A framework of knowledge management systems: issues and challenges for theory and practice

Abstract

As the basis of value creation increasingly depends on the leverage of the intangible assets of firms, knowledge management systems (KMS) are emerging as powerfulsources of competitive advantage. However, the general recognition of the importance of such systems seems to be accompanied by a technology-induced drive to implement systems with inadequate consideration of the fundamental knowledge problems that the KMS are likely to solve. This paper contributes to the stream of research on knowledge management systems by proposingan inductively developed framework for this important class of information systems, classifying KMS based on the locus of the knowledge and the a priori structuring of contents. This framework provides a means to explore issues related to KMS and unifying dimensions underlying different types of KMS. The contingencies that we discuss---the size and diversity of networks, the maintenance of knowledge flows and the long term effects of the use of KMS---provide a window into work in a number of reference disciplines that would enrich the utility of KMS and also open up fruitful areas for future research.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 257 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.