When ‘national innovation system’ meet ‘varieties of capitalism’ arguments on labour qualifications: On the skill types and scientific knowledge needed for radical and incremental product innovations     

Andrea M. HerrmannAuthor Vitae  Alexander PeineAuthor Vitae 《Research Policy》2011,40(5):687-701

The literatures on ‘varieties of capitalism’ (VoC) and ‘national innovation systems’ (NIS) propose very similar arguments about how firms require different types of labour qualifications to pursue strategies of radical product innovation (RPI), incremental product innovation (IPI), and product imitation (PI) respectively. Despite their similar lines of reasoning, however, the VoC scholars are concerned with the skill profiles of a firm's entire workforce, whereas the NIS proponents focus on the knowledge base of scientists. Given that both literatures have developed without explicitly taking the arguments of the neighbouring discipline into account, it is thus unclear whether they explain the same, or different, phenomena. Furthermore, both literatures propose firm level arguments but test them on the basis of macro- rather than micro-level indicators. This paper therefore asks: first, does micro-level evidence support the VoC and NIS arguments that particular types of employee skills and knowledge backgrounds of scientists are needed for different competitive strategies? And, if so, do RPI, IPI, and PI firms need to employ scientists in combination with a workforce having the respective qualifications, or is it sufficient if scientists or employees alone are adequately qualified. Quantitative analyses indicate that a particular mix of scientific knowledge combined with employee skills facilitate RPI, IPI, and PI strategies. The article thus concludes that - despite their similar reasoning - the VoC and the NIS literatures indeed describe different phenomena, without being aware of the synergies created whenever adequate employee and scientific qualifications are hired together.  相似文献   

A rapid review method for extremely large corpora of literature: Applications to the domains of modelling, simulation, and management     

Mohsen JahangirianAuthor Vitae  Tillal Eldabi^{Author Vitae} 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(3):234-243

While literature reviews with a large-scale scope are nowadays becoming a staple element of modern research practice, there are many challenges in taking on such an endeavour, yet little evidence of previous studies addressing these challenges exists. This paper introduces a practical and efficient review framework for extremely large corpora of literature, refined by five parallel implementations within a multi-disciplinary project aiming to map out the research and practice landscape of modelling, simulation, and management methods, spanning a variety of sectors of application where such methods have made a significant impact. Centred on searching and screening techniques along with the use of some emerging IT-assisted analytic and visualisation tools, the proposed framework consists of four key methodological elements to deal with the scale of the reviews, namely: (a) an incremental and iterative review structure, (b) a 3-stage screening phase including filtering, sampling and sifting, (c) use of visualisation tools, and (d) reference chasing (both forward and backward). Five parallel implementations of systematically conducted literature search and screening yielded a total initial search result of 146 087 papers, ultimately narrowed down to a final set of 1383 papers which was manageable within the limited time and other constraints of this research work.  相似文献   

Do RFIDs (radio frequency identifier devices) provide new ethical dilemmas for librarians and information professionals?     

Clare Thornley  Stuart Ferguson  John Weckert  Forbes GibbAuthor vitae 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(6):546-555

This paper provides an analysis of the current and potential ethical implications of RFID technology for the library and information professions. These issues are analysed as a series of ethical dilemmas, or hard-to-resolve competing ethical obligations, which the librarian has in relationship to information objects, library users and the wider social and political environment or state. A process model of the library is used as a framework for the discussion to illustrate the relationship between the different participants in the library system and it is argued that ethical analysis should involve the identification of future developments as well as current issues. The analysis shows that RFIDs do currently pose some dilemmas for librarians in terms of the conflicts between efficient service, privacy of users and an obligation to protect the safety of society as a whole, and that these are likely to become more problematic as the technology develops. This paper is part 2 of a series of papers on RFIDs and the library and information professions.  相似文献   

Conserving indigenous knowledge as the key to the current and future use of traditional vegetables     

T.P. Dweba  M.A. MearnsAuthor vitae 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(6):564-571

