Guest editorial: KM in a changing world: time for a new research agenda

Citation

Durst, S. and Temel, S. (2022), "Guest editorial: KM in a changing world: time for a new research agenda", VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, Vol. 52 No. 3, pp. 333-334. https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-07-2022-317

The special issue, KM in a changing world: Time for a new research agenda, contains seven papers that bring together new and novel ideas aimed at making visible the continued (and even stronger) role of knowledge management (KM) research in a changing world taking into consideration the complexity of challenges the entire world is exposed to.

The overall purpose of this special issue was to provide a platform to facilitate debate and steer the discourse on the future of KM research. Researchers and practitioners were invited to share and present their ideas and proposals as to how KM research can contribute to the new normal. What are novel research ways/approaches to contribute with insights that can help people, organizations, the society at large to address the changing world and all its consequences? How to increase the level of knowledge creation by making sure that old and still relevant knowledge is not discarded? How to develop and maintain KM platforms that function at the societal level? How to develop smart KM systems that support people in making fast and informed decisions despite the increasing number of fake news and information? What would be suitable KM strategies for supporting digital entrepreneurship activities? How can KM support the increasing need for new skills and capacities among people? The reskilling of persons? What should be the role of KM in an increasingly connected world? How to make sure that its role is reached? How to make the subject KM an integrated component of all curricula at higher education institutes, secondary schools and even earlier?

Submissions in the form of working papers, critical essays or full research manuscripts, adopting different theoretical lenses and worldviews, using a variety of research methods and exploring the topic with an entrepreneurial mindset were welcome.

The first paper in this special issue entitled “Influence of Psychological Safety and Social Presence on Knowledge Sharing Behavior in Higher Education Online Learning Environment” was written by Putra Endi Catyanadika and Jay Rajasekera. The purpose of their research was to examine the knowledge sharing behaviour of online learning community members in terms of their psychological safety and social presence perceptions. Using data collected from online class members at a university in Indonesia, the authors could not only show the significance of psychological safety and social presence to promote knowledge sharing behaviour but also the mediation effect of social presence on the relationship between psychological safety and knowledge sharing behaviour.

Stressing the critical role of health care in general and in health crises in particular, Basel Hammoda and Susanne Durst, in their paper “A Taxonomy of Knowledge Risks for Healthcare Organizations”, identify and describe 25 types of knowledge risks in health-care organizations. The authors also highlight how the knowledge risks manifest and elaborate on the risks’ consequences. Given the novelty of studying knowledge risks in health care, the proposed taxonomy can offer researchers a solid ground for further research.

Muhammad Anshari and Mahani Hamdan, in their paper “Understanding knowledge management and upskilling in Fourth Industrial Revolution: transformational shift and SECI model”, highlight the role of KM in steering new skills and capabilities. More precisely the authors aimed at identifying critical new skills and capabilities among organization members to stay competitive, innovative and relevant. The paper offers a roadmap for next research trends and topics in the area of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and new skills requirements. The findings offered are expected to be critical for practitioners too to meet current and future skills needs.

Samuel Foli investigated potential knowledge risks present in an ICT-supported collaborative project and establishes inter- and multi-relationships among these risks by using the total interpretive structural modelling technique and MICMAC approach in his paper “Total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) and MICMAC approach in analysing knowledge risks in ICT-supported collaborative project”. Among the seven identified knowledge risks, he found out that cybercrime and espionages are the high drivers of knowledge risks in the setting of interest.

Navjit Singh, Simran Arora and Bharti Kapur examined the current research trends in over the top, which is defined as a service or application provided to a user over the internet, by using a bibliometric analysis in the paper “Trends in over the top (OTT) research: a bibliometric analysis”. The authors found that previous studies mainly focused on technological aspects of the domain and they suggested investigating the field from marketing, behavioural, regulatory social and quality aspects as well.

Raysa Geaquinto Rocha, Florian Kragulj and Paulo Pinheiro stressed, in their paper “Practical wisdom, the (not so) secret ingredient for responsible knowledge management”, the importance of practical wisdom for the field of KM. The authors provide, among other things, an overview of the research on phronesis in the KM field and specify thematic areas in this regard.

Mhommad Ebrahim Samie and Farshad Jazghani, in their paper “Effect of knowledge management on innovative performance with the mediating effect of unlearning”, aimed at examining the effect of KM on innovative performance with the mediating effect of unlearning involving an Iranian Water Resources Management. The authors could establish a significant relationship between KM and innovation performance, with unlearning having a positive mediating effect. The findings suggest using KM in improving innovation performance by applying the unlearning process.

We hope that this editorial will encourage and motivate researchers and practitioners alike to approach the new reality together. The research field of KM seems to have become even more relevant and important in this environment to make a sustainable contribution to current and future challenges.