­^¤åºK­n Today¡AIC products have become a essential in the human life. Take the daily life of Taiwan¡¦s people for example, people use the IC products in every minutes: mobile phone, credit card, health insurance card, etc. The competition between IC products also has been a vital war for the company to protect its market position. Time to market for the IC product has also become more and more important for the company to maintain or even survive. More powerful performance of the IC product rely on more professional marketing position forecast, innovated design and time to market manufacturing. To realize a IC product come from the manufacturing through the IC design house, foundry and the package. There should be with different expertise between the companies or inside the company. How to make sure with correct manufacturing through these expertise to meet the time-to-marketing challenge is very important, especially, right people in right position. What¡¦s the role-play for the people during the manufacturing between and within the company/groups will be the focus in this thesis. Take the example for a semiconductor manufacturing company, there are divided with different functions of department. Each department has its own knowledge-based function to maintain or develop the related knowledge for a IC manufacturing. People should do the knowledge transfer inside the department and, moreover, the related functions with other departments. How do improve the efficiency through the effective communication and knowledge sharing will be discussed. The main results of this thesis are as the below 1. There are with built-up boundary between different groups/department organization due to its different job functions and expertise. It will be resulted as the communication barrier or knowledge transfer problem between these groups/organization even their goal is the same. 2. 5 categories can be identified for these barriers on the knowledge transfer and communication between different expertises. 3. Defined SOP(standard operation procedure) to communicate through documents and intensive discussion meeting can be improved to effective for the knowledge transfer between different groups/department organization, especially for the fresh engineers. 4. The psychological factor of human between different groups/organization is found to be another issue to block the knowledge transfer. How to eliminate the factor can be next study focus.

We can know that the failure of ISD project may result from knowledge resource risk, including insufficient knowledge and failed to integrated available diversified knowledge. As a result, it is very important issue for ISD team that how to integration a large number of knowledge from diversified background team members. This study explores the affecting factors of knowledge integration within ISD team from team composition view and based on similarity-attraction theory. The theory framework starts form three dimensions, including demographic similarity, cognitive similarity and goal similarity, affecting the interpersonal attraction and then explores the impact of similarity of team members on team integration which includes social integration and knowledge. An empirical survey methodology is applied to test the research model and six hypotheses are developed in this study, and then we use PLS to analyze it. Our empirical results showed that goal similarity is significant affecting on interpersonal attraction. The study results also found that interpersonal attraction is a mediator between similarity and construct of team integration. In addition, social integration is an important antecedent of knowledge integration and similarity of team members also affect knowledge integration indirectly. In sum, unlike much prior research that focused on diversity-conflict view of team composition, we take similarity-attraction view and proposed a more comprehensive model to explore the affecting factors of knowledge integration. And this study provides some suggestions for the knowledge integration research.

