A review of prior, relevant literature is an essential feature of any academic project. An effective review creates a firm foundation for advancing knowledge. It facilitates theory development, closes areas where a plethora of research exists, and uncovers areas where research is needed. In the information systems (IS) field, we see few published review articles. As a result, the progress of our field is impeded. To address this concern, the MIS Quarterly launched MISQ Review several years ago. The clear intention was to accelerate the accumulation of IS knowledge. A particular goal was to advance the state of theory within the IS field. The stated purpose of MISQ Review is to …promote MIS research by publishing articles that conceptualize research areas and survey and synthesize prior research. These articles will provide important input in setting directions for future research. 1 The lack of theoretical progress in the IS field may be surprising. From an empirical viewpoint, the IS field resembles other management fields. Specifically, as fields of inquiry develop, their theories are often placed on a hierarchy from ad hoc classification systems (in which categories are used to summarize empirical observations), to taxonomies (in which the relationships between the categories can be described), to conceptual frameworks (in which propositions summarize explanations and predictions), to

Organizations are attempting to leverage their knowledge resources by employing knowledge management (KM) systems, a key form of which are electronic knowledge repositories (EKRs). A large number of KM initiatives fail due to reluctance of employees to share knowledge through these systems. Motivated by such concerns, this study formulates and tests a theoretical model to explain EKR usage by knowledge contributors. The model employs social exchange theory to identify cost and benefit factors affecting EKR usage, and social capital theory to account for the moderating influence of contextual factors. The model is validated through a large-scale survey of public sector organizations. The results reveal that knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others significantly impact EKR usage by knowledge contributors. Contextual factors (generalized trust, pro-sharing norms, and identification) moderate the impact of codification effort, reciprocity, and organizational reward on EKR usage, respectively. It can be seen that extrinsic benefits (reciprocity and organizational reward) impact EKR usage contingent on particular contextual factors whereas the effects of intrinsic benefits (knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others) on EKR usage are not moderated by contextual factors. The loss of knowledge power and image do not appear to impact EKR usage by knowledge contributors. Besides contributing to theory building in KM, the results of this study inform KM practice.

Modern enterprises are replete with numerous online processes. Many must be performed frequently and are tedious, while others are done less frequently yet are complex or hard to remember. We present interviews with knowledge workers that reveal a need for mechanisms to automate the execution of and to share knowledge about these processes. In response, we have developed the CoScripter system (formerly Koala [ 11]), a collaborative scripting environment for recording, automating, and sharing web-based processes. We have deployed CoScripter within a large corporation for more than 10 months. Through usage log analysis and interviews with users, we show that CoScripter has addressed many user automation and sharing needs, to the extent that more than 50 employees have voluntarily incorporated it into their work practice. We also present ways people have used CoScripter and general issues for tools that support automation and sharing of how-to knowledge.

Abstract This paper is presenting a generic ontology-based user modeling architecture, (OntobUM), applied in the context of a Knowledge Management System (KMS). Due to their powerful knowledge representation formalism and associated inference mechanisms, ontology-based systems are emerging as a natural choice for the next generation of KMSs operating in organizational, interorganizational as well as community contexts. User models, often addressed as user profiles, have been included in KMSs mainly as simple ways of capturing the user preferences and/or competencies. We extend this view by including other characteristics of the users relevant in the KM context and we explain the reason for doing this. The proposed user modeling system relies on a user ontology, using Semantic Web technologies, based on the IMS LIP specifications, and it is integrated in an ontology-based KMS called Ontologging. We are presenting a generic framework for implicit and explicit ontology-based user modeling. 1.

