Title: IT’s Role on Knowledge Management in the Sales Forecasting Process at IKEA: A Focus on Statistical Perspective Definition: Knowledge Management (KM) can be summarized as tools, methods and philosophies that are used to create, share, develop and organize knowledge within an organization. Information Technology (IT) refer to the technologies utilized in promoting Knowledge Management. Sales forecasting is the process of estimating future sales and is part of an organization's daily operations. Purpose: To offer an insight into knowledge management in sales forecasting, and the role of IT in the process. Method: This case study adopts a qualitative research method and an abductive research approach. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with employees at IKEA who are developing a statistical sales forecast model. A thematic analysis method has been implemented to identify themes and patterns in the collected data. Target group: Parties with an interest in ITs role to manage knowledge within an organization. Conclusion: It is found that the use of IT is crucial in the development of a statistical sales forecast model. IT is clearly required since it involves data science and machine learning. It can be said that IT has an important role in the continuous creation of sales forecasts as it provides historical sales data on which they are based. Furthermore, it appears that the development of a statistical sales forecast model requires a high level of knowledge management, and that IT serves a central role in this development. We find that the use of IT supports the knowledge-creation processes on individual and organizational levels in order to create the sales forecasting model. However, IT is not the source of knowledge creation, it can rather be seen as a support in knowledge management initiatives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-168071 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Johansson, Ellen, Härdig, Stephanie |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Informatik, Linköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet, Informatik, Linköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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