The research objectives of the thesis are to identify the development model and level of knowledge management system in small and medium-sized enterprises; build overall knowledge for the knowledge management system in the business.
Trang 1ABSTRACT
1 Background
Nowadays, not only business is important but also knowledge is
increasing for the sustainable development of a business and in the nation
Knowledge is considered to be meaningful and useful information of
personnel data, policies or operational process of each business
A Knowledge Management System includes information system,
operation system, decision system, unlike data management or information
management, knowledge management is creating, sharing, using and
developing the knowledge and information of an organization The goal of
this site is to provide a comprehensive overview of knowledge management
by examining its objectives, scope, strategy, best practice, knowledge
management tools, and so on Competitive advantage of enterprise is the
knowledge refine the firm’s information assets to meet organizational goals
So, knowledge management is a key factor in each business
Having many researchers explained the role and impact of knowledge
management in the company but the paper didn’t show some issues:
Firstly, in the SECI model, Nonaka (2011) found out that the process of
converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge Base on the example of
specific companies, there are some effects or problem on the process of the
impact of knowledge management systems How is the knowledge
management system sharing, training of staffs and employees in the
companies?
Secondly, Duska Rosenberg and Keith Devlin (2007) focused on the
development and application of an information based on the model that aims
to capture formally the explicit and implicit aspects of knowledge This paper
did not explain the solution to the motives, ideas and different experience
among the staff in the companies The researchers did not consider the
knowledge management systems on the effect on training, decision-making
as well as organizational capacity for innovation didn’t consider and evaluate all the factors which affect the competitive advantage
Thirdly, All the papers which involve on Knowledge Management in research of companies in the developed countries were having the good training and the strategy for long-term growth In Vietnam, other researches showed that the knowledge maintenance model but not considering the Knowledge Management; range of this researchers is limited to small and medium enterprises that organization system is not transparent, lack of leadership, business management skills and operation in economic transformation are disqualified, focus on short-term goals In the developing countries, how business should solve knowledge management When the businesses have professional operation in the long-term, what they will do with their employees with less soft skills, have less experience on management in professional working environment
Therefore, my paper gives more solutions of previous researches, I
choose the topic: “Research on Enterprise Knowledge Management system
to Improve Competitive Advantages for Small and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam”
2 Objective of research
Main objective: Building the model on the effect of Knowledge Management System on the SME’s toward Competitive Advantage
Detail objective:
- Identifying the model and level of development on Knowledge Management in the SME’s in Vietnam;
- Design Enterprise Architecture for Enterprise Knowledge Management System
- Building the influence model of Enterprise Knowledge Management System to Competitive Advantage in the SME’s
Trang 23 Subjects and Scope research
3.1 Subjects Research
Knowledge Management Business system to Competitive Advantage in the
SME’s Vietnam
3.2 Scope Research
Spatial area of interest: The paper researches the SME’s in Vietnam
Temporal area of interest: Data from 2015 to 2016
Content of interest: The thesis investigates the realities, constitutes and the
impact of Knowledge management system to Competitive Advantage in
companies
4 Methodology
- Collecting Qualitative Data (qualitative – interview, quantitative or
combined)
I will randomly select companies such as state enterprises, private company,
joint venture, Foreign-Invested Enterprise in Vietnam and conduct a survey
