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

Knowledge sharing: A review and directions for future research

Knowledge Management

Educational data mining (EDM) is an emerging interdisciplinary research area that deals with the development of methods to explore data originating in an educational context. EDM uses computational approaches to analyze educational data in order to study educational questions. This paper surveys the most relevant studies carried out in this field to date. First, it introduces EDM and describes the different groups of user, types of educational environments, and the data they provide. It then goes on to list the most typical/common tasks in the educational environment that have been resolved through data-mining techniques, and finally, some of the most promising future lines of research are discussed.

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Educational Data Mining: A Review of the State of the Art

Purpose – The study sets out to examine the influence of individual factors (enjoyment in helping others and knowledge self‐efficacy), organizational factors (top management support and organizational rewards) and technology factors (information and communication technology use) on knowledge sharing processes and whether more leads to superior firm innovation capability. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a survey of 172 employees from 50 large organizations in Taiwan, this study applies the structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the research model. Findings – The results show that two individual factors (enjoyment in helping others and knowledge self‐efficacy) and one of the organizational factors (top management support) significantly influence knowledge‐sharing processes. The results also indicate that employee willingness to both donate and collect knowledge enable the firm to improve innovation capability. Research limitations/implications – Future research can examine how personal traits (such as age, level of education, and working experiences) and organizational characteristics (such as firm size and industry type) may moderate the relationships between knowledge enablers and processes. Practical implications – From a practical perspective, the relationships among knowledge‐sharing enablers, processes, and firm innovation capability may provide a clue regarding how firms can promote knowledge‐sharing culture to sustain their innovation performance. Originality/value – The findings of this study provide a theoretical basis, and simultaneously can be used to analyze relationships among knowledge‐sharing factors, including enablers, processes, and firm innovation capability. From a managerial perspective, this study identified several factors essential to successful knowledge sharing, and discussed the implications of these factors for developing organizational strategies that encourage and foster knowledge sharing.

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Knowledge sharing and firm innovation capability: an empirical study

– This paper develops a research model to examine the relationship among e‐service quality dimensions and overall service quality, customer satisfaction and purchase intentions., – Data from a survey of 297 online consumers were used to test the research model. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modelling technique was used to test the research model., – The analytical results showed that the dimensions of web site design, reliability, responsiveness, and trust affect overall service quality and customer satisfaction. Moreover, the latter in turn are significantly related to customer purchase intentions. However, the personalization dimension is not significantly related to overall service quality and customer satisfaction., – Future research can use different methodologies, such as longitudinal studies, focus groups and interviews, to examine the relationship between service quality and customer purchase behaviour in online shopping contexts., – This study suggests that to enhance customer purchase intentions, online stores should develop marketing strategies to better address the trustworthiness, reliability, and responsiveness of web‐based services. Online stores can devote valuable corporate resources to the important e‐service quality attributes identified by this study., – This study developed the instrument dimensions of e‐service quality by modifying the SERVQUAL model to consider online shopping context. Moreover, the results of this study provide a valuable reference for managers of online stores, as well as for researchers interested in internet marketing.

Customer perceptions of e-service quality in online shopping

Senior managers have shown an increasing interest in understanding and encouraging knowledge‐sharing behaviour in their organizations. However, very few empirical studies have examined senior managers’ perceptions of knowledge‐sharing behaviour. This study used Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to develop and test a research model to assess the factors that influence encouragement of knowledge‐sharing intention and behaviour by senior managers. The data from a survey of senior managers in Taiwan were used empirically to test the proposed research model. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was used to evaluate the research model. The analytical results showed that the research model fitted the data well and the main determinants of enterprise knowledge‐sharing behaviour were the encouraging intentions of senior managers. Additionally, senior managers’ attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control were found to positively influence intentions to encourage knowledge sharing. Finally, research and practical implications were suggested.

Perceptions of senior managers toward knowledge‐sharing behaviour

Purpose – To examine the impact of organizational learning factors (training available, technical expertise, and knowledge level) and knowledge management processes (knowledge acquisition, knowledge application, and knowledge sharing) on e‐business systems adoption level.Design/methodology/approach – The data from a survey of 202 IS executives in Taiwan were used empirically to test the proposed research model. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modelling technique was used to evaluate the research model.Findings – The analytical results showed that organizational learning factors and knowledge management processes are closely related to the level of e‐business systems adoption. However, knowledge sharing did not significantly affect e‐business systems adoption level.Research limitations/implications – Future studies could seek an enhanced understanding of the impacts on the level of e‐business ...

Impact of organizational learning and knowledge management factors on e‐business adoption

Although online communities can significantly facilitate collaboration among Internet users, the determinants of success of online communities have seldom been studied empirically. Using the updated DeLone and McLean information systems success model as a theoretical framework, this study proposes a research model to examine the determinants for successful use of online communities. Based on a survey of 165 community members, this study uses structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to investigate the research model. The analytical results strongly support the appropriateness of the research model in identifying the determinants of success of online communities. The analytical results also showed that system quality, information quality and service quality had a significant effect on member loyalty through user satisfaction and behavioural intention to use the online community. Finally, this study discusses the implications of these findings and offer directions for future research.

Determinants of success for online communities: an empirical study

Purpose – To examine how socio‐technical factors (e.g. organizational climate and IT support) affect the intention to encourage knowledge sharing through their effects on three innovation characteristics: perceived relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity.Design/methodology/approach – The data from a survey of 154 senior executives in Taiwan were used empirically to test the proposed research model. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the validity of the measurement model, and the structural model also was analysed to test the associations hypothesized in the research model.Findings – The results showed that organizational climate significantly influences perceived relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity, which in turn positively affected the intention to encourage knowledge sharing. Contrary to previous studies, this study found that IT support did not significantly affect the three innovation characteristics of knowledge sharing.Research limitations/implica...

Gwo‐Guang Lee

Papers

Customer perceptions of e-service quality in online shopping

Perceptions of senior managers toward knowledge‐sharing behaviour

Impact of organizational learning and knowledge management factors on e‐business adoption

Determinants of success for online communities: an empirical study

Effects of socio‐technical factors on organizational intention to encourage knowledge sharing