Factors Affecting the Adoption of Knowledge Management Technologies: A Discriminative Approach

ARTICLE SUMMARY & REVIEW (Week3-Class4) by Fatemeh Hosseini

(Group: KMx6- Fatemeh, Skalk, Bee, Lanoi, Max, Roger)

Article: Factors Affecting the Adoption of Knowledge Management Technologies: A Discriminative Approach

Sherry D Ryan, & Victor R Prybutok. (2001). Factors affecting the adoption of knowledge management technologies: A discriminative approach. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 41(4), 31-37.


Summary:

This research paper investigates the characteristics associated with adaptation of KM technologies through a survey of IT executives. It begins with introducing the KM and the reasons for the increase in its recognition by organizations according to literature. The paper uses a theoretical framework which consists of three contextual variables that influence the information system adoption process:

a. Organizational: characteristics of the organizations
b. Environmental: the circumstances and climate in which the organization conducts its business
c. Technological: the characteristics of existing technologies in the organization & their influence

The paper then applies this framework to the adoption of KM technologies and consequently proposes four hypotheses:

H1: a higher degree of strategic relevance of IT positively influence the organization’s decision to adopt KM technologies

H2: Organizations with higher proportion of knowledge workers will be more inclined than other organizations to adopt KM technologies

H3: Organizations with prior user-centric technologies are more inclined to adopt KM technologies

H4: Higher level of investment in technology per employee will positively influence the organization’s decision to adopt KM technologies

The result of the study confirms that:

- Those organizations that use IT for strategic purposes are more likely to adopt KM technologies than those who do not, and this could have huge competitive consequences for those who are ignoring KM.

- Those organizations with prior experience with user-centric technologies (e.g. client/server technology) are more likely to adopt KM technologies. This could be related to the business mindset, technical expertise, and support infrastructure associated with client/server technology. As many of those organizations have reconceptualised their support strategies, providing the end-users with training and help needed to use the technological tools.

- Higher level of IT investment per employee in the past has a positive influence on the organization’s decision to adopt KM technologies.

- The environmental factor was not significant in the adoption of KM technologies in the organizations.


Review:
This is an empirical study that was a bit hard to read due to highly academic and technical style of writing with mentioning several theories and frameworks and how they are supposed to work, but not many specific examples about how exactly the technologies are used in the organizations and. The paper seems to be targeting the top level management groups or those who make decision about adopting of KM technologies rather than the lower level knowledge workers.

The paper looks at the three key technologies in KM (based on the available literature): intranets, groupware, and data warehouses. So the study only focuses on these technologies, and other types of KM technologies which may be more common or effective these days are not included. However, the extensive list of provided references which can be useful for following up on any of the mentioned topics/concepts.