using two methods: interview and questionnaires
- Collecting Data
+ The interview method (personal Interview) is a face to face communication
between the researchers and the respondents e.g staffs, directors and partners
of the companies
+ Questionnaire: The present study will use some questions as the
questionnaires to find the information related to the researches If the
geographic is far away to use the interview method, researcher will use online
interview
+ Analyzing data: Using SEM – Structural Equation Modeling to test the
estimates, exploratory factor analysis and suitability model
+ Analyze or Design System: using the Enterprise Architecture structure
5 Structure
My thesis is divided into four chapters:
Chapter 1: The issues between the Knowledge Management and Competitive Advantage in SME’s in Vietnam
Chapter 2: The Knowledge Management System in SME’s in Vietnam Chapter 3: Design Enterprise Architecture for Knowledge Management System in SME’s in Vietnam
Chapter 4: The Knowledge Management System Model to make competitive advantages for SME’s in Vietnam
6 New Contributions on the thesis
New contributions in term of academic literature and theory:
- Predictive and test the Knowledge Management System Model of SME’s Vietnam
- Building Enterprise Architecture for the Knowledge Management System Model
- Giving the Impact Model of the Knowledge Management System to Competitive Advantage
New recommendations:
- My thesis evaluates actual state of implementation of the Knowledge Management System in SME’s Vietnam
- Knowledge Management System is being used and practice in some SME’s Vietnam
Trang 3CHAPTER 1 THE ISSUES BETWEEN THE KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN SME’S IN
VIETNAM
In this chapter, I have already shown in the background of the issues
between the Knowledge Management and Competitive Advantage in SME’s
in Vietnam The first, I indicate the fact of problem of SME’s in Vietnam
The second, I introduce Competitive Advantages and Capacity in building
sustainable competitive advantages The third, I give the overview of
Knowledge, types of Knowledge and Knowledge Management in companies
The last, I explain analysis and evaluation to give the roles of Knowledge
Management in building the Competitive Advantages in SME’s
1.1 Vietnam SMEs
Depending on the country, the size of the enterprise can be categorized
based on the number of employees, annual sales, assets, or any combination
of these It may also vary from industry to industry
1.2 Competitive Advantages
M.Porter (2004) explained that: “Competitive advantage is a function
of either providing comparable buyer value more efficiently than
competitors, or performing activities at comparable cost but in unique ways
that create more buyer value than competitors and, hence command a
premium price” Competitive advantages are conditions that allow a company
to produce a good or service at equal value but at a lower price or in a more
desirable fashion These conditions allow the productive entity to generate
more sales or superior margins compared to its market rivals Competitive
advantages are attributed to a variety of factors including cost structure,
branding, the quality of product offerings, the distribution network,
intellectual property and customer service
1.2.1 The definition of Competitive Advantage
1.2.2 Effect of Core Competence of Enterprises on Competitive Advantage
- Creation
- Adaptation
- Internalization
- Connection
- Knowledge
- Integrated Capacity
1.3 Knowledge Management in Enterprises
1.3.1 The definition of Knowledge Sveiby (1997-1998) showed that “Knowledge is the ability to explain and act something”
Following Nonaka& Takeuchi (1995) indicated that “Knowledge is the
dynamic process of person to demonstrated faith of truths” Davenport
&Prusak (1998) and Davanport (1999) gave the definition of Knowledge is the information in your brain that the aggregation of experience, value, context of information and specialist knowledge These helps to evaluate and coordinate to create new experiences and information including comparison, results, contact and communication
Stenmark (2001), Quigley and Debons (1999), Holsapple and Joshi (2000) show that: “The brain transforms information into valuable knowledge which helps us understanding the definitions by answer questions: How? Know-How? Why? Know-Why?
