An Integrated Research Methodology to Identify and Assess Knowledge Risk in a Corporation with Application to a Financial Institution

Abstract

More than ever before, knowledge today drives the socio-economic and technological developments of mankind. Yet during the application of knowledge in business, in particular, the economic benefits are often coupled with various potentially negative impacts, known as knowledge risk. This happens when knowledge is mishandled at any point in the business cycle. For example, leakage of valuable secrets of products under development to competitors due to improper handling of computer security can affect the future of a corporation. Seeing the impact of knowledge risk on the corporation, management must initiate efforts to mitigate and prevent this critical risk. This starts with the identification and assessment of various knowledge risks in the corporation to gather basic, current risk information first. While traditional survey methods still apply, this chapter proposes the evidential reasoning (ER) approach to make the survey assessment more relevant and closer to the real risk landscape the corporation is facing. After an introduction and a literature review of knowledge risk and its management, the proposed identification and assessment methodology is fully explained, which is illustrated with a hypothetical knowledge risk hierarchy of a bank. In the conclusions, the benefits of ER approach are elucidated, and future directions are indicated.