How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

Ease of use and usefulness are believed to be fundamental in determining the acceptance and use of various, corporate ITs. These beliefs, however, may not explain the user’s behavior toward newly emerging ITs, such as the World-Wide-Web (WWW). In this study, we introduce playfulness as a new factor that reflects the user’s intrinsic belief in WWW acceptance. Using it as an intrinsic motivation factor, we extend and empirically validate the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for the WWW context. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

/pdf/beyond-the-usefulness-and-ease-of-use-extending-the-tam-for-2r69uxvmta.pdf

Beyond the Usefulness and Ease of Use : Extending the TAM for a World - Wide - Web Context

Understanding consumer intention to participate in online travel community and effects on consumer intention to purchase travel online and WOM

The advent of Internet-based social media technologies has enabled travelers to quickly and conveniently share their travel experiences. Shared information on social media sites is recognized as an important information source which may influence travel decision making for potential travelers. This study tests a conceptual framework which examines why travelers share their travel experiences on social media based on the social influence theory and its three conceptual foundations—identification, internalization, and compliance. Data were collected using an online survey and the research model was tested with 543 respondents who were social media users. Results showed that identification and internalization are critical determinants that positively increase actual travel-experience sharing on social media as mediated by perceived enjoyment. Our research extends prior literature on social media by identifying specific determinants that can impact travel-experience sharing. Suggestions are provided ...

Determinants of Sharing Travel Experiences in Social Media

The growth of consumer-generated media (CGM) has promoted the popularity of online knowledge sharing and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). While the topic of eWOM has drawn much attention in academy and industry, little research has been published addressing the factors influencing eWOM intentions. Using a well-known restaurant review website, Openrice.com, as an example, this study explored three predictors to eWOM intentions in an integrative framework: experience factor (restaurant satisfaction), knowledge sharing factors (egoistic and altruistic needs), and technology acceptance factors (perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use). In addition, the moderating role of technology acceptance factors on the relationships between experience/knowledge sharing factors and eWOM intentions were examined. The results of the study indicate that (1) individuals’ altruistic needs trigger positive eWOM, (2) the perceived usefulness of the website has a significant main effect on eWOM intentions, and (3) the perc...

Effects of Restaurant Satisfaction and Knowledge Sharing Motivation on eWOM Intentions: The Moderating Role of Technology Acceptance Factors

As firms begin to implement web-based presentation and data mining tools to enhance decision support capability, the firm's knowledge workers must determine how to most effectively use these new web-based tools to deliver competitive advantage. The focus of this study is on evaluating how knowledge workers integrate these tools into their information and knowledge management requirements. The relationship between the independent variables (web-based data mining software tools and business models) and the dependent variable (strategic performance capabilities) is empirically tested in this study. The results from this study demonstrate the positive interaction effect between the tools and models application on strategic performance capability.

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/7498.pdf

Integrating web-based data mining tools with business models for knowledge management

The Internet has expanded rapidly and shifted from being solely an information access tool to being an interaction tool used by individuals to discover and share content, opinions, and information. To develop information connections, individuals are using a variety of technologies to access content and join virtual communities on various social networking sites. Of interest to researchers and organizations is the individuals’ perception of social networking sites using the identified dimensions of ease-of-use, usefulness, information quality, feeling, and usage intention.

In this Web-based study, 226 participants from a professional discussion group provided information regarding their perceptions of social networking sites and access tool usage. The differences in these perceptions based upon the various access methods and various social networking tools are analyzed and reported. The results from simple main effect tests showed that differences exist in both access methods and social networking tool usage.

The usage patterns based upon the access methods can have an impact on the usage behavior of social network sites. High-usage groups have the highest mean values for the perception dimension of ease-of-use for both access method and social networking sites. This suggests that organizations should accommodate and energize mobile users and design changes to their social networking sites to facilitate interaction and information sharing. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/cb.377

Influence of social networking site and user access method on social media evaluation

This study develops three alternative models of academic library Web site usage based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The three alternative models depict relationships among various intrinsic and extrinsic determinant factors of an academic library's Web site usage. The four factors included in the models are perceived ease-of-use, perceived usefulness, service functionality, and task functionality. These four factors are hypothesized to affect directly or indirectly both factors of satisfaction and intention-to-use. LISREL analysis using survey data shows that the best-fit model is the “Dual Mediation Impact” Model. Research and managerial implications for the academic library are discussed. Future research directions and limitations also are provided. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Determining factors of academic library Web site usage

Purpose – This study seeks to evaluate the importance of new product development cycle time for firms that have a strategy of pursuing exporting as a means of achieving and sustaining competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach – A mail survey utilizing the key informant approach for selecting senior executives of US manufacturing firms was chosen because of the importance of executive involvement in international marketing strategy decisions.Findings – This study supports the argument that faster new product development capability must be augmented for firms striving for a higher degree of export involvement. Additionally, the importance of integrating the marketing, R&D, and engineering functions to develop competitive advantage is highlighted.Research limitations/implications – Results must be interpreted as explorative since the sample was based on US manufacturing firms. Additional research is needed to test differential effects of innovative product and modification/extension cycle time on exp...

Strategic impact of new product development on export involvement

Nimble competitors competing in a dynamic global marketspace increasingly characterize the current environment faced by many organizations. Providing the organization's knowledge workers with the tools and technology to mine information and generate insights has become a key issue facing organizations. In this study we investigate the potential combined impact of the use of organizational decision models and competitive intelligence tool proficiency on knowledge creation and strategic use of information competence. Regression analysis results show significant main and interaction effects of the organizational decision models and competitive intelligence tool proficiency on four identified factors of knowledge creation and strategic use of information competence: pattern discovery, strategy appraisal, insight generation, and solution formulation. Organizational implications and future research directions are discussed.

John H. Heinrichs

Papers

Integrating web-based data mining tools with business models for knowledge management

Influence of social networking site and user access method on social media evaluation

Determining factors of academic library Web site usage

Strategic impact of new product development on export involvement

Model for organizational knowledge creation and strategic use of information