A significant change is taking place in manufacturing company strategies around the globe. With new monitoring and service methods, new opportunities of product use and service provision emerge. The manufacturing companies once focused on mere product manufacture, now have started to provide ‘systemic solutions’, i.e. products combined with service packages, which are often referred to as Product-Service Systems (PSS). Currently, there is not a well-established feedback mechanism between service and design. The aim of this research is to develop a methodology to capture, represent, and re-use service knowledge to support product design. For the accomplishment of this aim an extensive literature review of the related themes to the research area took place. It was found that the feedback from service to design is fundamental for the enhancement of product performance; however, the existing literature in this area is not adequate. The industrial investigation led to the realisation that there is not an established mechanism in place to show how service knowledge (SK) can be used by designers. An in- depth investigation took place with the collaboration of, in total, four UK manufacturing companies. The author studied both the conceptual and detailed design, focusing on the design requirements (DR) and the design/service features (DF/SF) respectively. The first step was the capture of SK and its representation using Protégé software. Following this, at the conceptual design stage, SK can be re-used through the DR-SK tool. The two main purposes of the tool are the knowledge retrieval by designers, and the identification of gaps in SK. At the detailed design stage, designers can access SK through the DF-SK tool, and the developed knowledge templates. The SKaD framework was created, as a result of the amalgamation among the SKaD methodology, the knowledge templates, and the tools developed to link SK and DR, SF, and DF. Conclusively, the framework was applied on case studies within the pump manufacturing and aerospace industries, and its purpose (to aid designers accessing and re-using SK) was validated by experts within the collaborating organisations. As a result of this research’s findings, the service personnel can capture SK in a structured manner, which can then be re- used by product designers at both the conceptual and detailed design stage.

The purpose of this paper is to find out how sociolinguistics part depicted in textbooks of Swedish over time and study how much space portion is provided in three teaching aids dated 1976, 1995 and 2014. The study also intends to examine the degree of changes and what they might be due to. This study rests on two research traditions, sociolinguistics and materials analysis. Research in language sociology is extensive. Similarly, there is a tradition of research of teaching materials analysis particularly in the subject of history. Counterparts to my research is thus to be found in particular in the subject of history. For the Swedish part of the substance seems this type of research to be scant, consequently, there is a research gap that is interesting to examine more closely. This study can be seen as a contribution to the earlier tradition of research in general, but also as a contribution to the subject Swedish study materials research in particular. In order to answer these questions, a qualitative and a quantitative content analysis are made. The results show that the deployment can be greatly linked to the prevailing social context that political governance, curriculum, textbook author, etc. The results also show that the mayor differentiation lies between percentage with in the socio-linguistics text section internal than external to the teaching material. Changes that can be distinguished in the teaching material are seen mainly in the method of preparation. Learning materials go from the more stereotypical and more locked form of knowledge to become more educational and based more and more on the individual and his or her knowledge.

The current study is driven by the growing importance of learning capabilities within organizations. Nowadays an ability to constantly develop and improve based on mistakes and broadly apply successful experience is becoming a strategic competitive advantage in highly competitive business environment. This is even more relevant for project-based organizations, where natural specifics of project activities impose higher requirements in regards to their ability to learn quickly. At the same time, despite the existing number of recommendations there are only rare cases of successful systemic application of knowledge management activities in projectbased organizations. Thus, additional exploration of the topic is required through identification of critical factors that influence implementation process. From this standpoint an exploratory research has been conducted, including an exhaustive literature review and a qualitative case study in a single company, complemented with additional interviews in ten other organizations. The combination of scrupulously summarized theoretical insights from the existing extensive range of academic research and the data obtained empirically resulted in a comprehensive theoretical framework. This framework depicts all the recommended elements that need to be incorporated into a project-based knowledge management system, as well as a list of critical factors, which should be considered while rolling out a system in practice. The current study revealed some new factors, which critically influence the success of project-based knowledge management systems implementation. These new findings are also included into the final framework and supposed to help to eliminate the existing confusion regarding the topic. Therefore, the produced comprehensive framework is highly recommended for practitioners as a starting point for planning their knowledge management system implementations projects. It also suggests further exploratory opportunities.

