Knowledge sharing–the dissemination of knowledge from an individual/group to another–has been an interesting topic for knowledge management scholars. Previous studies on knowledge sharing in online communities have primarily focused on communities of practice (organizational/business communities) and the social factors of knowledge sharing behaviour. However, non-business-oriented online communities have not been rigorously examined in the academic literature as venues for facilitating knowledge sharing. In addition, the burst of new age Internet tools (artifacts) such as social bookmarking has changed the face of online social networking. Within the context of Web 2.0, this socio-technical research investigation introduces both social and technical factors affecting attitude towards knowledge sharing in communities of relationship and communities of interest, and proposes a relational model of knowledge sharing attitude in Web 2.0 online communities. Social Capital Theory provides the main theoretical backbone for the proposed model. Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and social constructionsim have also been used. Following the description of the proposed hypotheses and research methodology using a survey about three Web 2.0 websites (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Cnet), data analysis through Partial Least Squared (PLS) method is applied to examine the effect of social and technical antecedent of knowledge sharing attitude. The R2 value of 0.78 indicates the strong explanatory power of the research model. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The road to breakthrough innovation is complicated, lengthy, costly, and risky to shareholders. This research examines the literature for breakthrough innovation across several industries and disciplines to provide a holistic definition of breakthrough innovation for the biopharmaceutical industry in order to best explore the relationship between breakthrough innovation, knowledge sharing, strategic network alliances, and shareholder value. The study design uses multiple-case studies: a small pilot case study, a second in-depth case study, and a third case study that examines the challenges of breakthrough innovation from senior executives perceptive. Our findings provide three new insights of breakthrough innovation. First, we formulate a new model of breakthrough innovation utilizing strategic network alliances centered on small companies focused on the early phases of development, while larger firms leverage their global commercial infrastructures. Interwoven in the new strategic alliance network are venture capital firms, academia, and government. The second finding is that industry executives prefer the approach of knowledge sharing within a formal strategic network alliance due to the confidential framework of the relationship. The third finding is that incremental innovation is a necessary building block toward breakthrough innovation. The relationship of strategic network alliances and knowledge sharing to breakthrough innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry are critical. Finally, a review of breakthrough innovation factors having the most significant positive impact on maximizing shareholder value in the biopharmaceutical industry. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

This study investigates the impact of an online community's control structure on the knowledge sharing process in that community. Using a framework comprised of legitimate peripheral participation theory and the weak-ties phenomenon, the study focuses on a comparative analysis of self-organizing online communities (e.g., weblog networks) and centralized online communities (e.g., discussion forums communities) with respect to the efficacy of knowledge sharing in these communities. The findings of this study indicate that self-organizing communities of practice have more weak-ties among their members compared to centralized communities. As per weak-ties theory of Granovetter (1973, 1983), these findings suggest that self-organizing communities facilitate greater dissemination of knowledge and flow of information among their members than centralized communities. The abundance of weak-ties in their community structure also makes self-organizing communities better environments for the discovery of new information compared to centralized community environments. This study did not find any evidence of community structure impact on peripheral participation and the interaction activity level among peripheral participants of a given online community. These observations may have stemmed from the limitations of research design, however, it is safe to say as of now that verdict on peripheral participation differences in different community structures is inconclusive at best. / Master of Science

More and more in recent years, activities that people once did in the real world they now do in virtual space. In particular, online communities have become popular and efficient media for people all over the world to seek and share knowledge in domains that interest them. Such communities are called online knowledge communities (OKCs). Large-scale OKCs may comprise thousands of community members and archive many  more online messages. As a result, problems such as how to identify and manage the knowledge collected and how to understand people\'s knowledge-sharing behaviors have become major challenges for leveraging online knowledge to sustain community growth. In this dissertation I examine three important factors of managing knowledge in OKCs. First, I focus on how to build successful profiles for community members that describe their domain expertise. These expertise profiles are potentially important for directing questions to the right people and, thus, can improve the community\'s overall efficiency and efficacy. To address this issue, I present a comparative study of models of expertise profiling in online communities and identify the model combination that delivers the best results. Next, I investigate how to automatically assess the information helpfulness of user postings. Due to the voluntary nature of online participation, there is no guarantee that all user-generated content (UGC) will be helpful. It is also difficult, given the sheer amount of online postings, for knowledge seekers to find information quickly that satisfies their informational needs. Therefore, I propose a theory-driven text classification framework based on the knowledge adoption model (KAM) for predicting the helpfulness of UGC in OKCs. I test the effectiveness of this framework at both the thread level and the post level of online messages. Any given OKC generally has a huge number of individuals participating in online discussions, but exactly what, where, when and how they seek and share knowledge are still not fully understood or documented. In the last part of the dissertation, I describe a multi-level study of the knowledge-sharing behaviors of users in OKCs. Both exploratory data analysis and network analysis are applied to thread, forum and community levels of online data. I present a number of interesting findings on social dynamics in knowledge sharing and diffusion. These findings potentially have important implications for both the theory and practice of online community knowledge management. / Ph. D.

This research studied the impact of language barriers and cultural experiences on students' perceptions at the University of North Texas. The population of this study were students who had taken a class with a non-native speaking instructor and those who hadn't. Following a mixed-method research approach, online surveys were distributed to the students through Canvas and listservs. Follow-up interviews were scheduled with students interested in providing more feedback about their experience. The survey and interview results showed that accent is the main communication barrier in classes taught by non-native-speaking instructors. Although previous research does not show an impact on student performance, students believe the accent of their instructor affects their performance in class, as they tend to place more effort into listening and paying attention to the lecture. Other factors impacting knowledge sharing were vocabulary and cultural awareness for both population groups of this study. Although no significant relationship existed between the cultural experience of students and their perception, interview participants with previous exposure to foreign accents were able to understand their non-native-speaking instructor more easily. This study also discovered different information-seeking and knowledge-sharing behaviors that were discussed by the interview participants. The results of this study are helpful for higher education institutions, instructors, and students to create an effective learning environment.

