A
Case Study Of E-Knowledge Networks In High-Tech SMEs
Te Fu Chen, Ching Yun
University , Taiwan
ABSTRACT:
This research adopts the case study method to assess critical sources of innovation and determinants of e-Knowledge Networks (EKN) and how they can be leveraged to accumulate innovation capacity to the decision to implement an innovation management in the context of the high-tech SMEs. The completed questionnaire, company reports/industry-specific newsletters and an in-depth interview created an established chain of evidence for each company.
The core issue of the modified integrated EKN model is to create value for customers. It provides a language that executive teams can use to discuss the direction priorities of their enterprises. They can view their strategic value measures, not as performance indicators in four independent perspectives, but as a serious of cause-and-effect linkages among objectives in the four balanced perspectives.
The propositions of this research can act as a list of items for high-tech SMEs to address when adopting EKN. This helps to ensure that the essential issues and approaches are covered during ideas, concepts, implementation and commercialisation. For academics, it provides a common language for them to discuss and study the approaches, which are crucial for the success of EKN in SMEs for future research.
The integrated EKN model can be an easy-to-follow innovation model for high-tech SMEs to address when adopting e-knowledge network. This helps to ensure that the essential determinants and approaches for innovation processes are covered during ICI (Ideas, Concepts, Invention), pre-project, project and project product launch/follow-up. In other words, from research, development, design, manufacturing, marketing/distribution to form the EKN for implementation/commercialisation. For industries, this provides a practical and complete business model for them to use as a reference and study the innovation approaches (the advantage and disadvantage), which are crucial for the success of EKN in high-tech SMEs.
Keywords: EKN, e-Knowledge network, High-tech, SMEs
1. The Theoretical Foundation
Of E-Knowledge Networks
The universal adoption of the Internet has created the opportunity for firms and other organisations to establish collaborative networks of partners, with whom they may exchange strategic knowledge in order to achieve mutually beneficial objectives. This electronic commerce knowledge can be termed “e-knowledge” (Holsapple and Singh, 2000). These “e-knowledge networks” could not have existed just a few short years ago because there was no widely accepted platform for continuous and unattended exchange of information and knowledge about markets, customers, demand, inventories, and so forth.
Today, such collaborative networks are evolving in every economic sector in support of business-to-consumer commerce, business-to-business commerce, government-to-citizen interactivity, peer-to-peer exchanges, and internal connectivity through intranets (Hackney et al., 2000; Marshall and McKay, 2000) The technology of the Internet has become the greatest enabler of knowledge exchange within and between companies.
2. The
Research Model Of E-Knowledge Network
Under knowledge economy, the trend of global enterprises and organizations all has created their EKN. Such as Microsoft Knowledge Network Team Blog, this blog is about Microsoft Knowledge Network, a valuable add-on to Office SharePoint Server 2007 that enhances enterprise search for people by automating the discovery of the business relationships and subject matter expertise of everyone in the network. Knowledge Network provides vital business insights that enable users to make better decisions more quickly (Microsoft, 2007).
Another example is the London Knowledge Network Proposition; its value proposition is:
Creating collaborative advantage for
The London Knowledge Network is a diverse and impartial community of knowledge-focused practitioners, a unique collaborative group focused on what is commonly known as “knowledge management” and its effective implementation within organisations. This not-for-profit members’ network, initiated by the University of Greenwich Business School, offers organisations that are considering or already deploying knowledge-focused strategies the opportunity to collaborate with like inded organisations seeking to find solutions to their own knowledge management issues. At December 2005, it had 14 members, 6 private sector, 7 public sector and 1 London Universities. The Network is steered by the members (via a Steering Group) for the benefit of members and offers a unique mix of collaborative and peer-to-peer processes including knowledge-focused events, visits and activities designed to stimulate understanding and application of the role of knowledge in 21st century organisations.