Virtual teams are becoming apreferred mechanism for harnessing, integrating, and applying knowledge that is distributed across organizations and in pockets of collaborative networks. In this article we recognize that knowledge application, among the three phases of knowledgemanagement,hasreceivedlittleresearchattention. Paradoxically, this phase contributes most to value creation. Extending communication theory, we identify four challenges to knowledge integration in virtual team environments: constraints on transactive memory, insufficient mutual understanding, failure in sharing and retaining contextual knowledge, and inflexibilityoforganizationalties.Wethenproposeknowledge management system (KMS) approaches to meet these challenges. Finally, we identify promising avenues for future research in this area.

Knowledge has widely been acknowledged as one of the most important factors for corporate competitiveness, and we have witnessed an explosion of IS/IT solutions claiming to provide support for knowledge management (KM). A relevant question to ask, though, is how systems and technology intended for information such as the intranet can be able to assist in the managing of knowledge. To understand this, we must examine the relationship between information and knowledge. Building on Polanyi’s theories, I argue that all knowledge is tacit, and what can be articulated and made tangible outside the human mind is merely information. However, information and knowledge affect one another. By adopting a multi-perspective of the intranet where information, awareness, and communication are all considered, this interaction can best be supported and the intranet can become a useful and people-inclusive KM environment.

This paper reports the preliminary results of a project that is investigating the theoretic foundations of decision support systems (DSS). The project is principally motivated by a concern for the direction and relevance of DSS research. The main areas of research focus are the decision and judgement theoretic base of the discipline, the research strategies used in published articles, and the professional relevance of DSS research. The project will analyse DSS articles published in 17 selected journals from 1990 to 2002. This preliminary report is based on the analysis of 358 papers. The findings indicate that DSS research is dominated by positivist research (in particular laboratory experiments and surveys), is heavily influenced by the work of Herbert Simon, and has a healthy balance of theory and application, but, it is poorly grounded in judgement and decision-making research, and falls down in the identification of the nature of clients and users.

Purpose -- To provide executives and scholars with pragmatic understanding about integrating knowledge management strategy and technologies in business processes for successful performance. Design/methodology/approach -- A comprehensive review of theory, research, and practices on knowledge management develops a framework that contrasts existing technology-push models with proposed strategy-pull models. The framework explains how the "critical gaps" between technology inputs, related knowledge processes, and business performance outcomes can be bridged for the two types of models. Illustrative case studies of real-time enterprise (RTE) business model designs for both successful and unsuccessful companies are used to provide real world understanding of the proposed framework.

In recent years, several organizations have implemented non-mandatory information and communication systems that escape the conventional behavioral logic of understanding acceptance and usage from a normative perspective of compliance with the beliefs of others. Because voluntary systems require users' volitional behavior, researchers have traced recent implementation failures to a lack of user commitment. However, gaps in our understanding of volitional usage behavior and user commitment have made it difficult to advance theory, research, and practice on this issue. To validate a proposed research model, cross-sectional, between-subjects, and within-subjects field data were collected from 714 users at the time of initial adoption and after six months of extended use. The model explained between 44.1% and 58.5% of the variance in adoption and usage behavior based upon direct effects of user commitment. Findings suggest that user commitment plays a critical role in the volitional acceptance and usage of such systems. Affective commitment, i.e., internalization and identification based upon personal norms, exhibits a sustained positive influence on usage behavior. In contrast, continuance commitment, i.e., compliance based upon social norms, shows a sustained negative influence from initial adoption to extended use. Theory development based upon Kelman's social influence framework offers new empirical insights about system users' commitment and how it affects volitional usage behavior.

Abstract – This study examines the processes of organizational knowledge creation in two highly virtualized teams, one involved in the design of a small city car and the second in the re-design of a small industrial vehicle. Using Nonaka’s model of organizational knowledge creation, we explore how the virtualization of knowledge based processes, i.e. the intensive exploitation of ICTs in support of knowledge-based activities, has shaped new forms of knowledge creation both at individual and organizational level. In contrast with previous studies [1] that identified knowledge codification as the main contribution of ICTs, this study provides detailed micro-level evidence on the ability of virtual technologies to support the transfer and the creation of new knowledge both at explicit and tacit levels. Several