Search results

1 – 10 of over 14000
Article
Publication date: 29 August 2008

Gayatri Doctor

Digital repositories are still in nascent stages of development in academic institutions especially in developing countries like India. To identify the intellectual capital

Abstract

Purpose

Digital repositories are still in nascent stages of development in academic institutions especially in developing countries like India. To identify the intellectual capital, facilitate knowledge sharing and management among the faculty and research staff at management institutions, the creation of digital institutional repositories is becoming a necessity. Management institutes in a developing country like India have constraints on infrastructure, manpower and funding. Thus identifying the resource requirements to establish an institutional knowledge repository keeping in view these constraints is necessary. The paper aims to describe a simulation on an institutional knowledge repository (IKR) test bed at a Business School using a performance and load testing tool to determine the number of simultaneous users that the IKR on a minimal server configuration can support on the institute intranet.

Design/methodology/approach

An institutional knowledge repository (IKR) at ICFAI Business School, Ahmedabad, is built on a system with a minimal configuration using open source DSpace Institutional repository software to capture the intellectual capital and enable knowledge sharing. A simulation on the IKR test bed at ICFAI Business School, using a performance and load testing tool, to determine the number of simultaneous users that the IKR on a minimal server configuration could support on the institute intranet, is described.

Findings

The simulation exercise helped determine that about ten‐15 simultaneous users could be supported on the institute intranet in the current minimal configuration that the IKR test bed was built on. The simulation exercise when repeated with a server with higher memory indicated support for 15‐20 simultaneous users. For institutions with less than 20 full time faculties and in the initial stages of IKR development this minimal system configuration was sufficient, though an IKR server with higher memory was recommended.

Research limitations/implications

Keeping in mind IT infrastructure constraints like disk space, memory and network in an academic institute; a minimal server configuration was chosen as the IKR Server and made available on the institute intranet as a part of the IKR test‐bed for the simulation exercise.

Practical implications

An IKR helps in capturing the intellectual capital and enabling knowledge sharing in a business school. An IKR can be initiated even with a minimal configuration at management institutes in a developing country like India.

Originality/value

It is critical that business schools in India should identify the intellectual capital, facilitate knowledge sharing and management among the faculty and research staff, by initiating the creation of an institutional knowledge repository. A business school with a small number of faculties can initiate the process of setting up an institutional repository even with constraints of infrastructure, manpower and funding. The IKR is of value to the faculty and institution.

Details

VINE, vol. 38 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0305-5728

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2001

Peter H. Gray

Knowledge management systems designed to facilitate the storage and distribution of codified knowledge affect the distribution of power within organizations. Drawing on the…

4559

Abstract

Knowledge management systems designed to facilitate the storage and distribution of codified knowledge affect the distribution of power within organizations. Drawing on the literature that describes the impact of information technology on power and control, this article proposes two principal outcomes of the implementation and use of such knowledge repositories. The use of knowledge repositories by employees who are net re‐users of knowledge‐based work products is expected to increase the extent to which these employees are interchangeable while reducing the level of skill they need to carry out their work. For employees who are net contributors to knowledge‐based work products, the use of knowledge repositories produces the opposite effect. When managers choose to capitalize on these effects to increase their control, employees in the former group may find their power position eroded over time.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 October 2007

Massimo Franco and Stefania Mariano

The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of information technology repositories (ITR) in the implementation of KM processes, i.e. knowledge storage and retrieval.

1849

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of information technology repositories (ITR) in the implementation of KM processes, i.e. knowledge storage and retrieval.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study design is used. Data are collected through the use of individual semi‐structured interviews, observations and document analysis.

Findings

This study found that three factors were likely to influence the knowledge retrieval process from information technology repositories and that the process of storage was connected to three distinct events that happened before, during, and after the repository was introduced into the organization. Furthermore, it was also found that knowledge management processes, i.e. knowledge storage and retrieval, were connected to individual learning.