Member organisations
gain the following benefits:
¨ They join an elite group of organisations and knowledge-focused practitioners from diverse sectors and backgrounds who are all committed to finding, sharing and applying effective knowledge-based solutions to real organisational issues through active participation and collaboration.
¨ They can have up to 7 key staff participate in a varied, high-quality annual programme of at least fifteen events, workshops, visits and activities including:
¨ Opportunities to hear from and work with leading knowledge-focused thinkers such as Karl Erik Sveiby, Tom Stewart, Victor Newman, Verna Allee and David Snowden.
¨ Visits to exemplar organisations deploying knowledge-focused strategies - such as IBM, Air Products, Unipart and Participation in a collaborative action-research programme covering key knowledge-focused areas developed to meet members’ needs and designed to add real value to members’ knowledge-focused implementation programmes in the short, medium and longer terms.
¨ An annual facilitated bespoke knowledge-focused workshop developed to your own organisational agenda.
¨
The opportunity to shape and
develop the Network and its programmes for 2004 and
beyond. (
Merrill et al (2001) proposed some perspectives for an e-knowledge network model as follows: E-knowledge networks combine the positive benefits of knowledge management (KM) systems with those of inter-organisational systems (IOS). They also address some of the pitfalls of each, creating a powerful driver for advancing organisational objectives.
Figure 1 highlights some of the characteristics of e-knowledge networks. When firms engage in e-knowledge networks, they are able to share valuable knowledge, often created with emerging automated technologies such as data-mining and intelligent agents, with their strategic partners, thereby enabling improved organisational effectiveness. Furthermore, entirely new business models are facilitated with the development and adoption of certain newer e-knowledge networks. Many of these emerging networks are characterised by automated exchange of rich customer knowledge by unattended computer systems, programmed to capture and evaluate knowledge with data-mining algorithms, share it with strategic allies, and direct the operation of key interactive processes.
The keys to success in this evolving new economy are situational awareness and flexibility. These goals can be achieved by implementing electronic systems that generate immediate (real-time) knowledge about internal functions and processes, about customers and markets, about strategic partners, and about supply-chain partners – suppliers, vendors, dealers and distributors. Such systems allow firms to be dynamic and flexible, thereby allowing rapid changes in their strategies and activities. Firms can use this knowledge to create new internal and external structures and relationships, leading to further improvements in knowledge, which leads to continuous strategy improvements.
As shown in Figure 1, Merrill et al (2001) anticipate that the trend towards creating strategic e-knowledge networks will result in many long-term alliances that were hitherto considered infeasible or unlikely. They propose four such long-term alliances:
1. Supply-chain management networks
2. Adserver networks
3. Content syndication networks
4. B2B exchange networks.
Figure 1: Aspects of e-knowledge network (Source: Merrill et al, 2001)
Figure 1 and the above discussion highlight the exchange of information and knowledge between e-knowledge network partners that are altering the implementation of B2B supply chain practices. These partners, in many cases, are altering their procurement practices to leverage the benefits of rich knowledge exchange for long-term success.
The four industrial alliances described in the study suggest that e-knowledge networks are established as central elements of several emerging inter-organisational market spaces. The analysis suggests that as the Internet expands its reach, along with its ubiquitous and often automated information-sharing capabilities, the ability to create knowledge-based networks of partners will be critical to maintaining competitive advantage. Firms will learn to rely on strategic partners for both core and peripheral functions, and will outsource significant processes to organisations that specialise in such functions and activities. (Merrill et al, 2001)
3. The
Development Of An Integrated Model Of Ekn For High-Tech Smes
Based on the comprehensive literature review on EKN, a conceptual integrated E-knowledge network model for high-tech SMEs has been developed as Figure 2. The details explain in the following sector.
