, effective development and implementation of KMS requires a foundation in several rich literatures.

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Review: Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: conceptual foundations and research issues

How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

This article discusses the conduct and evaluatoin of interpretive research in information systems. While the conventions for evaluating information systems case studies conducted according to the natural science model of social science are now widely accepted, this is not the case for interpretive field studies. A set of principles for the conduct and evaluation of interpretive field research in information systems is proposed, along with their philosophical rationale. The usefulness of the principles is illustrated by evaluating three published interpretive field studies drawn from the IS research literature. The intention of the paper is to further reflect and debate on the important subject of grounding interpretive research methodology.

A set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems

From the Publisher: 
A Question of Identity 
Life on the Screen is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples' perceptions of themselves, and the individual's relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, "bots," virtual reality, and "the on-line way of life." 
Turkle's discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky's "Society of Mind") and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say. 
This is a psychoanalytical book, not a technical one. However, software developers and engineers will find it highly accessible because of the depth of the author's technical understanding and credibility. Unlike most other authors in this genre, Turkle does not constantly jar the technically-literate reader with blatant errors or bogus assertions about how things work. Although I personally don't have time or patience for MUDs,view most of AI as snake-oil, and abhor postmodern architecture, I thought the time spent reading this book was an extremely good investment.

스크린 위의 삶 = Life on the screen : identity in the age of the internet

As both technologies and organizations undergo dramatic changes in form and function, organizational researchers are increasingly turning to concepts of innovation, emergence, and improvisation to help explain the new ways of organizing and using technology evident in practice. With a similar intent, I propose an extension to the structurational perspective on technology that develops a practice lens to examine how people, as they interact with a technology in their ongoing practices, enact structures which shape their emergent and situated use of that technology. Viewing the use of technology as a process of enactment enables a deeper understanding of the constitutive role of social practices in the ongoing use and change of technologies in the workplace. After developing this lens, I offer an example of its use in research, and then suggest some implications for the study of technology in organizations.

Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations

2. A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF CORPORATE INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE 6. CONSERVATIVE SUCCESS: ORGANIZATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE EVOLUTION AT SKF

From Control to Drift: The Dynamics of Corporate Information Infrastructures

Hugo von Hofmannstahl Letter to Lord Chandos (1902) 1. An introductory chronicle 1991 The results of the MIT research program “Management in the 1990s” are published (Scott Morton 1991). Among them, a rudimentary framework, whereby information technology (IT) is regarded as a variable linked with others such as strategy, organization, culture...The diamond diagram gains widespread following in the profession. 1993 A special issue of the IBM Systems Journal features a series of articles on the concept of “strategic alignment,” including the leading article by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993), who develop the idea, starting from their research within the Management in the 1990s project, thanks to a grant from the IBM Consulting Group. One of the papers, by Broadbent and Weill (1993), reports an empirical study on strategic De profundis? Deconstructing the concept of strategic alignment

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De profundis? Deconstructing the concept of strategic alignment

The resource-based view of the firm (RBVF) focuses on the firm's resources and capabilities to understand business strategy and to provide direction to strategy formulation. This paper emphasizes the learning aspects of capability development and explores how information technology (IT) can contribute to it. As a standardized resource widely available, IT can participate in the fundamental process that transforms resources into capabilities and eventually into core capabilities. In this way, IT can become — embedded in core capabilities — an active component of the firm's competitive advantages. The process by which resources end up being components of core capabilities in firms is a learning process that can be described and understood using RBVF concepts. Furthermore, the development of IT strategic applications (also called ‘strategic information systems’, or SIS) follows patterns that closely parallel the structure of that learning process. For this reason we propose an organizational learning model based on the RBVF, and use it to derive guidelines for management action aimed at improving IT effectiveness in organizations. The paper is organized as follows: the RBVF framework is summarized, including the concepts of capabilities and core capabilities and the organizational processes that lead to them. Next, an organizational learning model is presented: an interpretation of capability development that emphasizes situated learning and knowledge accumulation. The model is then used to show how IT can contribute to core capability formation in a firm: management action can mold the process to some extent, although it often unfolds ‘naturally’ embedded in an organizational context that is both determined by and determinant of learning. Finally, guidelines are discussed to come up and build strategic IT applications, based on the previous analysis. Short conclusions follow.

Organisational learning and core capabilities development: the role of IT

Formative contexts and information technology: Understanding the dynamics of innovation in organizations

Poor governance is among the most important causes of state failure and underdevelopment. Hence innovations and reforms in the governmental and bureaucratic apparatus are an important prerequisite for development. E-government policy initiatives have gained international validity by the donor community as a catalyst for such reforms. To be sure, the characteristics of the state model implicit in e-government applications and the economics of transition from a backward state organization to e-government are equally relevant for the success of the initiative. This study focuses on the analysis and early design of e-government solutions in a less-developed country: Jordan. It shows that implementing a general standardized ICT portfolio to support good governance proves to be a difficult task and that there are a number of risks emerging from development aid policies aimed at good governance. The paper provides suggestive evidence that e-government and the view of the minimal state put forward by international development agencies might not be conducive to rapid late development. The New Institutional Economics provides an illuminating framework for this purpose.

Claudio Ciborra

Papers

From Control to Drift: The Dynamics of Corporate Information Infrastructures

De profundis? Deconstructing the concept of strategic alignment

Organisational learning and core capabilities development: the role of IT

Formative contexts and information technology: Understanding the dynamics of innovation in organizations

Good governance, development theory, and aid policy: risks and challenges of e-government in Jordan