One important research direction that has emerged in Child Protective Services (CPS) is the potential of information technology (IT) to be used by CPS agencies in order to enhance organizational effectiveness by addressing the barriers that caseworkers face in integrating multiple stakeholders’ knowledge. Based on empirical findings with regard to numerous unsuccessful IT development initiatives, the present study strives to gain an in-depth understanding of the research question: How can CPS caseworkers be supported by their agency in the integration of knowledge resources, thereby contributing to organizational effectiveness? A literature review to answer this question revealed the following two major research gaps: the adoption of a technology-focused perspective of intervention and the use of direct research models to evaluate this kind of intervention. In order to bridge these research gaps, this study presented a knowledge-based and process-oriented mediation model, built around the concept of knowledge integration that involves related processes at the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels. In this model, a process-oriented Knowledge Management System (KMS) stemming from a Socio-Technical System (STS) perspective was proposed as an alternative intervention model consisting of knowledge management intervention in three dimensions: techno-structural, socio-cultural, and inter-organizational practices. This mediation model partitions the effect of this KMS on outcome (organizational effectiveness) into two components: the direct effect and the indirect effect that is mediated by its output (a CPS caseworker’s knowledge integration ability). This research model was empirically tested using Structural Equation Modeling. This analysis used a sub-set of the 2008 Survey of Organizational Excellence (SOE) data set, which includes the perceptions of CPS caseworkers in the Texas DFPS about their work environment. Results indicate that each of the three dimensions of knowledge management practices enhanced a CPS caseworker’s knowledge integration ability. This ability was a critical factor in determining organizational effectiveness. The mediation effects of a caseworker’s knowledge integration ability were found to mediate the relationship between three dimensions of knowledge management practices and organizational effectiveness. Overall, this mediation model was more useful in explaining the complex relationships among the variables of interest than other direct models. / text

This thesis deals with two aspects of knowledge needed for new product development; theaccess to external knowledge through outsourcing of NPD and the integration of knowledgedeveloped when outsourcing activities in the NPD process. As modern products competing onincreasingly international markets call for both complex and specialized knowledge, it isbecoming more important to take an outward perspective of knowledge, searching for externalknowledge sources, in order to be competitive. But it is also important for the firm to take aninward perspective on integration of the knowledge achieved from external sources in order tosecure the knowledge gained. Outsourcing of New Product Development (NPD) refers to the outsourcing of activities fordeveloping new products (goods and/or service), where all or the innovative part of the NPDprocess is purchased externally according to a contract from organizational units separatefrom the outsourcing firm. This means that the service to develop a whole or a part of a newproduct is outsourced. This definition implies that (A) the outsourced activity shall be aninnovative (strongly contributing to the newness) part of the NPD process, (B) the outsourcedactivity was previously conducted internally, and (C) the activity shall be purchased andregulated in a contractual agreement between the organizations. Knowledge integration refers to the process of acquiring, sharing, and making use ofknowledge by combining it with previous knowledge in order to create new value. Becauseknowledge possessed in collaborating firms is often complementary, it is important tocombine it with previous knowledge in the firm. Therefore knowledge integration is chosenthroughout the thesis as the term for the overall process. Based on transaction costs theory, resource based and knowledge based perspectives twomajor issues are investigated. First, the identification of which factors are the most importantfor firms when making the decision to outsource activities in the NPD process. Second, theestablishment of the importance for knowledge integration of external knowledge in the firm,and to find what role level of involvement among staff plays for efficiently achievingknowledge integration. The thesis is a compilation thesis (with six appended papers) based on findings from threequantitative studies and a longitudinal case study (presented in two of the appended papers).Using cases from and samples of medium-sized manufacturing firms with in-house NPD itwas found that, while cost has been traditionally considered the most important factor foroutsourcing in general, search for external knowledge is found to have a greater importancewhen intangible processes as NPD is object for outsourcing. It is also found that thematicknowledge is the most important type of knowledge to efficiently integrate to achieve highinnovation performance and that a higher degree of processes and culture supportinginvolvement, increase knowledge integration when outsourcing activities in the NPD process.

Knowledge-driven problem solving demands 'complete' knowledge about the domain and its interpretation under different contexts. Knowledge Morphing aims at a context-driven integration of heterogeneous knowledge sources--in order to provide a comprehensive and networked view of all knowledge about a domain-specific problem, pertaining to the context at hand. In this PhD thesis, we have proposed a Semantic Web based framework, K-MORPH, for Knowledge Morphing via Reconciliation of Contextualized Sub-ontologies. In order to realize our K-MORPH framework, we have developed: (i) a sub-ontology extraction method for generating contextualized sub-ontologies from the source ontologies pertinent to the problem-context at hand; (ii) two ontology matching approaches: triple-based ontology matching (TOM) and proof-based ontology matching (POM) for finding both atomic and complex correspondences between two extracted contextualized sub-ontologies; and (iii) our approach for resolving inconsistencies in ontologies by generating minimal inconsistent resolve candidates (MIRCs), where removing any of the MIRCs from the inconsistent ontology results in a maximal consistent sub-ontology. Thus, K-MORPH performs knowledge morphing among ontology-modelled knowledge sources and generates a context-sensitive and comprehensive knowledge-base pertinent to the problem at hand by (a) extracting problem-specific knowledge components from ontology-modelled knowledge sources using our sub-ontology extraction method; (b) aligning and merging the extracted knowledge components using our matching approaches; and (c) repairing inconsistencies in the morphed knowledge by applying our approach for detecting and resolving inconsistencies. We demonstrated the application of our K-MORPH framework in the healthcare domain, where K-MORPH generated a merged ontology for providing a comprehensive therapeutic knowledge-base for Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) by first (i) extracting 20 contextualized sub-ontologies from various UTI ontologies of different healthcare institutions, (ii) aligning and merging the extracted UTI sub-ontologies, and (iii) detecting and resolving inconsistencies in the merged UTI ontology.