3.1. The Crucial Factor Of E-Knowledge Network
According to the theories of literature review, the study constructs an e-knowledge network for high-tech SMEs to achieve SCA. The crucial factors of e-knowledge network are described as the following:
The EKN as a methodology used to efficiently
integrate suppliers and research-intensive organisation
to ensure materials and information are made accessible and distributed at the
right qualities, to the right locations, at the right time, in order to speed
the process of innovation, reduce costs and improve quality. The EKN provides a
framework for a seamless and streamlined approach to planning, sourcing and
delivering products. As in manufacturing, optimising
the EKN is critical to maximising throughput and
enabling flexibility. EKN introduces intellectual capital, information
management and regulatory compliance into the traditional supply chain
approach. (Sciquest Company, 2004)
The EKN involves full co-operation between marketers, designers, manufacturers
and distributors in practice. Although EKN can deal with production, sales,
design, finance and other functions, enterprises have no such internal organisation to cater for these functions. That is to say,
the enterprise will not relinquish its key functions. Concerning the rest of
the company’s functions, due to limited resources and insufficient
competitiveness, the enterprise must become a virtual company. It must use
every means to borrow strength from outside to increase its competitive edge.
The target of this borrowed strength might be the upstream suppliers or the
competition or the customer. (
In summary, EKN emphasises the firm’s need to build a direct knowledge of its consumers and to differentiate the service, product and brand from those of competitors. It asserts that small, distinct service experiences will combine to create a strong overriding impression of quality and value, and this mechanism is the foundation of achieving a strong brand. However, to be achieved in practice, these service targets need to be understood and communicated clearly up and down the EKN. This involves full co-operation between marketers, designers, manufacturers and distributors. In brief, an EKN meets the needs of value creation.
The EKN is a methodology used to efficiently integrate suppliers and research-intensive organisations to ensure materials and information are made accessible and distributed in the right quantities, to the right locations, at the right time, in order to speed up the process of innovation, reduce costs and improve quality. Suppliers and collaborating partners can assist the innovation process through access to technologies, skills or information, and providing complementary expertise to improve the speed to market of new product developments. In brief, an EKN meets the needs of continued innovation.
Finally, an EKN is able to speed up the process of innovation and distribute products and services in the right quantities, to the right locations, at the right time, and reduce costs and improve quality for product and process innovation.
The EKN is constructed by research, development, industrial/commercial design, manufacturing and marketing/distribution. It feeds back continued innovation and value creation to the core innovation system to form a cycle of continued innovation and value creation. Therefore, the integrated EKN model can help high-tech SMEs to achieve SCA, due to the cyclic effect of continued innovation and value creation between the core innovation system and the EKN.
Figure 2: An
Integrated Model Of E-Knowledge Network For High-Tech Smes
In acquiring sustainable competitive advantage (SCA), high-tech SMEs should integrate internal and external supportive processes of innovation to link the EKN, further creating sustaining innovation and value for the firm itself, customers, partners, and suppliers. Finally, high-tech SMEs through the cycle continue with innovation and values creation between the core innovation system and the EKN to achieve SCA.
The theoretical framework developed in this research needs to be compared to practitioners’ perspectives. Based on the integrated model, the study will adopt the methodology below to modify a more complete and practical model to link the theories and practices and to fulfil the objectives of the study.
3.2. The Study Design
This study involves a two-phased
design, and each phase with its distinct methodology. First, an initial
questionnaire guide to the interview was sent to 50 high-tech SMEs in
Interviews are one of the
most intensively used methods of data collection (Bryman
and Burgess, 1999). The individual in-depth interviews that the study conducted
were face-to-face and of a semi-structured nature, which is one of the most
common approaches to interviewing in qualitative research (Bryman
and Burgess, 1999). This type of interview involves the implementation of a
number of predetermined questions and/or special topics. That allows the
respondents to determine the direction and content of the interview within a
broader framework provided by the interviewer. After each company’s
interviews, the results were assembled, transcribed and e-mailed to the
respondents for their review and approval, eliminating any misinterpretation.
This was expected to provide a richer and more holistic appreciation of the
problems regarding the EKN model.