Consumer value is an important determinant of consumers’ post-use behaviour, for example satisfaction, repeat purchase and word of mouth. The existing research mainly looks at the factors associated with the product and service providers to improve consumer value. Few studies on the role of the consumer in shaping consumer value have found consumer knowledge to be an important element in shaping consumer value. Adopting critical realism, this PhD expands this area of knowledge by investigating knowledge miscalibration (i.e., the inaccuracy in subjective knowledge) as a significant antecedent of consumer value. Most of the time, consumers’ perceptions of what they think they know (i.e., subjective knowledge) has been shown to be different from what they actually know (i.e., objective knowledge). Thus, subjective knowledge is usually inaccurate. This inaccuracy in subjective knowledge relative to objective knowledge is called knowledge miscalibration. Although the effect of knowledge miscalibration on consumers’ purchasing decisions has been investigated in the consumer behaviour literature, its role in the use stage of consumption has received much less attention. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of knowledge miscalibration on product or service use, and more specifically on the value consumers derive from actually using products or services (i.e., value-in-use). In this research a critical realism paradigm is pursued, implying that reality exists in the three domains of the empirical, the actual and the real. The research starts with observing regularity in the empirical domain (i.e., consumer value) followed by imagining the causal power in the actual and the real domains (i.e., knowledge miscalibration), shaping the research question. A retroductive strategy is followed, firstly by proposing the effect of knowledge miscalibration on consumer value and secondly by conceptually and empirically testing this relationship. This research conceptualises that knowledge miscalibration influences consumer value dimensions, described as efficiency, excellence, play and aesthetics. It is suggested that underconfidence (i.e., knowledge miscalibration where subjective knowledge is deflated) and overconfidence (i.e., knowledge miscalibration where subjective knowledge is inflated) influence consumer value dimensions differently as they generate different consequences in use. Therefore, a conceptual model is developed that describes the effect of knowledge miscalibration (i.e., overconfidence and underconfidence) on the dimensions of consumer value. The empirical part of the research is designed by conducting a covariance-based study and an experimental investigation in order to gain both internal and external validity. The covariance-based investigation is conducted in the context of amazon.com online shopping. Knowledge miscalibration and consumer value dimensions are measured in this study. This study supports the negative effect of underconfidence on efficiency, excellence, play and aesthetics and the negative effect of overconfidence on play. The experimental investigation is designed in the context of prezi.com, an online dynamic presentation creation website that enables its users to move between slides, words and images during their presentations. In this study, overconfidence and underconfidence are manipulated and their effects on the dimensions of consumer value are examined. The findings of this study show that underconfidence negatively influences efficiency, excellence and aesthetics, while overconfidence negatively impacts excellence, play and aesthetics. Overall, this PhD concludes that knowledge miscalibration negatively influences the dimensions of consumer value, with the exception of overconfidence impacting efficiency. The contradictory results of the covariance-based study observed in the experimental study can be explained through its inability to account for reciprocal relationships (i.e., where consumer value dimensions also impact knowledge miscalibration) and the existence of a third variable affecting both independent and dependent variables. Furthermore, the context of the experimental study (employing a new consumption task) is proposed to be the main reason for the lack of support for the effect of underconfidence on play.

Literature on firm internationalization has pointed out knowledge and learning as central components in the internationalization process. While much research has emphasized the development of experience in the firm as the main source of new knowledge, this notion has also been challenged. Furthermore, in internationalization literature, most attention has been paid to market entry and far less to growth in the market thereafter. This research addresses how internationalizing firms capture growth opportunities by acquiring new knowledge in foreign markets. The purpose is to describe and explain how internationalizing firms learn about foreign markets by combining various knowledge sources in order to realize growth opportunities in these markets. To address this purpose, data from two steps of data collection is analyzed. The first step contains qualitative focus-group data from seven Swedish firms and aims to describe learning from a combination of knowledge sources, which leads to the development of a typology of learning strategies. The tentative results from the first step are established in the second step, which contains survey data from 144 internationalizing Swedish firms. In addition to validating the typology, data from the second step explains heterogeneous knowledge outcomes based on differences in learning strategies, suggesting that a diversified strategy has the greatest potential for learning. These results indicate that external knowledge matters more than what has been previously recognized. Furthermore, the results show curvilinear effects of knowledge of the local network and international spread on the realization of international growth opportunities. By integrating components from international entrepreneurship, this research may contribute to internationalization-process literature by (1) describing the typology of how internationalizing firms learn in foreign markets, (2) establishing the described types and explaining the knowledge consequences for internationalizing firms, and (3) explaining how this knowledge impacts the ability to realize international opportunities. This chain of components provides the links between learning and growth of the internationalizing firm beyond the initial market entry.

