Why new business development projects fail : coping with the differences of technological versus market knowledge

Managing through projects has become important for generating new knowledge to cope with technological and market discontinuities. This paper examines how the fit between the creation of technological and market knowledge and important project management characteristics, i.e. project autonomy and completion criteria, influences the success of new business development (NBD) projects. In-depth longitudinal case research on NBD projects commercialised from 1993 to 2003 in the consumer electronics industry highlights that project management characteristics focusing only on the creation of technological knowledge contributed to the failure of those NBD projects that required new market knowledge as well. The findings indicate that senior management support and engaging in an alliance with partners possessing complementary market knowledge can offset this misalignment of the organisation of NBD projects.

Managing knowledge transfer as a strategic approach to competitive advantage

Knowledge has been recognised as a source of competitive advantage. Knowledge-based resources allow organisations to adapt products and services to the marketplace and deal with competitive challenges that enable them to compete more effectively. One factor critical to using knowledge-based resources is the ability to transfer knowledge as a dimension of the learning organisation. There are many elements that may influence whether knowledge transfer can be effectively achieved in an organisation such as leadership, problem-solving behaviours, support structures, change management capabilities, absorptive capacity and the nature of the knowledge. An existing framework was applied in a case study to explain how knowledge transfer can be managed effectively and to identify emerging issues or additional factors involved in the process. As a result, a refined framework is proposed that provides a better understanding for the effective management of knowledge transfer processes that can provide a competitive advantage.

Inter- and intra- project knowledge transfer : analysis of knowledge transfer techniques

Many studies in the area of project management and social networks have identified the significance of project knowledge transfer within and between projects. However, only few studies have examined the intra- and inter-projects knowledge transfer activities. Knowledge in projects can be transferred via face-to-face interactions on the one hand, and via IT-based tools on the other. Although companies have allocated many resources to the IT tools, it has been found that they are not always effectively utilised, and people prefer to look for knowledge using social face-to-face interactions. This paper explores how to effectively leverage two alternative knowledge transfer techniques, face-to-face and IT-based tools to facilitate knowledge transfer and enhance knowledge creation for intra- and inter-project knowledge transfer. The paper extends the previous research on the relationships between and within teams by examining the project’s external and internal knowledge networks concurrently. Social network qualitative analysis, using a case study within a small-medium enterprise, was used to examine the knowledge transfer activities within and between projects, and to investigate knowledge transfer techniques. This paper demonstrates the significance of overlapping employees working simultaneously on two or more projects and their impact on facilitating knowledge transfer between projects within a small/medium organisation. This research is also crucial to gaining better understanding of different knowledge transfer techniques used for intra- and inter-project knowledge exchange. The research provides recommendations on how to achieve better knowledge transfer within and between projects in order to fully utilise a project’s knowledge and achieve better project performance.

Workplace design in the knowledge economy : a case of the NetWorkPlace™©

This thesis explores a way to inform the architectural design process for contemporary workplace environments. It reports on both theoretical and practical outcomes through an exclusively Australian case study of a network enterprise comprised of collaborative, yet independent business entities. The internet revolution, substantial economic and cultural shifts, and an increased emphasis on lifestyle considerations have prompted a radical re-ordering of organisational relationships and the associated structures, processes, and places of doing business. The social milieu of the information age and the knowledge economy is characterised by an almost instantaneous flow of information and capital. This has culminated in a phenomenon termed by Manuel Castells as the network society, where physical locations are joined together by continuous communication and virtual connectivity. A new spatial logic encompassing redefined concepts of space and distance, and requiring a comprehensive shift in the approach to designing workplace environments for today’s adaptive, collaborative organisations in a dynamic business world, provides the backdrop for this research. Within the duality of space and an augmentation of the traditional notions of place, organisational and institutional structures pose new challenges for the design professions. The literature revealed that there has always been a mono-organisational focus in relation to workplace design strategies. The phenomenon of inter-organisational collaboration has enabled the identification of a gap in the knowledge relative to workplace design. This new context generated the formulation of a unique research construct, the NetWorkPlace™©, which captures the complexity of contemporary employment structures embracing both physical and virtual work environments and practices, and provided the basis for investigating the factors that are shaping and defining interactions within and across networked organisational settings. The methodological orientation and the methods employed follow a qualitative approach and an abductively driven strategy comprising two distinct components, a cross-sectional study of the whole of the network and a longitudinal study, focusing on a single discrete workplace site. The complexity of the context encountered dictated that a multi-dimensional investigative framework was required to be devised. The adoption of a pluralist ontology and the reconfiguration of approaches from traditional paradigms into a collaborative, trans-disciplinary, multi-method epistemology provided an explicit and replicatable method of investigation. The identification and introduction of the NetWorkPlace™© phenomenon, by necessity, spans a number of traditional disciplinary boundaries. Results confirm that in this context, architectural research, and by extension architectural practice, must engage with what other disciplines have to offer. The research concludes that no single disciplinary approach to either research or practice in this area of design can suffice. Pierre Bourdieau’s philosophy of ‘practice’ provides a framework within which the governance and technology structures, together with the mechanisms enabling the production of social order in this context, can be understood. This is achieved by applying the concepts of position and positioning to the corporate power dynamics, and integrating the conflict found to exist between enterprise standard and ferally conceived technology systems. By extending existing theory and conceptions of ‘place’ and the ‘person-environment relationship’, relevant understandings of the tensions created between Castells’ notions of the space of place and the space of flows are established. The trans-disciplinary approach adopted, and underpinned by a robust academic and practical framework, illustrates the potential for expanding the range and richness of understanding applicable to design in this context. The outcome informs workplace design by extending theoretical horizons, and by the development of a comprehensive investigative process comprising a suite of models and techniques for both architectural and interior design research and practice, collectively entitled the NetWorkPlace™© Application Framework. This work contributes to the body of knowledge within the design disciplines in substantive, theoretical, and methodological terms, whilst potentially also influencing future organisational network theories, management practices, and information and communication technology applications. The NetWorkPlace™© as reported in this thesis, constitutes a multi-dimensional concept having the capacity to deal with the fluidity and ambiguity characteristic of the network context, as both a topic of research and the way of going about it.