No / Prior research has shown that individual differences in users' cognitive style and gender can have a significant effect on their usage and perceived usefulness of management information systems. We argue that these differences may also extend to computer-mediated knowledge management systems (KMS), although previous research has not tested this empirically. Where employees are expected to use KMS for acquiring and sharing knowledge, we posit that some will gain more benefit than others, due to their innate personal characteristics, specifically gender and cognitive style. Based on a sample of 212 software developers in one large IS organization, we re-open these dormant debates about the effects of cognitive style and gender on technology usage. The paper contains four main findings. First, we present support for the proposition that cognitive style has an impact on KMS usage, although not for all components of the system. Second, that gender significantly affects KMS usage, with males being more likely to use such systems than females. Third, we find a small interaction effect between cognitive style and gender, but only for the use of data mining. Finally, the data suggest that there is a strong association between KMS usage levels and perceived usefulness. We conclude that if organizations do not recognize the inherent diversity of the workforce, and accommodate gender and cognitive style differences into their knowledge management strategies, they may be likely to propagate an intrinsic disadvantage, to the detriment of females and intuitive thinkers.

No / The purpose of this paper is to present a knowledge management (KM) tool which has been designed to support the creation of virtual knowledge sharing networks (KSNs). It is a software-based application that enables the sharing of knowledge related to the implementation of manufacturing excellence (ME) best practices and improvement tools. A survey of SMEs was carried out to investigate the implementation of ME best practices. The results indicated that that the main barrier to the implementation of best practices, quality models and improvement tools is a lack of knowledge about these initiatives due to the resource constraints experienced by SMEs. This led to the development of a KM tool to support the creation of virtual networks to enable SMEs to manage improvement projects and share effectively the generated knowledge. The KM tool is currently at the stage of validation and its future implementation is also under consideration. The KM tool supports the creation of KSNs through an explicit KM approach to share ideas, experiences and knowledge about implementation of best practices and improvement tools; helping SMEs to become more competitive. This research has demonstrated that is possible to provide a KM tool that is suitable for use by a KSN of SMEs. This approach allows transferring some of the tacit and explicit knowledge generated during the implementation of improvement initiatives into electronic documents for future consultation by KSN members.

Yes / Working collaboratively with internal and external partners (suppliers, customers and internal stakeholders) has been at the epicentre of product design. Knowledge sharing has been well recognised in this context. However, there is limited research that has addressed the role of social media/Web 2.0 in facilitating knowledge sharing for sense- and decision-making within product design. To address this gap, this study draws on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and two vignettes that relate to ‘collaborative co-design’ and ‘collaborative design-to-order’. We illustrate the role of social media/Web 2.0 in building knowledge sharing capabilities for sense- and decision-making for internal and external partners during product design. Limitations and further research into the use of social media/Web 2.0 are also discussed.

Yes / As the economy becomes more reliant on innovative, knowledge-intensive firms, understanding the interaction between knowledge and improving innovation performance is increasingly important. Despite the majority of UK businesses being micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (micro/SMEs), knowledge management research has tended to focus on large companies, and the findings may not be applicable to micro/SMEs, especially in the creative sector. Moreover, the important role played by knowledge sharing in innovation can be critical to successful performance for smaller players in the creative sector where resources are limited. Our study presents an insight from micro/SMEs operating in a highly knowledge-intensive and innovative creative industry - games/entertainment software development. Using a mixed method approach, we investigate knowledge sharing and its contribution to firm innovation performance improvements. Our findings suggest that micro/SMEs are at the forefront in the creative sector precisely because of their smaller size. Our study reveals evidence of knowledge donation but limited evidence of knowledge collection in the knowledge sharing process in micro/SMEs. We develop a knowledge sharing model for innovation performance improvement in micro/SMEs. This highlights the importance of industry context, individual knowledge and organisational size in the role of knowledge sharing in innovation performance.

Yes / Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that determine the knowledge exchange intention and behavioural nature of academics by the help of social media tools in the Indian higher education. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study has used Valance – Instrumentality – Expectancy (VIE) theory to determine the knowledge exchange behaviour of academics. The study has considered the effect of Knowledge Contributor (KC) and Knowledge Seeker (KS) as moderators. The model has been validated by using a survey with 320 usable respondents. Findings – The results highlight that if the stakeholders of higher education institutions feel the deficits of knowledge exchange, they realise importance of knowledge sharing and use social media to increase effect of knowledge exchange. Besides, perceived usefulness impacts on the use of social media for knowledge exchange by the concerned stakeholders. Moreover, it is observed that experience of the use of social media impacts the use of this tool for knowledge exchange. Theoretical Implication – The use and application of VIE theory has successfully been able to interpret the factors affecting the use of social media for knowledge exchange in the higher education institutions. The use of VIE theory has also been able to explain the proposed model better as the model could achieve a high explanative power (87%). Practical Implication – This study has provided meaningful insights to the practitioners or policymakers to realise how the stakeholders of the higher education institutions in India can be motivated to feel the need of sharing of knowledge and how they can use the social media with ease for this purpose. Originality/Value – Not much research has been conducted with regards to the usage of social media as a tool for knowledge sharing in higher education sector in India. In that sense, this study is a novel attempt to undertake such research.