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Social Knowledge Environments

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Abstract

Knowledge management represents a key issue for both information systems’ academics and practitioners, including those who have become disillusioned by actual results that fail to deliver on exaggerated promises and idealistic visions. Social software, a tremendous global success story, has prompted similarly high expectations regarding the ways in which organizations can improve their knowledge handling. But can these expectations be met, whether in academic research or the real world? This article seeks to identify current research trends and gaps, with a focus on social knowledge environments. The proposed research agenda features four focal challenges: semi-permeable organizations, social software in professional work settings, crowd knowledge, and cross-border knowledge management. Three solutions emerge as likely methods to address these challenges: design-oriented solutions, analytical solutions, and interdisciplinary dialogue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences, Mülheim, Germany

    Jan M. Pawlowski

  2. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Henri Pirkkalainen

  3. ESCP Europe Business School Berlin, Heubnerweg 8–10, 14059, Berlin, Germany

    Markus Bick & Malte Martensen

  4. TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Lars Hetmank &  Paul Kruse

  5. University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Stefan Thalmann &  Ronald Maier

  6. Hof University of Applied Sciences, Hof, Germany

    René Peinl

Authors
  1. Jan M. Pawlowski
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  2. Markus Bick
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  3. René Peinl
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  4. Stefan Thalmann
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  5. Ronald Maier
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  6. Lars Hetmank
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  7. Paul Kruse
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  8. Malte Martensen
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  9. Henri Pirkkalainen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markus Bick.

Additional information

Accepted after three revisions by Professors Bichler, Hess, Krishnan, and Loos.

This article is also available in German in print and via http://www.wirtschaftsinformatik.de: Pawlowski JM, Bick M, Peinl R, Thalmann S, Maier R, Hetmank L, Kruse P, Martensen M, Pirkkalainen H (2014) Soziale Wissensumgebungen. WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. doi: 10.1007/s11576-014-0409-3.

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Pawlowski, J.M., Bick, M., Peinl, R. et al. Social Knowledge Environments. Bus Inf Syst Eng 6, 81–88 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-014-0318-4

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