Research limitations/implications

This study has limitations connected to empirical generalizability because it is a single case study research. Also, this study focuses only on two knowledge management processes, i.e. knowledge storage and retrieval.

Practical implications

Findings suggest the need for managers to recognize the influence of leadership on knowledge management processes, i.e. knowledge sharing and storage. Another implication is that, when an organization wants to make information technology repositories more effective, rules and templates should be implemented to correctly use and update such repositories.

Originality/value

This research identifies the connections between knowledge management processes, i.e. knowledge storage and retrieval and individual learning processes. It also suggests four strategies to implement in order to make information technology repositories more effective.

Details

VINE, vol. 37 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0305-5728

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 January 2021

John N. Walsh

Knowledge reuse using electronic repositories, while increasingly important, requires more thorough analysis. Service modularity has been recently applied in services research but…

Abstract

Purpose

Knowledge reuse using electronic repositories, while increasingly important, requires more thorough analysis. Service modularity has been recently applied in services research but has not been integrated into knowledge reuse studies. The purpose of this paper is to draw on both service modularity and knowledge reuse to develop and validate a framework that categorises forms of packaged knowledge in an electronic repository.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on knowledge reuse and service modularity research, a model is proposed. The model is empirically tested using a case study research design.

Findings

This research highlighted the value of including both context and process as key dimensions when packaging service knowledge for reuse. This study identifies knowledge types present in modular solutions and how they were configured and reconfigured in the knowledge repository. This research identified five ways modularised services were leveraged. In addition to the traditional scale and stretch approaches, already present, but conflated, in the service literature, three other configurations were identified; shrink, separate and segment.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are based on a single empirical case study which may limit the generalisability of the findings. There is a need for additional research to further validate the model in additional contexts.

Practical implications

This study provides managers with empirical examples of how a modular repository was used in practice and outlines five ways of recombining contextual and processual elements to enable service codification and reuse. It has implications for how knowledge is decomposed and recombined in repositories, suggesting an explicit separation of context and process knowledge while developing modular elements within both.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that explicitly uses context and process as dimensions and draws on service modularity to understand types of knowledge reuse in electronic repositories. In doing so, it adds value by developing and validating a model that identifies five types of reuse.

Details

VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, vol. 52 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5891

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2008

Gayatri Doctor and Smitha Ramachandran

Management Institutions in India are being ranked by various surveys, which give importance to parameters like placements, brand value and intellectual capital. Intellectual

1578

Abstract

Purpose

Management Institutions in India are being ranked by various surveys, which give importance to parameters like placements, brand value and intellectual capital. Intellectual capital of a Management Institute is the published scholarly material of its faculty consisting of of articles, journal papers published, case studies, books compiled, etc. Use of technologies like Institutional Repositories for capturing the intellectual capital and enabling knowledge sharing in academic institutions especially in developing countries like India are emerging. The purpose of this paper is to describe a survey conducted to ascertain different considerations for implementing an institutional repository and the creation of the pilot Institutional Repository at the ICFAI Business School, Ahmedabad using the Open Source DSpace Institutional Repository Software.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey conducted at ICFAI Business School, Ahmedabad to ascertain the need of an institutional repository and the different aspects associated with the setting up of institutional repository is described. The phases involved in the development of the pilot Institutional Repository at ICFAI Business School, Ahmedabad using open source DSpace Institutional repository software to capture the intellectual capital and enable knowledge sharing are also described.

Findings

Installation of the Institutional Repository is complex, requiring technical know‐how of different software. Creation of communities and collections, archiving of documents into the Repository, enriching them with metadata are essential for efficient retrieval of information. Some knowledge of computers and DSpace software is essential.

Research limitations/implications

Once the Institutional Repository is created it needs to be maintained. Faculty and staff need to be trained for proper uploading of documents and submitting metadata into the repository.

Practical implications

Knowledge sharing of the conference papers presented, journal papers written, books edited, etc., among the faculty of the Institute is possible with the creation of the digital repository. The intellectual capital of the Institute is available at one centralized location facilitating easy information retrieval.

