Toward a Knowledge Sharing-Aimed Virtual Enterprise

Abstract

One of the requirements for a successful collaboration in Collaborative Networked Organizations (CNOs) is the sharing of knowledge resources between members. Knowledge sharing is a core competency for creating competitive advantage in Virtual Enterprises (VEs). Accordingly, the evaluation of the contribution of each VE member organization in sharing knowledge resources, as well as monitoring the distribution of these resources among the people is of great importance. For this purpose, a conceptual framework of a VE with the aim of knowledge sharing (henceforth, a knowledge sharing-aimed VE) is presented in this paper. In this framework, the conceptual structure of a cognitive system is designed to supervise the process of knowledge sharing among organizational staff in each VE organization, and thus to support decision-making by knowledge managers. The system collects log data of various organizational Knowledge Management Systems (KMSs) and then processes it using machine learning algorithms to identify the learning patterns and knowledge application in the organization to ensure employees access to distributed knowledge resources. In addition, by considering each organization member of VE as an individual user of an inter-organizational KMS, the same mechanism can be used at the cross-organizational level. Finally, it should be acknowledged that the implementation of this conceptual framework could play an essential role in improving the knowledge sharing and management process, which is the cornerstone of the organizations co-operation in a VE.