This research adopts the
case study method to assess actual sources of innovation and determinants of
EKN and how they can be leveraged to accumulate innovation capacity to the
decision to implement an innovation management in the context of the high-tech SMEs. The completed questionnaire, company reports/industry-specific
newsletters and an in-depth interview created an established chain of evidence
for each company.
3.3. The
Method Of Data Analysis
All interviews undertaken were recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were then coded with concepts and transformed and simplified in order to facilitate display, analysis and comparison. The coding was revised and developed as the research progressed. Displays were developed for the different concepts, summarising the response of each respondent and allowing for cross-case analysis.
The cases will be referred to as case A through to case D in order to facilitate discussion and satisfy ethical considerations. Two different techniques were used in the processes of cross-case analysis, namely: 1) putting information in different arrays to make a matrix of categories and 2) tabulating the content of different constructions and putting information in the order of elements.
4. The Analysis Of Case Study
The analysis of case study shows the comparison of background information
for the four case studies in the research. From the comparison we can see that
only B Corp is the start-up firm, the other firms were established ten or more
than ten years ago. A Corp is the supplier for IC design industries such as C
and D Corp, B Corp is the web and blog Design Company; it can provide any
industry with innovative products, processes and services via web and blog
technology. Only B Corp is based in
The analysis of case study shows the comparison of e-knowledge networks. All of the four firms have established an e-knowledge network by their EIP, which provides technology information and knowledge of their products and services, technological support by on-line FAQ and inquiry by e-mail for suppliers, employees, partners and customers. Except for B Corp, the firms have all attended e-knowledge networks in the related fields of EDA tools and IP industries: Chip 123. Its content includes technology discussion, application demonstration, academic research, successful case studies, development tools, and solutions provided by national and international industries.
A Corp encouraged its design engineers to attend the “club of engineers”, this allows users to acquire the latest related technology documents and trial products, and allows real-time on-line discussion with other users for obtaining more novel ideas.
B Corp has established an e-knowledge network by its EIP and unique web technology, linking KM and inter-organisation networks such as academic networks, consultant networks, and global expert networks into its e-knowledge network. It has participated in and utilised a “network of technology exchange for free software”.
C Corp applied the ITIS industrial information service network to foster its knowledge management and link professional knowledge and inter-organisational systems such as ITIS and universities, and applied the TWTM (Taiwan Technology Marketplace) platform, which was designed for technology transferral. Employees from C Corp also attended the industrial forum of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
D Corp has established an
e-knowledge network through its design centres
in
According to the above comparative analysis, we can see that larger firms have many more resources for attending and establishing partnership with the members of e-knowledge networks, but the smaller firms can only participate in some free knowledge networks and utilise EIP to establish their own knowledge networks. This is due to limited resources, in both human and monetary terms, in smaller firms. For overcoming this problem, smaller firms should actively participate in R&D plan from academia, research institutes and government to extend their knowledge networks.
5. Conclusions
And Recommendations
E-knowledge network is the new
horizons on the KM landscape, there are three key scenarios where knowledge
network (KN) drives our business:
Expertise location – I work
with a very talented team that is distributed across all of our offices. The
issue is not finding THE expert, but finding the “very
knowledgeable,” those individuals who have the knowledge and ability (and
bandwidth) to solve a problem or answer a question. Most questions don’t
require the expert. Sometimes you are looking for the “composite
talent”…the person who is good at “this AND that,” KN
can provide that insight.
Finding the Rights – Finding
Mr. or Ms. Right is about more that finding the right person. Often it is about understanding how that
person interacts with the organization and their social distance from me (or
the target of my search). The power of people search is not in finding a list
of names, but being able to evaluate the list based on factors like social
distance, colleagues in common, title, department, etc. The right person is
often a collection of experiences and connections that is illusive and hard to
quantify, but I know it when I see it.
External Contact Location – I
need to know “who in my company knows someone in another company.”
I need the personal connection that will make the difference, whether I am
looking for help or looking to close a deal.
There are three key implications
where E-knowledge network (EKN) drives our business:
1.