1.3.2 Types of Knowledge Nowadays, several definitions of knowledge and theories to explain it exists Knowledge dividends into many types such as: Individual Knowledge and Group Knowledge, Tacit knowledge and Explicit knowledge
1.3.3 Business knowledge Business knowledge is a sum of skills, experiences, capabilities and expert insight, which you collectively create and rely on in company As a
Trang 4shared resource, knowledge shapes and affects all the activities in and around
company
1.3.4 Knowledge Management in Business
Knowledge Management is a multidisciplinary assessing and several
definitions Many researchers gave several definitions about Knowledge
management so had some confusion Researchers gave two orientations:
human orientation and information technology orientation Two orientations
show basic of approach, or researcher, organization and investigate
Knowledge management system, computer science, artificial intelligence
There are definitions of both the approaches, but most of them focus on
human orientation and technology orientation is just supporting factors
- Classification of Knowledge Management
+ From the learning organization to Knowledge management
+ From database to Knowledge management
+ From traditional to knowledge work professions
- The process of Knowledge transfer
Socialization Externalization
Internalization Combination
Figure 1: SECI model of Nonaka
Source: Nonaka,1991
- Socialization: Sharing tacit knowledge through face-to-face creation
or shared experience
- Externalization: Tacit to explicit Developing concepts, which embed
the combined tacit knowledge And which enable its communication
Explicit
Explicit Explicit
Explicit
Tacit
Tacit
- Combination: The creative use of computerized communication
networks and large-scale databases can support this mode of knowledge conversion
- Internalization: Transfers from explicit knowledge into tacit
knowledge held by the individual through the actual doing or through simulations
- Environment of transfer knowledge The theory of knowledge creation through the SECI process, and try to advance them further incorporating the dialectic thinking Knowledge is conceptualized as a shared context in motion, can transcend time, space, and organization boundaries to create knowledge (Nonaka, 1991) Knowledge creation is conceptualized as a dialectical process, in which various contradictions are synthesized through dynamic interactions among individual, the organization, and the environment
In the knowledge-creating theory, Nonakael at gave the importance of physical space or cyberspace of knowledge transfer environment interaction The environment of transfer knowledge is “a space that allows participants
share case and creation knowledge through interaction”
1.4 The role of knowledge management in creating competitive advantage for SMEs
Many information system papers showed the effectiveness of knowledge management systems (KMS) as the most advanced innovation in the future Davenport and Prusak (1998), Johnson (1998), Alavi and Leidner (2001) indicated the importance of developing an organization’s KMS to maintain competitive advantage in business environment
Knowledge management system in business, especially SMEs is strategic to improve their competitiveness It has four factors: rarer, non-imitate, valuate and irreplaceable, specifically: Creation capacity, adaptation capacity, internalization capacity, connection capacity, knowledge capacity,
Trang 5integrated Capacity Thence, SMEs gives some competitive advantages
through methods:
- Enhancing products
- Creating product differentiation
- Keeping customers
- Prevent competitors entering the market
- Increasing profits by reducing cost
Nowadays, information system is important components that helps
company maintaining their business goals and having competitive advantage
in the market Information technology is an indispensable factor in the
strategy of company SMEs should use knowledge management system
which is a useful tool to defeat such powerful opponents and attract more
customers with their brand positioning strategy
CHAPTER 2 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN SMALL
AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN VIETNAM
Knowledge management systems in small and medium enterprises in Vietnam is considerably researched from the overview to that of detail The first part of the chapter, it presents an overview of the research school of knowledge management systems Besides, the authors examined the current situation and determine the level of development of knowledge management systems in small and medium enterprises in Vietnam Finally, the author proposed and tested model of factors affecting the knowledge management systems in small and medium enterprises in Vietnam
2.1 Situation knowledge management systems in small and medium enterprises in Vietnam
We have other with data management or information management and knowledge management is understood as a process created, shared, exploited and developed knowledge assets in enterprises in order to enhance the effectiveness of the innovative capacity innovation and rapid response capabilities of the business
