Technology used in knowledge management by global professional event services

Abstract

Professional service providers, due to their use of information and communication technology (ICT), could be global players. The market for congresses, conferences, trade shows, and business events attract clients and contractors from around the world. Competition between firms motivates them to apply advance technologies that enable faster and easier cooperation. The aim of this exploratory study was to identify and classify ICT used in knowledge management among professional event service providers. By applying method triangulation (interviews, meta-linguistic coding, analysis of association graphs, and netnography), the authors identified key terms related to knowledge management and technology. Firms differed by type and length of market presence. The technologies used by firms were grouped into five types. The analysis of competition in search engines confirm high scores for technology service providers (i.e., cloud data and beacon).