Online Knowledge Communities: Breaking or Sustaining Knowledge Silos?
| Autor: | Elina H. Hwang, David Krackhardt |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Knowledge management
Information silo business.industry Knowledge economy 05 social sciences Knowledge value chain Information technology Management Science and Operations Research Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Technology management Knowledge sharing Geography Homogeneous Management of Technology and Innovation Multiple time dimensions Organizational learning 0502 economics and business Personal knowledge management 050211 marketing Traditional knowledge business Knowledge community Herd behavior 050203 business & management |
| Zdroj: | Production and Operations Management. 29:138-155 |
| ISSN: | 1937-5956 1059-1478 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/poms.13098 |
| Popis: | Today many companies use technology-enabled social platforms such as online communities to improve knowledge sharing among their geographically separated employees. Given the increasing adoption of such technology, it is important to investigate if the technology actually breaks physical knowledge silos as it is intended, thereby enables employees to obtain previously unavailable solution to better serve their customers. We perform network analysis using unique time-series data from a global Fortune 500 consulting company to empirically examine whether an online knowledge community actually breaks traditional knowledge barriers. Our analysis reveals that subgroups of homogeneous employee emerge because employees tend to herd with their virtual and geographic neighbors. We further find that this herding behavior gradually fragments an online knowledge community in multiple dimensions (i.e., geography, knowledge domains). Our results offer insights into how to manage an online knowledge community as an emerging knowledge management platform for companies. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Plný text