Indigenous knowledge erodes rapidly. When the loss of this knowledge negatively affects the lives and health of traditionally living rural communities, a drive to conserve indigenous knowledge becomes vital. This article argues that the transfer of indigenous knowledge on traditional vegetables will ensure the availability and utilisation of this important food source for resource-poor rural communities. Data collected on the present use of traditional vegetables at a rural Xhosa village in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa documented indigenous practices of traditional vegetable use and measured attitudes and perceptions of young women. Findings revealed that although traditional vegetables are readily available, there is a decline in the use of traditional vegetables in this village. Since the loss of associated indigenous knowledge is a reality, and in view of the negative attitude towards traditional vegetables, future use of this valuable food source is threatened. The transfer of the associated indigenous knowledge holds the key to the potential future use of traditional vegetables. Altered perceptions of traditional vegetables are crucial for the conservation of the associated indigenous knowledge. As a result awareness campaigns to promote the use of traditional vegetables, related nutritional education, including proper cooking and preservation techniques are necessary.  相似文献   

Customer acceptance of IPTV service quality   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Hyeong Yu Jang  Mi Jin NohAuthor vitae 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(6):582-592

The purpose of this article is to provide insights into the effects of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service quality and reveal mediation effects in the process of forming the repurchase intention. This study incorporates additional theoretical construct, perceived enjoyment, to reflect IPTV characteristics using extended technology acceptance model (TAM). This study empirically investigated a research model and conducted a survey of IPTV service users. The results of this study are as follows. First, IPTV service quality is summarized as design, security, and customer service, which is supported by second-order factor analysis. Service quality had an influence on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment. Second, perceived ease of use had a significant effect on perceived enjoyment, and perceived usefulness also had an effect on repurchase intention. Third, attitude, trust, and satisfaction had a positive effect on repurchase intention. To reveal the impact on repurchase intention of the IPTV service quality, this study proposes customer acceptance on IPTV service based on a modified TAM.  相似文献   

Projects as communicating systems: Creating a culture of innovation and performance     

Jon-Arild JohannessenAuthor Vitae  Bjørn OlsenAuthor Vitae 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(1):30-37

Although often downplayed and instrumental, there is evidence that communication in projects is essential in achieving value creation. Our main interest in this paper is on temporary continuity, a situation where the temporary becomes a permanent condition in social systems. The question that we have address is: What characterizes project communication in a situation with temporary continuity?We argue for the need to transform communication processes into communication capabilities. In a situation with temporary continuity, there is a need to connect to a large number of value-creating processes, and communicating capabilities need to be a part of a communication system, where the aim is to bind together value-creating processes and communication capabilities. We construct a viable system consisting of five sub-systems. To become a viable system, projects in the form of temporary continuity, must handle the potential conflict between a culture of performance and a culture of innovation. This involves developing social mechanisms for coordination and interaction, with a focus on developing communication capabilities, in parallel with focusing on all of the five value-creation processes.  相似文献   

On the motivating impact of price and online recommendations at the point of online purchase     

Asle FagerstrømAuthor Vitae  Gheorghita GhineaAuthor Vitae 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(2):103-110

Do online recommendations have the same motivating impact as price at the point of online purchase? The results (n = 268) of an conjoint study show that: (1) when the price is low or high relatively to market price, it has the strongest impact (positive and negative) on the likelihood of an online purchase of an mp3 player, (2) when the price is average to market price, online recommendation and price are equal in their impact at the point of online purchase, and, (3) the relative impact from price increases when online shopping frequencies increases. The implications these results give are that online retailers should be aware that online recommendations are not as influential as a good offer when consumers purchase electronics online. However, other customer recommendations have a stronger impact on novice online shoppers than towards those consumers that shop more frequently online.  相似文献   

Collaborative management of business metadata     

Kai M. Hüner^{Author Vitae}  Boris Otto Author VitaeHubert Österle Author Vitae 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(4):366-373