„Wissensmanagement ist eine Herausforderung für alle Unternehmen, welche in der Wissensgesellschaft überleben und ihre Wettbewerbsposition ausbauen wollen“ ([Pro12] 1). Vor diesem Hintergrund scheint insbesondere der Austausch und Transfer von Wissen ein hohes Wettbewerbspotenzial aufzuweisen und gestaltungsbezogen eine hohe Relevanz zu haben (vgl. [Leh14] 5 f., 13 ff.; [Krc95] 24 ff.), während klassische Kostensenkungsmaßnahmen weitgehend ausgereizt scheinen (vgl. [Nor11] 1 f.). Die Weitergabe von wertgenerierendem Wissen in Unternehmen ist jedoch mit Barrieren verbunden, die stark auf Egoismen und Hemmnissen beruhen, und die es zu überwinden gilt. Der nachfolgende Beitrag zeigt reinterpretiert die wichtigsten Ergebnisse einer im Rahmen einer Dissertation erfolgten empirischen Untersuchung zur Überwindung von Barrieren im Wissenstransfer auf und leitet daraus Handlungsempfehlungen für die Praxis ab [Sch13].

Information Technology (IT) bank examiners have difficulty in making practical use of explicit IT knowledge documents stored in the IT examiners' document repository. This repository contains insufficient context to make it immediately and totally relevant to examiners, especially new IT examiners. At times, the document repository is not available for examiners' use due to limited remote access while examiners are in the field or during systems upgrades. In addition, there are no formal mechanisms for validating and updating the content. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the IT examiners information technology knowledge sharing sessions/community of practice (CoP) provide a mechanism for reusing tangible knowledge assets, transferring knowledge, improving job performance, and providing the kinds of support that benefit IT bank examiners. The participants in this study, eight IT bank examiners, work in the bank information technology regulatory environment. Their skills are in their IT domain areas such as information security, business continuity planning, and systems disaster recovery testing, IT project management, and audit rather than computer programming. Using case study methodologies, the data collected was based on questionnaires, interviews, participant observations - meeting and field notes, and storytelling notes. The field data was analyzed using selected principles from Grounded Theory - constant comparative analysis, narrative pattern analysis, and the ATLAS.ti quantitative analysis software. The study found that the examiners reported, perceived, and believed that IT knowledge sharing sessions facilitated the capturing, validating, and transferring of knowledge among IT bank examiners while improving their individual job performance. Specifically, emerging from the research were eight knowledge transfer themes that supported five benefits/critical functions of the IT knowledge sharing sessions - examiner development, knowledge transfer, social interaction, problem solving, and learning opportunities. However, a community facilitator, mutual trust, and respect among examiners and active participation in the knowledge sharing sessions are essential to the process to enable improved examiner performance and, by extension, organizational performance.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Access to knowledge and information is found to be the cornerstone in the road to knowledge economy transformation whereby the utilization of knowledge is the key engine of economic growth, where knowledge is acquired, created, disseminated and used effectively to enhance economic and social development. This means that the more people acquire knowledge, the more they will begin producing new products or improving systems and existing products, thus adding value to local products and improving the GDP of the country, as well as improving their social livelihood. Therefore, the primary role public libraries have is being the knowledge hubs, to make provision of higher quality knowledge and to make information accessible to the public to equally contribute to all NDPs towards achieving the Namibia Vision 2030 for a knowledge economy. This research study discusses “The contribution of the Public Library services towards a knowledge economy transformation readiness which is envisaged by the Namibia Vision 2030. In achieving that, the study has investigated the state of the Namibia legislative and policy framework reflections of access to knowledge and information as provided by libraries. The study further examines the availability and accessibility of knowledge and information resources, including ICT infrastructure at public libraries in remote rural areas. Moreover, it discusses the types of education and training programmes conducted by public libraries in ensuring that users have the necessary information and retrieval searching competencies and skills for accessing and navigating available information infrastructural resources. Finally, it explores innovation systems, technologically and non-technologically initiated by librarians for library services enhancement, and how library users have tapped into the growing stock of knowledge and information, and adapted them to local needs for economic and social development. The study has employed the four pillars of the World Bank Knowledge Economy Framework, namely an economic and institutional regime; information, knowledge and ICT infrastructure; education and training, and an innovation system as the lenses through which to investigate the research questions understudied.

