Title: A knowledge diffusion model of substitutive knowledge for evaluating the change of enterprise benefits

Authors: Victor B. Kreng; Chih Ming Tsai

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Information Management, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 University Road, Tainan 701, Taiwan. ' Department of Marketing and Distribution Management, Tung Fang Institute of Technology, No. 110 Dongfang Road, Hunei Township, Kaohsiung County 829, Taiwan

Abstract: Since knowledge is difficult to be quantified due to its intangible characteristics of diffusion, depreciation, growth, and substitution with time; how to identify the change of knowledge value has become a crucial issue for enterprises. For this purpose, the knowledge diffusion model of the substitutive knowledge, which is based on the activity-based costing (ABC) model and the diffusion model of single knowledge, is presented to evaluate the changes of knowledge value and its corresponding enterprise benefits. Various parameters are considered simultaneously in the proposed model to illustrate many particular dimensions regarding knowledge management. In order to enhance the rationality and practicability, an electronic company in Taiwan is adopted as a case study. The results indicate that such model can appropriately describe the relationships between knowledge value and enterprise benefits. Therefore, intangible knowledge can be studied by means of analysing the parameters involved in the proposed model. The change of each parameter can also be used to demonstrate the performance of executing knowledge management.

Keywords: knowledge diffusion models; substitutive knowledge; knowledge management; knowledge strategies; enterprise benefits; activity-based costing; ABC; electronics industry; Taiwan; knowledge value.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITM.2012.047849

International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 2012 Vol.11 No.3, pp.167 - 185

Published online: 09 Aug 2014 *

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