Knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance: an investigation into the effects of knowledge infrastructure and processes on organizational performance

Knowledge is one of the most important assets for surviving in the modern business environment. The effective management of that asset mandates continuous adaptation by organizations, and requires employees to strive to improve the company's work processes. Organizations attempt to coordinate their unique knowledge with traditional means as well as in new and distinct ways, and to transform them into innovative resources better than those of their competitors. As a result, how to manage the knowledge asset has become a critical issue for modern organizations, and knowledge management is considered the most feasible solution. Knowledge management is a multidimensional process that identifies, acquires, develops, distributes, utilizes, and stores knowledge. However, many related studies focus only on fragmented or limited knowledge-management perspectives. In order to make knowledge management more effective, it is important to identify the qualitative and quantitative issues that are the foundation of the challenge of effective knowledge management in organizations. The main purpose of this study was to integrate the fragmented knowledge management perspectives into the holistic framework, which includes knowledge infrastructure capability (technology, structure, and culture) and knowledge process capability (acquisition, conversion, application, and protection), based on Gold's (2001) study. Additionally, because the effect of incentives ̶̶ which is widely acknowledged as a prime motivator in facilitating the knowledge management process ̶̶ was missing in the original framework, this study included the importance of incentives in the knowledge management framework. This study also identified the relationship of organizational performance from the standpoint of the Balanced Scorecard, which includes the customer-related, internal business process, learning & growth, and perceptual financial aspects of organizational performance in the Korean business context. Moreover, this study identified the relationship with the objective financial performance by calculating the Tobin's q ratio. Lastly, this study compared the group differences between larger and smaller organizations, and manufacturing and nonmanufacturing firms in the study of knowledge management. Since this study was conducted in Korea, the original instrument was translated into Korean through the back translation technique. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the validity and reliability of the instrument. To identify the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance, structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple regression analysis were conducted. A Student's t test was conducted to examine the mean differences. The results of this study indicated that there is a positive relationship between effective knowledge management and organizational performance. However, no empirical evidence was found to suggest that knowledge management capabilities are linked to the objective financial performance, which remains a topic for future review. Additionally, findings showed that knowledge management is affected by organization's size, but not by type of organization. The results of this study are valuable in establishing a valid and reliable survey instrument, as well as in providing strong evidence that knowledge management capabilities are essential to improving organizational performance currently and making important recommendations for future research.

The impacts of environmental and anthropogenic stressors on largemouth bass: an integration of field and laboratory studies

Several environmental stressors can impact the physiology and survival of fishes. Fish experience natural fluctuations in temperature and dissolved oxygen, but variations in these parameters due to anthropogenic sources are typically greater in magnitude and duration. Changes in temperature and oxygen of anthropogenic origins may therefore have larger negative impacts on fish than those occurring during natural events. Physiological parameters are sensitive indicators of the impacts of stressors by providing insight into the manner in which fish are disturbed by the stressor. Fish may display cumulative physiological responses to successive stressors, but the concept of synergy among multiple thermal stressors is poorly understood. Further, some fish species can be subjected to competitive angling events, which expose fish to an array of additional stressors that can increase mortality. The impacts of these events may change over seasons as fish display seasonal changes in behavior and physiology. Latitudinal origin may also affect the physiological response and mortality of fish exposed to common environmental stressors as individual populations are adapted to local environmental conditions. This thesis focuses on addressing these potential impacts on physiological parameters and mortality of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and provides implications for management and conservation. Largemouth bass were relatively robust to abrupt changes in temperature and oxygen, but were perturbed from physiological homeostasis during large (12°C) temperature shocks and low (< 4 mg O2/L) levels of dissolved oxygen. Cumulative physiological impacts of multiple cold shocks were only slightly greater than the disturbances sustained during a single cold shock, suggesting largemouth bass are able to tolerate successive thermal stressors. Largemouth bass exhibited seasonal changes in physiological parameters but the responses of fish to angling tournaments were relatively similar across seasons when compared with seasonal controls. Mortality was low during angling tournaments held during four seasons and no apparent seasonal trends were observed. Lastly, largemouth bass from two latitudinally separated populations exhibited differences in their physiological responses to acute cold stressors and overwinter mortality, characterized by greater mortality and physiological disturbances of southern fish than northern fish. Knowledge gained from this study can be used to make management and conservation decisions regarding a host of environmental factors and provides insight into the mechanisms by which fish species can persist over large latitudinal ranges.