Originality/value

The Institutional repository provides ICFAI Business School, Ahmedabad with a central facility for systematic archiving of its “intellectual capital” – the scholarly material of its faculty and research staff. Awareness and availability of the scholarly material of peer faculty enables knowledge sharing. The Institutional Repository is useful to the faculties, research staff and the institution. Management Institutions, especially in India, should be encouraged to develop Institutional Repositories of their intellectual capital and share knowledge.

Details

VINE, vol. 38 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0305-5728

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 September 2020

Lisa Kruesi, Frada Burstein and Kerry Tanner

The purpose of this study is to assess the opportunity for a distributed, networked open biomedical repository (OBR) using a knowledge management system (KMS) conceptual…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess the opportunity for a distributed, networked open biomedical repository (OBR) using a knowledge management system (KMS) conceptual framework. An innovative KMS conceptual framework is proposed to guide the transition from a traditional, siloed approach to a sustainable OBR.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reports on a cycle of action research, involving literature review, interviews and focus group with leaders in biomedical research, open science and librarianship, and an audit of elements needed for an Australasian OBR; these, along with an Australian KM standard, informed the resultant KMS framework.

Findings

The proposed KMS framework aligns the requirements for an OBR with the people, process, technology and content elements of the KM standard. It identifies and defines nine processes underpinning biomedical knowledge – discovery, creation, representation, classification, storage, retrieval, dissemination, transfer and translation. The results comprise an explanation of these processes and examples of the people, process, technology and content dimensions of each process. While the repository is an integral cog within the collaborative, distributed open science network, its effectiveness depends on understanding the relationships and linkages between system elements and achieving an appropriate balance between them.

Research limitations/implications

The current research has focused on biomedicine. This research builds on the worldwide effort to reduce barriers, in particular paywalls to health knowledge. The findings present an opportunity to rationalize and improve a KMS integral to biomedical knowledge.

Practical implications

Adoption of the KMS framework for a distributed, networked OBR will facilitate open science through reducing duplication of effort, removing barriers to the flow of knowledge and ensuring effective management of biomedical knowledge.

Social implications

Achieving quality, permanency and discoverability of a region’s digital assets is possible through ongoing usage of the framework for researchers, industry and consumers.

Originality/value

The framework demonstrates the dependencies and interplay of elements and processes to frame an OBR KMS.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 24 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2023

Gema Bueno de la Fuente, Carmen Agustín-Lacruz, Mariângela Spotti Lopes Fujita and Ana Lúcia Terra

The purpose of this study is to analyse the recommendations on knowledge organisation from guidelines, policies and procedure manuals of a sample of institutional repositories and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyse the recommendations on knowledge organisation from guidelines, policies and procedure manuals of a sample of institutional repositories and networks within the Latin American area and observe the level of follow-up of international guidelines.

Design/methodology/approach

Presented is an exploratory and descriptive study of repositories’ professional documents. This study comprised four steps: definition of convenience sample; development of data codebook; coding of data; and analysis of data and conclusions drawing. The convenience sample includes representative sources at three levels: local institutional repositories, national aggregators and international network and aggregators. The codebook gathers information from the repositories’ sample, such as institutional rules and procedure manuals openly available, or recommendations on the use of controlled vocabularies.

Findings

The results indicate that at the local repository level, the use of controlled vocabularies is not regulated, leaving the choice of terms to the authors’ discretion. It results in a set of unstructured keywords, not standardised terms, mixing subject terms with other authorities on persons, institutions or places. National aggregators do not regulate these issues either and limit to pointing to international guidelines and policies, which simply recommend the use of controlled vocabularies, using URIs to facilitate interoperability.

Originality/value

The originality of this study lies in identifying how the principles of knowledge organisation are effectively applied by institutional repositories, at local, national and international levels.

