21-08-2014, 10:06 AM
Knowledge Portals: Components, Functionalities, and
Deployment Challenges
Knowledge Portals.pdf (Size: 383.06 KB / Downloads: 72)
Abstract
Knowledge Portals (KPs) are highly integrative Knowledge Management Systems
(KMS) that promise to synthesize widely dispersed knowledge and to interconnect
individuals in order to provide a ‘one-stop knowledge shop’. Yet, KPs face major
challenges in practice, as the intricacies of knowledge exchange are subject to varied
individual and social factors. At the same time, growing anecdotal evidence from case
studies indicates KPs’ enormous potential. In this paper, we take some initial steps
towards a theory for KPs that more distinctly conceptualizes KPs and emphasizes a KP’s
role to unify networking and repository KMS features. We describe three major
challenges to successful KP deployment: (1) sufficient contribution, (2) favorable
organizational culture, and (3) knowledge integration—and validate these as applicable
to KPs through a review of 42 empirical papers.
Introduction
The knowledge-based view of the firm (Penrose 1995) describes knowledge as a key resource for
organizations, suggesting that organizations can be profitably viewed as knowledge systems (Alavi and
Tiwana 2002; Gelbuda and Soerensen 2005; Tsoukas 1996). However, as knowledge per se resides solely
in the minds of individuals, the collective knowledge of an organization’s members is highly distributed,
often sub-optimally allocated and not readily available where it is needed, and thus only arduously
translated into competitive advantage. The problem of dispersed knowledge suggests the value of the
process of knowledge integration, which denotes the combination and systemization of individuals’
knowledge to make it available as valuable situation-adapted knowledge (Alavi and Tiwana 2002), leading
to higher competitiveness, e.g., by increasing customer focus through more purposeful knowledge reuse
(Markus 2001).
Components and Functionalities of a Knowledge Portal
As a background to our discussion of problems in deploying KPs, we now discuss typical components of a
KP and the repository- and the network oriented-functionalities they provide. Our definition thus goes
beyond views of a portal as just web access to knowledge artifacts. We cover in turn the knowledge
organization system, repository access/knowledge repositories, search, applications and services,
collaboration and communication tools, personalization and role management, and the interface, as
Challenges for KP Deployment
Having presented KP components and functionalities, we now discuss three main challenges for the
successful deployment of KPs. By successful we mean that the system achieves knowledge reuse, i.e., users
use the system and find useful knowledge. There is a substantial literature on technology adoption that is
potentially relevant to the question of successful KP deployment. For example, factors such as perceived
usefulness or top management support are undoubtedly as relevant for KPs as for other systems. The 6
resulting challenge is to identify factors that are specific to KPs, either novel factors or particular
influences on generic factors. We consider factors related to the system, the individual user, the
organizational context of use and the knowledge itself.
Suggestions for Further Research
Based on the literature, we suggest that managers should seek to incentivize and reward contributions to
KPs, while addressing concerns about loss of personal advantage from possessing unique knowledge. In
other words, we conceptualize that KPs can be powerful tools if they properly induce sufficient
contribution, work in a favorable organizational culture, and support knowledge integration and we
propose the complimentary research hypotheses.