Effective societal knowledge management

Knowledge transfer strategies and practices for higher education institutions

Purpose

This study aims to identify effective strategies and practices for higher education institutions (HEIs) to enhance their knowledge recipients’ knowledge absorptive capacity.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaire surveys and interviews were conducted to examine the effectiveness of a knowledge transfer (KT) project and these were administered by HEIs in Hong Kong. Pre- and post-test questionnaire surveys with t-tests were used to evaluate changes in the knowledge absorptive capacity of 1,014 participants from 20 schools. Qualitative interviews were conducted to investigate school leaders’ perception of the effectiveness of the KT strategies.

Findings

Results revealed significant differences between the pre- and post-tests in all the elements of absorptive capacity. The processes of knowledge acquisition, contextualisation, internalisation and externalisation in a closed-loop mechanism were identified as effective KT strategies. Conducting training programmes, workshops, consultations, work-based studies and presentation seminars were found to be effective KT practices to support the recipients in acquiring, contextualising, internalising and externalising knowledge.

Practical implications

HEIs should provide consultative support to recipients by conducting work-based studies and presentations to enhance their knowledge absorptive capacities.

Originality/value

This study contributes empirical evidence to validate the application of Liyanage et al.’s (2009) KT model to HEIs’ KT model for the purpose of designing KT activities and enhancing the absorption capacities of the recipients. This research contributes an empirical closed-loop KT model, effective KT strategies and practices for HEIs to support their knowledge recipients so that they can internalise the acquired knowledge.

Identification and prioritization of the barriers of knowledge management implementation using fuzzy analytical network process

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers of knowledge management (KM) implementation in Alborz Province industrial Parks Corporation and prioritize them using fuzzy analytical network process (FANP).

Design/methodology/approach

Through an in-depth review of the literature on KM and researcher findings from observations and interviews with experts, the main barriers of KM implementation, namely, organizational culture, organizational structure, human resource, technology and miscellaneous factors along with their related factors in the surveyed organization were identified. Then, based on the information gathered, an expert questionnaire was developed. Finally, the priority of each main barrier and their sub-factors were determined using FANP.

Findings

The results show that human resource and organizational culture factors with the weights of 0.66 and 0.22, respectively, have the highest ranking and therefore are the most important barriers. The technology factor with the weight of 0.00002 is the least important barrier in implementing KM in the surveyed corporation.

Research limitations/implications

One of the limitations of this study is the generalizability of the findings, which may be limited by the single case study method used.

Originality/value

There are fewer studies about KM barriers specifically with a focus on prioritizing them in organizations, especially in the context of Iran as a developing country. This study develops a comprehensive and solid mathematical technique to prioritize the identified barriers of KM implementation in the context of Iran.