Background. Agile Software Development (ASD) promises agility and flexibility in dealing with uncertainty by prioritizing interaction between people supported by informal communication and knowledge sharing. The lack of practices to manage the knowledge as a resource might jeopardize the application of knowledge in the production of goods and service. The utilization of Knowledge Management (KM) strategies can significantly support achieving and sustaining competitive advantage and brings several benefits to software development. However, how to manage knowledge in ASD is still not well understood or investigated.  Objectives. The main objective of this thesis is to contribute to the software engineering field by providing a different perspective on directions that KM can take to improve knowledge-based resource (KBR) management in ASD. The detailed objectives are: (i) Understand the current ASD environment regarding KM; (ii) Identify KBRs in ASD and its implications for KM; and (iii) Provide an initial set of variables to evaluate knowledge criticality of knowledge items in ASD.  Method. We used a mixed-methods approach to address the objective of this thesis. The methods selected to conduct the studies include systematic literature review, grounded theory, and improvement case study. The data collection comprised a literature review, semi-structured interviews, and practitioners’ feedback through static validation.  Results. From our SLR we observed that that KM strategies in ASD promote mainly knowledge transfer through practices that stimulate social interaction to share tacit knowledge in the project layer, increasing the risk of losing knowledge by keeping the knowledge localized inside a few individual’s minds. When it comes to coordination, practitioners utilize KBRs in their routines, through social collaboration within teams’ environment/settings. However, this process is nonsystematic, which brings inefficiency to KBR utilization resulting in knowledge loss. It can generate negative implications to the course of the software development, including meaningless searches in databases, frustration because of recurrent problems, and unawareness of knowledge sources. To support decision making related to knowledge retention, we have developed an initial version of the method to evaluate the criticality (KCEM) of a knowledge item, which is divided into two categories, relevance, and scarcity.  Conclusion. The current results of this thesis are of particular interest. However, we recognize that the work is unfinished. As a complement to this thesis, we have planned our long-term objective, which is to contribute to creating scalable KM solutions for companies adopting ASD.We divide this long-term objective into three studies: Carry out a complementary study to apply KCEM in different companies; explore efficient ways of storing codified knowledge in combination with the KCEM, and investigate how to define metrics to evaluate the outcomes of KM practices. / S.E.R.T.E.R.T. Research Profile

Personal training is an occupation which requires service and knowledge work. There have been some studies of personal training that have focused on the service dimension of the work of personal trainers but few on the knowledge work entailed in workplace competence. This study focused on “knowledgeable labour” in the field of personal training. A small sample of apprenticed, trained and educated personal trainers was observed at work with their clients in order to investigate whether different learning pathways lead to differences in the forms of knowledge and ways of knowing they use in their workplace practices. A first level of analysis focused on whether there were noticeable differences in the “practical competence” of the trainers -as manifest in their observable practices with their clients. A second level of analysis, explored whether there were more subtle differences in their practices by focusing on the form and content of their exchanges with their clients, and of their reflections in and on their practice. This level of analysis focused on what the South African National Qualifications framework has referred to as “applied competence’ which is grounded in foundational and reflexive competence and is not reducible to what is manifestly or visible in practical activities. It sought to establish whether there were differences in the applied competence of trainers who have qualified through the different learning pathways. The study found that access to a formal knowledge base, and a related ability to reflect explicitly made a difference to the quality of the knowledge that trainers imparted to their clients, to their decision making in practice, and to the quality of explanations and justifications they offered to their clients. These differences point to the need for vocational qualifications that develop reflective practitioners who are able to build bridges work between the science and the client in their situated practices in their workplaces and therefore think on their feet.