2.1.1 Schools of research on knowledge management system 2.1.1.1 Innovative diffusive theory
2.1.1.2 Reasonable action theory 2.1.1.3 Technology acceptance model 2.1.1.4 Theory of planning behavior 2.1.1.5 The fit between tasks-technology 2.1.1.6 Theory of social capital
2.1.1.7 Social awareness theory 2.1.1.8 Modeling success stories 2.1.1.9 Model of information system 2.1.2 Knowledge management system in small and medium enterprises
Trang 6Knowledge Management System (KMS) includes g tools and
technology support and organizational problems KMS is all of knowledge of
such organizations KMS consist of a current knowledge hidden, appeared,
made an creative and shared, stored and used Therefore, it can be defined in
many different ways and applied in many areas of the organization of
activities related to human technology and processes
2.1.3 Level of development of knowledge management system in small and
medium enterprises in Vietnam
Figure 2: Graduation scale of Knowledge Management system
development in Vietnam’s SMEs
1 Graduation scale of knowledge management system development in small
and medium enterprises in Vietnam
2.2 Factors affecting knowledge management systems in small and medium
enterprises in Vietnam
20 19
27 18
12 4
Level 0
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Level of Knowledge Management
system in Vietnam’s SMEs
Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
2.2.1 Model of enterprise knowledge management system According to Svetlana Sajeva & Robertas Jucevicius (2010), knowledge management systems are characterized by six factors:
(1) Knowledge Management Process (KMP) Factor: KMP consists of 3 variables: Process Implementation and Coordination (KMP1), Process Formulation (KMP2), Process Performance Measurement (KMP3)
(2) Strategy Leadership (SL): SL consists of 5 variables: SL1, SL2, SL3, SL4, Reward and motivation (SL5)
(3) Organizational Structure (OI): Stacey (1995) states that the OI consists of four variables: OI1, OI2, OI3, Social Networking (OI4)
(4) Technology Infrastructure (TI) Factor: TI consists of three variables: the existence of information and communication technology in line with business development (TI1), access to information technology and business communication (TI2), enterprises have regular application of information and communication technologies (TI3)
(5) Academic Organization (OL): OL consists of three variables: learning before knowledge management (OL1), learning in knowledge management (OL2), learning after knowledge management (OL3)
(6) Organizational Culture (KC): The KC consists of 5 variables: KC1, KC2, KC3, KC4, Culture of Culture, share knowledge (KC5)
Table 1: Cronbach's Alpha Scales of Variable Knowledge Management System
Scale Mean if Item Deleted
Scale Variance if Item Deleted
Corrected Item-Total Correlation
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted KMS (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.856)
Trang 72.2.3 Analyzing Discovery factors
Table 2 Verify KMO and Bartlett's for independent variables
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy 0.717
Bartlett's Test of
Sphericity
Coefficient of KMO = 0.717> 0.5: analyzing factors is appropriate for
research data Bartlett's test result is 881,136 with significance level sig =
0.000 <0.05, so the factor model hypothesis is unsuitable and will be rejected,
which proves that the data used to analyze the factor is extremely appropriate
2.2.4 Analyzing assertive factors
Figure 3 CFA results of variables Intention to share work experience
2.2.5 Model validation After evaluating the scales, we test whether the model that t is suitable
by running on the Amos software The resulting non-standardized model is shown in Figure 3:
Figure 4 The non-standardized model
Trang 8CHAPTER 3 DESIGN ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE FOR
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN SME’S IN VIETNAM
Overall, I indicate the designing enterprise architecture for Knowledge
Management system At first, I concentrate on the method of building model
for all of the information system, based on the result to evaluate, analyses and
select the Togaf way to create the overall model for Knowledge Management
system at SME’s in Vietnam The next of content, showing the results of
building from the master to the detail of Knowledge Management system
Finally, the experimental results, applied the overall model to develop and
implement at a specific business, is introduced
3.1 Enterprise architecture design method
"The enterprise architecture is known to be a set of principles, methods
and forms used to describe the organizational structure, business process,
infrastructure, information system or any constituent elements or any other
agency, organization, enterprise "according to Nguyen Minh Hong (2011)
Figure 5 History of the enterprise architectures
3.2 Building the enterprise model for Knowledge Management System
Key components of that system
Business Process Architecture: including the development strategy,
management system, organizational structure, the main business processes of
a system