From Information to Communication (from I to C)
2.
From passive to Interactive
3.
From Individual to Social (Networked peer community)
In practice, for instance, from I to
C (from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0) in ICT (Information and Communication Technology)
industries has some movements as following:
¨
Web 1.0: Personal/institutional, Web sites, online resources, Information
focused, individual.
¨
Web 2.0: Social software: Wikipedia, Flickr, Del.i.cious, Blogs and wikis.
¨
Interactive, social, collective.
¨
Communication: Different tools for different things, Internet to access
expert knowledge “With anyone about anything anytime”.
¨
Collaboration: New forms of collaboration– smart tools and web2.0.
¨
Distributed cognition.
5.1. Summary And
Comparison Of Findings Between Smaller Smes And
Larger Smes
According to the analysis in Section 4, the study summarises and compares the findings between smaller SMEs (Case A and B) and larger SMEs (Case C and D) to modify the integrated model developed in Section 3 and construct two modified integrated innovation models for high-tech SMEs. Moreover, the study proposes some useful and valuable propositions for industrial practitioners and future researchers, as follows:
The study compares some interesting similarities
and differences between smaller SMEs and larger SMEs and those shared by all of the four companies. The
four companies can also learn from each other, acquire each other’s
advantages and offset the disadvantages.
5.2. The Modified Models
According to the above summaries, comparisons and cross-case analysis for the four case studies, the study constructs two modified models (Figures 3 and 4) and some useful and valuable propositions for academics and practitioners in SMEs (including smaller and larger high-tech firms).
According to the analysis of EKN, the smaller firms can only implement partial integration for KM and IOS in their EKN (Figure 3), but the larger firms can implement complete integration for KM and IOS in their EKN (Figure 4). This is due to the different support of KM capacity from the core EKN system, such as the limited resources, both in human and monetary terms in smaller firms. Hence, they can partially support their EKN by KM capacity.
Figure 3: The Modified Integrated EKN Model For Smaller Smes
Figure 4: The Modified Integrated Ekn Model For Larger Smes
Firms do not exist in isolation. Strategies are first created to identify attractive market segments to enter, customers to target and products or services that need to be developed and sold to generate revenue and profit. Suppliers are a necessary component of the value chain to build a product or service. Employees are needed to tackle a whole host of issues including: managing organisational efficiency; deploying and maintaining all types of information technology; providing research and development expertise; acting as marketing and selling agents; providing customer service and even providing general and administrative support. Partners are needed to distribute and sell, or are leveraged to outsource and manage components of a firm’s business. And, of course, customers are needed to purchase (initially and repeatedly) the product or service – either directly or indirectly – that the firm offers. It easily becomes apparent that the firm’s success is ultimately derived from relationships, both internal and external. To manage the turbulent waters effectively as we enter a new century on a note of uncertainty, we must understand that relationship assets are the most valuable store of any firm’s capital.
The core issue of the modified integrated EKN model is to create value for customers. It provides a language that executive teams can use to discuss the direction priorities of their enterprises. They can view their strategic value measures, not as performance indicators in four independent perspectives, but as a serious of cause-and-effect linkages among objectives in the four balanced perspectives. The integrated EKN model is based on four strategies to create value, as follows:
5.3. Value Creation Starts With Valuing Your Customers
Strategy is based on a differentiated customer value proposition: Satisfying customers is the source of sustainable value creation. Strategy requires a clear articulation of targeted customer segments and the value proposition required pleasing them. Clarity of this value proposition is the single most important dimension of strategy. This includes low total cost (offer products and services that are consistent, timely and low-cost), product leadership (products and services that expand existing performance boundaries into the highly desirable), complete customer solutions (provide the best total solution to customers) and system lock-in (high switching costs to end-use customers and add value to complementers).