The increasing globalisation of the market is followed by increased competition between organisations. Therefore it becomes more important to create products with high customer value. To be able to create customer value, deep understanding of the customers’ needs must be obtained by employees, shared between them and transformed into products. Further consequences of globalisation are increasing differences between customers’ needs, which results in demand for customisable and flexible products.The purpose of this study was to analyse how organisations can create more customer value through increased knowledge integration. The focus was on how knowledge that already resides within a globally dispersed organisation can be integrated during the product development process.This study showed that customer value is created throughout the product development process by integrating the knowledge held by R&D and internal stakeholders. Different types of value are created at different phases in the product development process. One important finding is that different parts of the augmented value are created throughout the entire product development process. Since employees obtain different knowledge depending on which customer they interact with, it is important to utilise knowledge from a large number of employees with different roles and in different countries. Hence, the significance of knowledge integration must be disseminated and understood across the organisation. After completing the product development process additional customer value is created by the internal stakeholders’ who sell and implement the product, but it is during the product development process that the basis for their value creation is established.Knowledge needs to be integrated in a formalised, repeatable way, so that the R&D department can ensure that the right product is developed at the right time. Integration means that the tacit knowledge that resides within one employee is codified into an explicit form that can be exploited by more employees. Therefore, four steps must be performed and repeated iteratively to create and spread knowledge throughout the organisation. The first step includes communication by exchanging tacit knowledge. The second step entails documenting the knowledge, and the third step involves combining the knowledge residing in the organisations into one common knowledge system. The final step includes distributing the knowledge so that it recievess wide attention within the organisation. Several factors that have a negative impact on these four steps, and knowledge integration, need to be countered somehow. However, it was found that there are several mechanisms that facilitate knowledge integration, and most often the presence of several mechanisms at the same time had a better effect.

Denna avhandling handlar om kunskapsintegration i produktutvecklingsprojekt. Med kunskapsintegration avses processer av mål-orienterad interrelatering med syfte att dra fördel av de kunskapskomplementariteter som finns mellan individer som har differentierade kunskapsbaser. Förmågan att integrera specialiserad och distribuerad kunskap är betydelsefull för många företag då den bidrar till att förklara skillnader i produktutvecklingsframgång. Dock saknas det detaljerade, empiriska, studier av kunskapsintegration. Mot denna bakgrund är syftet med denna avhandling att undersöka vilka kunskapsintegrationsmekanismer som är lämpliga att använda i olika projektkontexter. Avhandlingen är baserad på två longitudinella realtidsstudier av produktutvecklingsprojekt. En detaljerad redogörelse av projektarbetet, tillsammans med en analys, presenteras för respektive projekt. Därefter görs en komparativ analys, i vilken såväl likheter som olikheter mellan de två fallen och deras respektive projektkontext diskuteras. En iterativ modell för kunskapsintegration förslås som ett resultat av studierna. Den iterativa modellen har ett flertal egenskaper som kan bidra till att öka vår förståelse för kunskapsintegration i empiriska projektkontexter. För det första visar den på vikten av att förstå i vilken utsträckning som kunskapsproblematiken i ett specifikt projekt medför behov av såväl ”aktion” som ”interaktion” och hur dessa kompletterar varandra i en iterativ process. För det andra indikerar den betydelsen av artefakter och hur dessa kan bidra till såväl aktion som interaktion. För det tredje tar den hänsyn till det