Data Architecture: The structure of the physical data assets (text, books, .) and the logic (digital data) of the system and the tools for managing this data asset
Application Architecture: The overall design of the software applications is used, the interaction between them and their relationship to the main business processes of the system
Technology Architecture: Describing the hardware and software infrastructure which is vital in developing the three architectures Technology architecture includes: information technology infrastructure, middleware, networking, communications, standards, etc
System architectural framework: The architectural framework makes general rules for the creation, interpretation, analysis and use of architectures
in a particular area of software or in the community that involved
Figure 6 Business Process Flow Diagram of Enterprise Knowledge
Management System
Begin
1 Operational 2 Collective
problems 3 Exchange
4 Answer the question and solve problems
5 Appreciated the answers
6 Storage Knowledge database The end
Trang 93.2 Business Process Flow Diagram of Enterprise Knowledge
Management System
User Interface
Regulation Of
It Applications Software
Training And
Supervision
Background Technology
Data
Process Operation Cooperate
Environment Infrastructure
Development Strategy
Figure 7: The IT architecture 3.3 Experimental building knowledge management system based on ERP
Figure 8 Modules supported production and business operations
CHAPTER 4: THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO MAKE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR SME’S IN VIETNAM
In this chapter, I propose a model and test the impact of knowledge management system to a competitive advantage SME’s in Vietnam The content is presented in detail from the design study model research methods
to test the model results Thereby, finding out the inadequacy of knowledge management in today's business, throughout analyzing to find the cause and choosing a solution selection of optimal solutions and conducting building system implementation knowledge management in the enterprise
4.1 Question
Recent researches in the field of information systems appreciate greatly the knowledge management system (KMS) as the important innovation to enhance the operational efficiency of the business Continuing upheaval of the corporate market we always try to create and maintain competitive advantage Enterprises must effectively manage the resources of their unit and one of the assets most important strategy that is knowledge (Nonaka 1995) Business knowledge may be found to be used and shared by decision makers when they need it There are many information technology systems can effectively support the flow of knowledge A system can the best support the KMS line from which knowledge can improve the creativity popular organizations collected knowledge (M Alavi and D Leidner 2001) In other words, the KMS system has a great influence on the creation of competitive advantage
4.2 Designing research
My thesis randomly selected businesses across the country operate in the field of information and communications technology including the type of public, private, venture and capital foreign investments, etc It focusses primarily on medium-sized enterprises and small and progress survey by two methods of direct interviews and using questionnaires
Trang 104.3 KMS model to CA
Figure 9 KMS model to CA
4.4 Research Methods
The study used analysis methods linear structure (Structural Equation
Modeling SEM-) to verify estimates explore factor analysis and the
appropriateness of the model
+ The first phase, it involves evaluating their selection interview
question survey to obtain data along-to-use analysis Using quantitative
preliminary set sample initially test the correlation between the variables
correlated variables total inspection Cronbachs Alpha testing the factors
explored (EFA) which determine the pattern with the scale officially
Decision making process
- Tacit knowledge
- Explicit knowledge
- Cultural knowledge
Knowledge
management
system
-Reliability
-Flexibility
-Integration
-Approach
-In Time
Learning
-Creation
- Receipt
-Organization
-Common
Capacity of innovation
- Process innovation
- Product innovation
Competitive advantage
- Product quality
- Market position
- Diversify products
- Difficult to imitate
- Administrative procedures
+ SEM method is used to test the model appropriately, weighted sum CFA, reliability, unidirectional convergence and distribution value, ect appreciate an influence on the degree of correlation with each other independent factors
4.5 Results of model testing
Cronch Alpha coefficient of variables
Measurement Reliability Scores for each variable: Knowledge Management System, Decision Process, Innovation Capacity, Learning Ability and Competitive Advantage are summarized as follows:
Table 3 Cronbach Alpha coefficients of variables
No Variable name Identification
Number of observation
Coefficient Cronbach
1 Knowledge management
Analyzing discovery factors
According to Hair &etc (1998, 111), KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) is an indicator of factor suitability The KMO test results are as follows:
Table 4 KMO Coefficients Accredited KMO and Bartlett
Bartlett form