5.4. Treat
Your Employees As Value-Creating Assets; Manage Them
With This In Mind
The key asset to competitive advantage is outstanding people. Managing people in a modern way will be most important – stimulating and empowering them to act on their own. Given the multitude of assets necessary to drive a firm’s economic value, one key asset remains the same: people. A firm’s employees will continue to remain fundamental to economic growth. Employees do have a significant impact on a firm’s outcomes, especially the firm’s market value. How a business finds, develops and retains them is a fundamental management challenge for competing in an era in which intangible assets, such as employees, constitute the majority of a firm’s value. Firms must pay closer attention to the economic value of their employees within the context of their relationship assets:
¨ To capture new knowledge (measure and control data with guidance from a “select few” staff and supported possibly by information technology)
¨ To codify knowledge (promulgation of new product information, policy and procedures, etc.)
¨ To generate new knowledge (cross-functional project groups, creative approaches, innovation centres, quality improvement teams, etc.)
¨ To circulate knowledge (team-based learning programs, skills development workshops, feedback loops, etc.)
While the associated economic value of customers is becoming refined through newer economic models and analysis tools, employee value, outside that of pure sales professionals, is proving more elusive to measure.
5.5. Treat
Your Suppliers As Critical Assets.
In the extraction of value from relationship assets, suppliers do indeed play a dynamic role in creating corporate worth and growth and are a key determinant of a firm’s performance and ultimately market valuation. Careful attention and measurement must be given to this component of the value chain. A firm’s supply chain is a network of facilities that aims to have the right products/services in the right quantities at the right moment, all at minimal cost. Today, the Internet is acting as a great “aggregator” of supply chains. With the ability to create electronic supply-chain processes and real-time delivery of information, and the ability to review and contract with suppliers from anywhere in the world – all nearly instantaneously – many firms now find themselves on equal billing with the largely closed environment of the EDI-based supply chains of the past. Additionally, information-based supply chains – largely driven by the Internet – are chiefly responsible for mass customisation, real-time demand forecasting and decreased production and inventory costs, all aspects of the supply chain that a company such as the four case-study companies have enjoyed and exploited. Supply chains must be managed not just to create efficiency or to reduce costs, but to achieve growth and maximum market value.
5.6. Manage
Your Partners As Valuable Assets
Forward-thinking firms recognise that the economic ecosystem “contract” is the tie that binds their success in the marketplace. As such, value from the various partner relationships must be evaluated with the same rigour as other relationship assets. Although many firms have a variety of partnerships, we believe they can fundamentally be divided into five distinct categories:
i.
ii. Research institute partners: Research institute partners constitute relationships between firms and research institutes, focused on co-creating advance products, services and processes to form a breakout offering. Joint partnerships might also leverage innovation R&D capabilities as a means of transferring technology or standards and as a means of getting to market faster, better and cheaper.
iii. Government partners: Government partners constitute relationships between firms and various supporting program from government, focused on co-operative innovation programs to form an industrial upgrading and turnaround. Co-operative partnerships might also leverage innovation R&D capabilities as a means of promoting upgrading of technology or industries and as a means of maintaining sustainable competitive advantage.
iv. Academic partners: Academic partners constitute relationships between firms and various universities, focused on co-operative innovation R&D program to form a win–win situation for industrial needs of talents and supply from universities. Co-operative partnerships might also leverage innovation R&D capabilities as a means of transferring the results of technology and research and as a means of assisting SMEs to establish innovation R&D centres.
v. Distribution/indirect channel partners: Many firms rely heavily on distribution and indirect channel partners. High-tech and drugs, sell as much as 60 to 70 per cent – even 100 per cent – of their product through indirect channels. Delivering the right product or service, at the right time, at the right place and at the right cost may require multiple sales channels, especially for firms competing in global markets.