faktum att aktion och interaktion medför olika kostnader för kunskapsintegration. / This dissertation is concerned with knowledge integration in product development projects. Knowledge integration is conceived of as processes of goal-oriented interrelating with the purpose of benefiting from knowledge complementarities existing between individuals with differentiated knowledge bases. Knowledge integration is a subject of importance to many firms as the degree of integration of specialised and distributed knowledge helps explain differences in firms’ product development performance. However, knowledge integration is poorly understood as detailed, empirical, studies are lacking. Hence, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore what mechanisms of knowledge integration are suitable in different project settings. The dissertation is based on two empirical studies, both of which are longitudinal, real-time studies of product development projects. A detailed account of the project work in each of the two projects, the Stacker project and the Turbine project, is presented together with an analysis of each case. Thereafter, a comparative analysis is conducted, in which both similarities and differences between the two projects and their settings are discussed. As a result of the studies, an iterative model of knowledge integration is proposed. The iterative model has a number of features which would benefit the analysis of knowledge integration in empirical settings. It recognises the importance of considering to what extent the “knowledge problematic” of a specific product development project needs to involve acting and interacting and how these are made complementary in an iterative process. Second, it indicates the significance of using various artefacts and how these may be involved in acting as well as interacting. Third, it recognises that acting and interacting may be associated with different costs of knowledge integration.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between knowledgesources, knowledge capacities, and business model innovation in small medium-sizeenterprises (SMEs) and discover the specific pattern among the three groups. Design/methodology - A total of 103 SMEs' CEOs, entrepreneurs and seniormanagers provide the samples for exploratory factor analyses and multiple regressionanalyses. The data is collected by self-completion survey based on perceptualmeasurement of constructs and also referred to objective data from companies' annualreports. Findings - The results indicate a significant relationship between knowledge sources,capacities and business model innovation. External knowledge interaction associatedwith the business network is positively contributed to business model innovation.Information system integration is directly related to business model innovation andmediates in the link between individual knowledge and business model innovation. Thebetter understanding of customers is also positively related to achieving a successfulbusiness model innovation. SMEs identify knowledge sources, develop knowledgecapacities and apply them specifically in different phases of business modelinnovation. Practical implications - To confront the big enterprises' sufficient knowledge, thisstudy inspires entrepreneurs and leadership of SMEs with the possibility of businessmodel innovation. By integrating and implementing the knowledge from external andinternal, SMEs can intentionally enable to map the phases of business modelinnovation, reach the helpful resources, proactively recognize the challenges andfinally achieve a competitive business model.Research limitations/implications - The confirmatory bias might miss out on thephenomenon occurring and the findings are still generally for direct application to aspecific situation. More focused case studies will be suggested in the future to furtherinvestigate the reality differing from individuals, strategies, sectors and nat ions. Inaddition, longitudinal studies with less time restriction will be feasible to understandhow knowledge and business model interact with each other. Originality/value - This study pioneers a measurement of success in business modelinnovation and a justification of overall influence of knowledge on business modelinnovation. By further implementing, some of the results testify the originality'svalidity in SMEs, others present exceptional findings beyond the previous theories.

