Knowledge maps for managing Web‐based business
| Pages | 357-364 |
| Published date | 01 October 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570210439445 |
| Date | 01 October 2002 |
| Author | Shouhong Wang |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Knowledge maps for managing Web-based business
Shouhong Wang
Department of Marketing/Business Information Systems, Charlton College
of Business, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth,
Massachusetts, USA
Introduction
Knowledge management has become one
of the important topics of management
(Yen et al., 2001). Knowledge management is a
process that deals with the creation and
utilization of high-level information within
an organization to improve its business
performance (Gupta et al., 2000). After a
period of proliferation of electronic
commerce, knowledge management plays a
crucial role in the globalization of Web-based
business (McManis et al., 2001).
There have been several new journals that
entirely devote to research into knowledge
management. In addition to this, many
traditional information systems journals
have recently published special issues on
knowledge management. Information
technology-based knowledge management
involves many disciplines. It overlaps with
information systems development (Sage and
Rouse, 1999), information resource
management (Nissen et al., 2000), decision
support systems (Ramesh and Tiwana, 1999),
artificial intelligence (Knowledge and
Information Systems: An International
Journal, 2001), human resource management
(Rastogi, 2000), and others.
Although knowledge management is
viewed as one of the important issues for
academic research and industrial practices
(Wiig, 1999), the majority of senior executives
have hardly perceived its real value yet
(De Long and Fahey, 2000). On the
managerial side, enterprises are seeking the
support of information technology to catch
the waves of business process reengineering
and electronic commerce through knowledge
management. On the scientific research side,
artificial intelligence techniques for
knowledge management (e.g. Quillian, 1968;
Shapiro, 1990; Sowa, 2000) developed in the
past decades need to make themselves in
their general contours available for
managers. On the technical side, generic
knowledge management tools and software
available at the present time have little
powers beyond traditional information
management (Ruggles, 1997) or groupware
systems (Applied Learning Labs, 2001).
Currently widely used keyword search
engines and structured menu-driven user-
computer interfaces do not meet the
challenges of knowledge management. The
mismatching between the expectations of
enterprises and the realistic capability of
information technology becomes the key
issue of knowledge management, and raises
new tasks for academic researchers and
practitioners in knowledge management.
To support knowledge management for
electronic commerce effectively, development
of human-computer interaction-based
knowledge management tools is imperative.
Knowledge management tools are used by
knowledge workers for the effective
coordination of their actions in doing online
business. Next, we discuss the characteristics
of knowledge management for electronic
commerce, and propose a knowledge
management tool for online business.
Knowledge is coordination of
actions
There have been many definitions of
knowledge used in various disciplines
(Liebowitz, 1999). In this study, we follow
Zeleny's (2000) definition: knowledge is
purposeful coordination of actions, and
knowledge cannot be separated from the
process of knowing. By this definition,
individuals construct their own knowledge
through experiencing and interacting with
the surrounding world. Hence, given the
capability of current information technology,
any item stored in computer could be data, or
information, or knowledge representation,
but is not knowledge itself. Generally
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available
at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
[ 357 ]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
102/7 [2002] 357±364
#MCB UP Limited
[ISSN 0263-5577]
[DOI 10.1108/02635570210439445]
Keywords
Knowledge workers, Internet,
Computer users, Management
Abstract
Knowledge management has
recently received considerable
attention in the Web-based
business community. This paper
discusses the key concepts of
human-computer interaction in
knowledge development, and
identifies new challenges of
knowledge management for
Web-based business. Based on
theories of knowledge
representations and semantic
networks, this paper proposes a
structure of knowledge maps for
knowledge management in the
Web-based business environment.
An example of knowledge maps for
online auctions is used to
illustrate the application of the
proposed structure of knowledge
maps.
The comments of the Editor
and anonymous reviewers
have contributed
significantly to the revision
of the paper.
To continue reading
Request your trial