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2003

Feng‐Kwei Wang, Tawnya Means and John Wedman

Case‐based reasoning (CBR), which has long been considered a branch of artificial intelligence, has recently gained great attention in the knowledge management circle because of…

Abstract

Case‐based reasoning (CBR), which has long been considered a branch of artificial intelligence, has recently gained great attention in the knowledge management circle because of its capability for storing and retrieving experience‐based knowledge by emulating human memory, and its ability to function similar to organizational memory to preserve organizational knowledge. While many successful CBR systems have been developed as knowledge repositories for preserving intellectual capital and for problem solving in business communities, both the concept and methodology of CBR are still novelties in education communities. While there are a plethora of projects and practical pursuits for CBR applications in business, literature relating to designing, developing and evaluating practical CBR educational applications is conspicuously scant. Based on the issues encountered and lessons learned in a CBR system development project, this paper attempts to provide some pragmatic guidelines for those who are interested in applying the CBR knowledge repository approach to supporting knowledge creation and diffusion in the education domain.

Details

On the Horizon, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1074-8121

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 May 2020

Hero Khezri, Peyman Rezaei-Hachesu and Reza Ferdousi

Nowadays, there is a rapid growth in different sciences that has led to thousands of publications in the form of scientific research papers. The readers of these papers are…

Abstract

Purpose

Nowadays, there is a rapid growth in different sciences that has led to thousands of publications in the form of scientific research papers. The readers of these papers are generally the people that are involved in science (i.e. researchers, students, teachers and professors). On the other hand, practitioners rarely use these articles as a resource to learn and apply new methods. They prefer an easy to understand, step-by-step guide (i.e. cookbook) helping them skip over the difficult scientific terms and structures. Therefore, because of a shortage of tools in this space, it takes practitioners many years to use newly developed methods.

Design/methodology/approach

The purpose of this study is to review the literature on verified repositories and presents the necessity of method repositories.

Findings

This paper aims to introduce method repositories as new tools to bridge the gap between science and practice.

Originality/value

Method repositories presented in this paper act as an easy to understand guide for newly developed methods in specific fields.

Details

Digital Library Perspectives, vol. 36 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5816

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

Elisha Ondieki Makori, Dorothy Njiraine and Peninah Talam

This paper aims to assess practical aspects of implementation of institutional repositories (IRs) in Africa with reference to the University of Nairobi and provide useful…

1107

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to assess practical aspects of implementation of institutional repositories (IRs) in Africa with reference to the University of Nairobi and provide useful guidelines to the issues and lessons learned to the other practitioners.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used cross-sectional descriptive survey design to gather and analyze data that was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. In addition, questionnaires, interview schedule and observation guide were utilized to collect data from the respondents.

Findings

First, the study established that the IR has not been well integrated into mainstream information services of the library. Second, there is lack of awareness on the use of IR as an information resource on the part of students and staff. Third, there is need to integrate different forms of information into the IR including graphics, video and sound to carter for the whole population of users even those with disabilities. Finally, there is need for aggressive or serious rebranding, marketing and promotion of the IR.

Research limitations/implications

IRs are vital sources of information that are increasingly being integrated and utilized in African higher education. Discussion of the University of Nairobi as a case study provides practical lessons, implications and home grown solutions for other institutions of higher learning in the African context.

Practical implications

IR is not only contemporary or emerging source of knowledge, information and communication but also fundamental or basic in institutions of higher learning. Consequently, IR provides excellent opportunities for universities to expand knowledge beyond internal and external learning environments.

Social implications

Being fundamental sources of knowledge, IRs provide and support teaching, learning, research activities, scholarly communications and community services in universities and the society at large. As information and communication hubs, IRs have reinvented the image and role of universities as sources of knowledge in the society.

Originality/value

Universities need to embrace IRs as vital and valid sources of knowledge and learning. Developing IRs without aggressive rebranding, marketing and promotional strategies is not enough for universities, associated institutions plus the information staff, but with prove that the resources are being utilized to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

Details

New Library World, vol. 116 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 14000