abstract: As we migrate into an era of personalized medicine, understanding how bio-molecules interact with one another to form cellular systems is one of the key focus areas of systems biology. Several challenges such as the dynamic nature of cellular systems, uncertainty due to environmental influences, and the heterogeneity between individual patients render this a difficult task. In the last decade, several algorithms have been proposed to elucidate cellular systems from data, resulting in numerous data-driven hypotheses. However, due to the large number of variables involved in the process, many of which are unknown or not measurable, such computational approaches often lead to a high proportion of false positives. This renders interpretation of the data-driven hypotheses extremely difficult. Consequently, a dismal proportion of these hypotheses are subject to further experimental validation, eventually limiting their potential to augment existing biological knowledge. This dissertation develops a framework of computational methods for the analysis of such data-driven hypotheses leveraging existing biological knowledge. Specifically, I show how biological knowledge can be mapped onto these hypotheses and subsequently augmented through novel hypotheses. Biological hypotheses are learnt in three levels of abstraction -- individual interactions, functional modules and relationships between pathways, corresponding to three complementary aspects of biological systems. The computational methods developed in this dissertation are applied to high throughput cancer data, resulting in novel hypotheses with potentially significant biological impact. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Computer Science 2012

Effectiveness and performance in groups are largely dependent on how group members manage to share their individual knowledge with each other. When group members share and combine their individual knowledge at an optimal level in order to find new solutions, they achieve knowledge integration. In this thesis, we examine how group leaders act to encourage knowledge integration. An observational study was used to evaluate how leaders in three different groups act when solving a group task. We focused on the leaders’ actions in relation to group behaviours that would promote and prevent knowledge integration. With support from theories, we created a behaviour model to help us identify a set of relevant behaviours. We also supported our analysis with leadership theories. The results showed us that leaders’ actions were to a great extent dependent on the current followership and dynamics of each group. Another result was that group members who were familiar with one another before entering the group, had more difficulties in adopting behaviours that would promote knowledge integration. This meant that the leader did not come to terms with the leadership in order to promote knowledge integration. / I en alltmer komplex omvärld ökar behovet av samarbetsskicklighet. Kunskapsintegration anses vara ett viktigt fenomen när grupper samarbetar för att prestera bättre och arbeta effektivt vid mötet av nya behov och problem. Grupper uppnår kunskapsintegration då deltagarna på en optimal nivå utbyter kunskap med varandra, eftersom gruppen då utnyttjar sin fulla kunskapspotential till att finna nya lösningar. Den rådande gruppdynamiken blir därmed avgörande för gruppens prestationsförmåga. En person som har ett särskilt ansvar för gruppens kollektiva arbete är gruppledaren. Huruvida ledare faktiskt agerar för att främja kunskapsintegration är därför centralt i den här uppsatsen. Syftet med studien är att undersöka ledarageranden i förhållande till de gruppbeteenden som kan antas främja eller förhindra kunskapsintegration. Vi har valt att fokusera på arbetsprocessen i en undersökning som går ut på att observera ledaren för en grupp som tilldelas en uppgift, där deltagarna tillsammans ska lösa ett problem. Vi observerade tre grupper på sex personer vardera där en av deltagarna utsågs till ledare genom lottdragning. Processerna dokumenterades med hjälp av filminspelning. Vi har använt oss av teorier för att kunna identifiera gruppbeteenden som kan antas främja och förhindra kunskapsintegration. Med hjälp av teorierna skapade vi en egen beteendetabell att ta stöd av i våra observationer och i vår analys. För att ytterligare undersöka ledarens roll i observationsgrupperna har vi använt oss av ledarskapsteorier. I analysen gick vi först igenom händelseförloppen i filmerna, för att sedan kunna urskilja de beteenden som stämde överens med vår beteendetabell. Därefter specificerade vi ledarens ageranden i förhållande till dessa. Resultaten av studien visade att ledarskapet tycks anpassa sig mycket utefter följarskapet och därmed dynamiken i gruppen och därför identifierade vi inga gemensamma nämnare för ledarageranden i grupperna. Följarskapet i grupperna varierade stort och därför agerade också ledarna på olika sätt. Resultaten gav oss även en oförmodad slutsats som visade att grupper där fler deltagare känner till varandra sedan tidigare hade svårare att anta beteenden som kan antas främja kunskapsintegration. Detta ledde därför till att ledarens agerande blev svårt att bedöma.