The Australian Parliament: a gendered organisation

This study, drawing on interviews with 13 male and 15 female members of the Australian parliament, has two aims. The first is to contribute to knowledge about the nature of the Australian parliament, an institution which has seldom been subjected to gender analysis. This is particularly pertinent given the significant increase in women's representative status over the past decade. The second of the paper's aims is to demonstrate the efficacy of contemporary gender and organisational theory, particularly work on men and masculinities, for investigating questions related to women's involvement in politics. The paper draws on Joan Acker's (‘Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations’, Gender and Society, 4, 1990, 139–58; ‘From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions’, Contemporary Sociology, 21, 1992, 565–9.) notion of ‘gendered organisations’ to interrogate the data.

Managing the project learning paradox : a set-theoretic approach toward project knowledge transfer

Managing project-based learning is becoming an increasingly important part of project management. This article presents a comparative case study of 12 cases of knowledge transfer between temporary inter-organizational projects and permanent parent organizations. Our set-theoretic analysis of these data yields two major findings. First, a high level of absorptive capacity of the project owner is a necessary condition for successful project knowledge transfer, which implies that the responsibility for knowledge transfer seems to in the first place lie with the project parent organization, not with the project manager. Second, none of the factors are sufficient by themselves. This implies that successful project knowledge transfer is a complex process always involving configurations of multiple factors. We link these implications with the view of projects as complex temporary organizational forms in which successful project managers need to cope with complexity by simultaneously paying attention to both relational and organizational processes.

Objectifying early-number : a visual nomenclature to express mathematical domain knowledge

To address issues of divisive ideologies in the Mathematics Education community and to subsequently advance educational practice, an alternative theoretical framework and operational model is proposed which represents a consilience of constructivist learning theories whilst acknowledging the objective but improvable nature of domain knowledge. Based upon Popper’s three-world model of knowledge, the proposed theory supports the differentiation and explicit modelling of both shared domain knowledge and idiosyncratic personal understanding using a visual nomenclature. The visual nomenclature embodies Piaget’s notion of reflective abstraction and so may support an individual’s experience-based transformation of personal understanding with regards to shared domain knowledge. Using the operational model and visual nomenclature, seminal literature regarding early-number counting and addition was analysed and described. Exemplars of the resultant visual artefacts demonstrate the proposed theory’s viability as a tool with which to characterise the reflective abstraction-based organisation of a domain’s shared knowledge. Utilising such a description of knowledge, future research needs to consider the refinement of the operational model and visual nomenclature to include the analysis, description and scaffolded transformation of personal understanding. A detailed model of knowledge and understanding may then underpin the future development of educational software tools such as computer-mediated teaching and learning environments.

A visual description of early-number counting, addition and subtraction knowledge

Early-number is a rich fabric of interconnected ideas that is often misunderstood and thus taught in ways that do not lead to rich understanding. In this presentation, a visual language is used to describe the organisation of this domain of knowledge. This visual language is based upon Piaget’s notion of reflective abstraction (Dubinsky, 1991; Piaget, 1977/2001), and thus captures the epistemological associations that link the problems, concepts and representations of the domain. The constructs of this visual language are introduced and then applied to the early-number domain. The introduction to this visual language may prompt reflection upon its suitability and significance to the description of other domains of knowledge. Through such a process of analysis and description, the visual language may serve as a scaffold for enhancing pedagogical content knowledge and thus ultimately improve learning outcomes.