Legal provisions, cross-company data exchange and intra-company reporting or planning procedures require comprehensively, timely, unambiguously and understandably specified business objects (e.g. materials, customers, and suppliers). On the one hand, this business metadata has to cover miscellaneous regional peculiarities in order to enable business activities anywhere in the world. On the other hand, data structures need to be standardized throughout the entire company in order to be able to perform global spend analysis, for example. In addition, business objects should adapt to new market conditions or regulatory requirements as quickly and consistently as possible. Centrally organized corporate metadata managers (e.g. within a central IT department) are hardly able to meet all these demands. They should be supported by key users from several business divisions and regions, who contribute expert knowledge. However, despite the advantages regarding high metadata quality on a corporate level, a collaborative metadata management approach of this kind has to ensure low effort for knowledge contributors as in most cases these regional or divisional experts do not benefit from metadata quality themselves. Therefore, the paper at hand identifies requirements to be met by a business metadata repository, which is a tool that can effectively support collaborative management of business metadata. In addition, the paper presents the results of an evaluation of these requirements with business experts from various companies and of scenario tests with a wiki-based prototype at the company Bayer CropScience AG. The evaluation shows two things: First, collaboration is a success factor when it comes to establishing effective business metadata management and integrating metadata with enterprise systems, and second, semantic wikis are well suited to realizing business metadata repositories.  相似文献   

Knowledge management and communication in Brazilian agricultural research: An integrated procedural approach     

Tércia Zavaglia TorresAuthor VitaeIvo Pierozzi Jr.Author Vitae  Nadir Rodrigues PereiraAuthor VitaeAlexandre de CastroAuthor Vitae 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(2):121-127

The great contemporary organizational challenge for enterprises is to create a conceptual and methodological framework allows the management of knowledge by means of networks designed for social interaction. This statement is based on the premise that the competitive drive and sustainable success of the company depend on the introduction of new forms of production innovative processes, which can only be ensured through integrated approaches to knowledge management and the incorporation information technologies (IT). This is a reality that has already been accepted by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa, its acronym in Portuguese), a Brazilian research, development, and innovation (RD&I) institution supporting agricultural sector. For some years now, Embrapa has been incorporating what it has learned about knowledge management into its strategic planning process. In this paper, we present a new approach to managing knowledge and information, and we analyze the need for research institutions to administer the knowledge they produce through an RD&I management model based multi- and inter-disciplinary teams, and multi-institutional research networks.  相似文献   

The case of EAI facilitating knowledge management integration in local government domain     

Muhammad Mustafa Kamal^{Author Vitae} 《International Journal of Information Management》2011,31(3):294-300

Information Technology (IT) infrastructure integration and knowledge management (KM) share communal objectives e.g. to transform organisations into more effective and efficient, agile and innovative, and more responsive to market changes. Such an association when assimilates bona fide knowledge management philosophy, it offers the IT departments a headship opportunity for organisational transformation in correlation with the rest of the organisation. Despite more than a decade of active research and practice in this complex problem area, advocates still perceive that Local Government Authorities (LGAs) lack integrated IT infrastructures that have resulted in the generation of data inconsistencies and redundancies, inefficient knowledge exchange and reduction in service quality and delivery. In the recent years, several LGAs have implemented Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) solutions to integrate their IT infrastructure. However, on analysing the relevant research studies, it is noticeable that application of EAI has been practiced at a larger scale in the private domain but to limited scale in the public domain. The shortage of such research studies presents a knowledge gap that needs to be endorsed. This research adapts a Revised Model for Integration Layers (REAL). By adapting to this model, it is exemplified that EAI achieves integration at five layers namely: connectivity, transportation, transformation, process integration and knowledge integration. The methodology for validating this model included a qualitative analysis of data gathered from formal interviews, observations and archive documents guided by initial conceptual observations from the literature. The findings indicate that cases leading to data inconsistencies and replication can be prevented by integrating knowledge through EAI.  相似文献