Indeed, for firms to compete in such markets, both direct and indirect selling are necessary. Therefore, the channel partner, while in some respects under threat via the Internet, is still a viable and thriving component of a firm’s relationship assets. Managing channel partners for market value creation is tricky at best. However, partnerships, whether they are in the form of alliance partners, channel partners or both, do significantly enhance a firm’s ability to create value in the market and, thus, its financial performance. Careful partner selection, coupled with the ongoing management and the nurturing of trust throughout the life-cycle of the partnership, is critically important to ensure optimal performance. Firms seeking to generate positive value from partnerships would do well to carefully determine their full impact within the overall scope of their relationship assets, and then select, manage, measure and learn from their partnerships appropriately.
More and more businesses are chasing a finite number of customers. Where once customers had limited choice, now they have virtually unlimited choice – and access to comparative information – about the goods and services they care to purchase. This “knowledge” forces any business to create the most value-added capabilities possible and compels differentiation in order to capture, and to keep, customers. But having a good product or service at a competitive price is not enough. Outstanding employees, efficient suppliers and supply chains, and trusted partners are critical to creating competitive differentiation and long-term survival. These assets are the most valuable and goals should be established to leverage and manage them most effectively.
The integrated EKN model can be an easy-to-follow innovation model for high-tech SMEs to address when adopting e-knowledge network. This helps to ensure that the essential determinants and approaches for innovation processes are covered during ICI (Ideas, Concepts, Invention), pre-project, project and project product launch/follow-up. In other words, from research, development, design, manufacturing, marketing/distribution to form the EKN for implementation/commercialisation. For industries, this provides a practical and complete business model for them to use as a reference and study the innovation approaches (the advantage and disadvantage), which are crucial for the success of EKN in high-tech SMEs.
5.7. Research Propositions Of The Study
According to the findings of case studies and the above comparisons between smaller and larger SMEs and two modified integrated innovation models, the study now proposes four research propositions for future researchers and practitioners, as follows:
¨ RP1: High-tech SMEs, through the full cooperation between suppliers, customers, partners and employees to construct an EKN, and to achieve sustained innovation and value creation and then reach sustainable competitive advantage.
¨ RP2: Smaller high-tech SMEs, through integrating KM and IOS, can construct a partial integration of EKN.
¨ RP3: Larger high-tech SMEs, through integrating KM and IOS, can construct a complete integration of EKN.
¨ RP4: High-tech SMEs, through the integrated EKN model, can create four relationships assets for value creation, both internal and external. Having a good product or service at a competitive price is not enough. Outstanding employees, efficient suppliers and supply chains, and trusted partners are critical to creating competitive differentiation and long-term survival. Satisfying customers is the source of sustainable value creation. Strategy requires a clear articulation of targeted customer segments and value proposition required pleasing them. These assets are the most valuable, and goals should be established to leverage and manage them most effectively.
The propositions can act as a list of items for high-tech SMEs to address when adopting EKN. This helps to ensure that the essential issues and approaches are covered during ideas, concepts, implementation and commercialisation. For academics, it provides a common language for them to discuss and study the approaches, which are crucial for the success of EKN in SMEs for future research.
6. References
Bryman, A., Burgess, R.G., 1999, Qualitative
research,
Hackney, R., Burn, J., Dhillon, G., 2000, "SPECS: a new approach to strategic planning for e-commerce systems", Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, 843–47
Holsapple, C.W., Singh, M., 2000, "From e-commerce to e-knowledge", Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, 901–04
London Knowledge Network Proposition, 2007; http://www.londonknowledgenetwork.org.uk/aboutlkn.html
Marshall, P., McKay, J., 2000, "Rethinking information systems planning in strategic business networks", Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, 855
Merrill, W.,
Microsoft, 2007, Microsoft Knowledge Network Team Blog; http://www.microsoft.com/livesearch/kn
Sciquest Company, 2004, Innovation supply chain; www.sciquest.com
Taiwan Economic Daily, 2003, "Innovation supply chain",
Contact the Author:
Dr Te Fu Chen, Assistant Professor,
Department of International Business, Graduate Institute of Central Asia, Ching Yun University, Taiwan; Ph.D.
School of Management, University of Western Sydney, Australia; Email:
phd2003@gmail.com