The Use of Social Technology to Support Organisational Knowledge

In the current economy, knowledge has been recognized to be a valuable organisational asset, a crucial factor that aids organisations to succeed in highly competitive environments. Many organisations have begun projects and special initiatives aimed at fostering better knowledge sharing amongst their employees. Not surprisingly, information technology (IT) has been a central element of many of these projects and initiatives, as the potential of emerging information technologies such as Web 2.0 for enabling the process of managing organisational knowledge is recognised. This technology could be used as a collaborative system for knowledge management (KM) within enterprises. Enterprise 2.0 is the application of Web 2.0 in an organisational context. Enterprise 2.0 technologies are web-based social software that facilitate collaboration, communication and information flow in a bidirectional manner: an essential aspect of organisational knowledge management. This chapter explains how Enterprise 2.0 technologies (Web 2.0 technologies within organisations) can support knowledge management. The chapter also explores how such technologies support the codifying (technology-centred) and social network (people-centred) approaches of KM, towards bridging the current gap between these two approaches.

Communications and learning structures that facilitate transfer of knowledge at innovation transition points

Innovation processes are rarely smooth and disruptions often occur at transition points were one knowledge domain passes the technology on to another domain. At these transition points communication is a key component in assisting the smooth hand over of technologies. However for smooth transitions to occur we argue that appropriate structures have to be in place and boundary spanning activities need to be facilitated. This paper presents three case studies of innovation processes and the findings support the view that structures and boundary spanning are essential for smooth transitions. We have explained the need to pass primary responsibility between agents to successfully bring an innovation to market. We have also shown the need to combine knowledge through effective communication so that absorptive capacity is built in process throughout the organisation rather than in one or two key individuals.

Knowledge management and Dublin Core

This paper is concerned with investigating existing and potential scope of Dublin Core metadata in Knowledge Management contexts. Modelling knowledge is identified as a conceptual prerequisite in this investigation, principally for the purpose of clarifying scope prior to identifying the range of tasks associated with organising knowledge. A variety of models is presented and relationships between data, information, and knowledge discussed. It is argued that the two most common modes of organisation, hierarchies and networks, influence the effectiveness and flow of knowledge. Practical perspective is provided by reference to implementations and projects providing evidence of how DC metadata is applied in such contexts. A sense-making model is introduced that can be used as a shorthand reference for identifying useful facets of knowledge that might be described using metadata. Discussion is aimed at presenting this model in a way that both validates current applications and points to potential novel applications.

Visualising mathematical knowledge and understanding

Contemporary mathematics education attempts to instil within learners the conceptualization of mathematics as a highly organized and inter-connected set of ideas. To support this, a means to graphically represent this organization of ideas is presented which reflects the cognitive mechanisms that shape a learner’s understanding. This organisation of information may then be analysed, with the view to informing the design of mathematics instruction in face-to-face and/or computer-mediated learning environments. However, this analysis requires significant work to develop both theory and practice.

Proteomics science & society : the role of knowledge translation in moving towards clinical applications

Background: Outside the mass-spectrometer, proteomics research does not take place in a vacuum. It is affected by policies on funding and research infrastructure. Proteomics research both impacts and is impacted by potential clinical applications. It provides new techniques & clinically relevant findings, but the possibilities for such innovations (and thus the perception of the potential for the field by funders) are also impacted by regulatory practices and the readiness of the health sector to incorporate proteomics-related tools & findings. Key to this process is how knowledge is translated. Methods: We present preliminary results from a multi-year social science project, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, on the processes and motivations for knowledge translation in the health sciences. The proteomics case within this wider study uses qualitative methods to examine the interplay between proteomics science and regulatory and policy makers regarding clinical applications of proteomics. Results: Adopting an interactive format to encourage conference attendees’ feedback, our poster focuses on deficits in effective knowledge translation strategies from the laboratory to policy, clinical, & regulatory arenas. An analysis of the interviews conducted to date suggests five significant choke points: the changing priorities of funding agencies; the complexity of proteomics research; the organisation of proteomics research; the relationship of proteomics to genomics and other omics sciences; and conflict over the appropriate role of standardisation. Conclusion: We suggest that engagement with aspects of knowledge translation, such as those mentioned above, is crucially important for the eventual clinical application ofproteomics science on any meaningful scale.

Larger or broader : performance implications of size and diversity of the knowledge worker's egocentric network. [更多或更广：知识员工个人中心网络大小和 多样性对绩效的影响]

Management scholars and practitioners emphasize the importance of the size and diversity of a knowledge worker's social network. Constraints on knowledge workers’ time and energy suggest that more is not always better. Further, why and how larger networks contribute to valuable outcomes deserves further understanding. In this study, we offer hypotheses to shed insight on the question of the diminishing returns of large networks and the specific form of network diversity that may contribute to innovative performance among knowledge workers. We tested our hypotheses using data collected from 93 R&D engineers in a Sino-German automobile electronics company located in China. Study findings identified an inflection point, confirming our hypothesis that the size of the knowledge worker's egocentric network has an inverted U-shaped effect on job performance. We further demonstrate that network dispersion richness (the number of cohorts that the focal employee has connections to) rather than network dispersion evenness (equal distribution of ties across the cohorts) has more influence on the knowledge worker's job performance. Additionally, we found that the curvilinear effect of network size is fully mediated by network dispersion richness. Implications for future research on social networks in China and Western contexts are discussed.