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New innovation paper published

Recently I have had new paper published. It is one of the conceptual works coming out of very successful I4I innovation project. Details about the paper:

Baloh, P., Jha, S., & Awazu, Y. (2008). Building strategic partnerships for managing innovation outsourcing. Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, 1(2), 100-121.

The venue which the project team under Prof Dr Kevin C Desouza chose for publishing this paper is a fresh international journal: Strategic Outsourcing. Fresh not just by the age, but rather on four features that are novel to the academic journals: The Industry Viewpoint section invites industrial practitioners from around the world to present their point of view on a relevant subject area. The Research Updates - Executive Summaries section invites researchers world-wide to present their research projects an executive summary of their research project. Letters to the Editor are encouraged and contribute to contemporary debates on all aspects of outsourcing. The fourth is extreme responsiveness and the lightning speed of feedback to the authors. Prof Dr Marco Busi, editor-in-chief, is doing a great job.

Extended abstract of the paper:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to uncover the mechanisms of organizations managing innovation outsourcing to business partners. In a business environment characterized by the development of deep, niche expertise in a particular domain, business partnerships can provide a source of innovative rejuvenation by outsourcing the innovation to business partners who have complementary skills and expertise. This paper addresses a critical challenge which the organizations are currently facing: how do you manage outsourcing of innovation to business partners effectively while maintaining your strategic competitiveness?
Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory multiple case studies of over 30 innovative European and US companies were done. It involved 50 semi-structured interviews with senior executives from research and development, product management, information technology, and marketing.
Findings – The paper identifies three complementary models of managing outsourcing of innovation to business partner: acquisition, strategic alliances, and open source (OS). Based on these, a three-dimensional “Co-Innovation Space” is proposed that can help in analysis and planning of current and future innovation projects.
Research limitations/implications – Although the research is carefully designed, it is an exploratory study and has the limitation of generalizability of the findings. Nevertheless, findings from multiple case studies from diverse organizations shed a light to current innovation and strategic alliance literature.
Practical implications – Partnerships can open the door to multiple knowledge sources. Accessing and integrating information from these sources can greatly enhance knowledge base of organizations and can help fuel sustainable innovation. The models proposed in this study provide a lens to examine existing innovation project portfolios and/or to plan for future innovation programmes.
Originality/value – This study is probably among few to study such a large, diversified, and geographically scattered group of organizations. Although exploratory and preliminary, this makes the findings of the study insightful.

More than welcome to access it and read it - feedback appreciated.

So it’s official - I am MPhil awardee now ;)

It is official now. I have received my Certificate of Graduation today. I became Master of Philosophy in the field of “Knowledge Management” at Informatics Research Institute, a 6* RAE research institution at University of Salford. The study took 3 years and was supervised by Dr Maria Burke and Prof Dr Elaine Ferneley, who, among other faculty there, shared their invaluable research knowledge and experience. It was amazing experience and I am proud to be Salford Uni Alumni now. Alex was among the first to congratulate. ;)

Alex is here

Amazing feeling. Speechless.

Alex was born July 07 2008, 4:53 am CET. Mom and dad are proud.

Oh whadda June

Last couple of weeks were hectic, to say nothing less.

So in second half of May I finally found the time to revise my MPhil according to the (very favorable) reviewers’ comments I received in April 08, do all the administration with regards to this and submit the hard-bound and final thesis to the IRIS institute at University of Salford. ‘Been ready to get that degree for the last year since I wrapped it up :D :D :D   I am pleased with what I did and am looking forward to the MPhil degree awarded by this institution which is one of the rare UK’s 6* research rating institutes.

Another big thing needed a final revision. My Int Journal of Information Management submission which I have coauthored with colleagues from Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea. We have had a very nice case study with Samsung Electronics while I was in Korea, we wrote it down, submitted, and has now already been accepted for publication in this highly acclaimed SCI indexed journal. The paper is about organizational change related to knowledge management practices, learning from practice about innovation deployment and adoption, and reflecting practical experience to the most recent existing research out there. The paper is forthcoming in the October issue of IJIM. Gratitude to all the people who were involved in publication - coauthors Gyewan Moon and Katharina Uthicke from Daegu, Samsung Electronics Gumi Korea for access, journal’ case editor Prof Dr Ray Hackney, reviewers, and the editor Prof Dr Phillip Hills. It was a steep learning curve in all aspects.

Moving on I had two extensive reviewing roles, one for ICIS 2008 and the other for JASIST. I really need to learn how to do a decent review faster :/  Hopefully at least they were decent enough for the editors and authors.

It was also about time to get my hands and finish writing my forthcoming book which I coauthored together with Peter Vre?ar: Business process informatization and decision support with MS Access 2007 that is being published by Pasadena, the biggest Slovene publisher and distributor of books for the information age. So I managed to have this done tonight and ticked another big project off. Time to celebrate.

Plus, we’ve been busy re-designing our flat, as the baby is coming any time now. Yippie!!!

Whadda June. And it’s just good half way through :O

To Codify or Collaborate - CFP

Deadline for special issue on KM technologies: To Codify or to Collaborate is due end of August. Do consider contributing your finest work. I act as one of the associate editors for this special issue and we have esteemed board of reviewers and editors that will do their best to help promising submissions to be developed to top quality.

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CALL FOR PAPERS
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Issue Title: Knowledge Management and e-Research Technologies: to Codify or to Collaborate?
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Special Issue of “Knowledge Management Research & Practice” 
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/kmrp/index.html
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Guest Editors:
Will Venters, London School of Economics
Elaine Ferneley, Salford Business School
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Key dates:
Deadline for submission         30th August 2008
Publication                     August 2009
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This special issue of KMRP, to appear in 2009, will focus on the role of technology within wider debates on knowledge management.  Information and Communication technologies lend themselves to the capture, transfer and storage of data, and hence have, until recently, been strongly aligned with either objectivist view of knowledge management as codification of knowledge in databases, or a limited behaviourist view as communication and collaboration tools in support of social practices. The aim of this special issue is to explore in depth the relationship between social practice and Knowledge Management technologies (broadly defined) in particular questioning the traditional dichotomy between codification and collaboration through knowledge management technology.

Our aim is to bring together research on the KM technology artefact, and research on social KM practices in order to enrich our understanding of social knowledge management technology. In particular we wish to explore and extend the traditional view that technology can only deal with explicit, codifiable knowledge.  Instead we argue that, if knowledge is socially constructed, then the technologies that now shape our world must also be given due consideration within any debate on knowledge management. We would be interested in research which considers, for example, how technologies such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants and Geographical Positioning Systems have fundamentally reshaped the milieu of our lives, and hence their implications for Knowledge Management. Expanding our focus we include debates concerning the use of technology in research (so called e-science or e-research) in which new computer systems are drawn upon in the discovery (or construction) of knowledge in the sciences and social sciences.  We are interested in the emergence of Web 2.0 and social networking sites which are poised to fundamentally change the interactions between individuals, groups and organisations.  Finally, as agreement on standards and data interchange formats are emerging so the vision of the semantic web is becoming a reality allowing disparate, heterogeneous data sources to be interrogated and leveraged from using and supporting ontologies and taxonomies - so technology is ceasing to be an externality and the possibility of a semantically rich, globally networked environment to support knowledge management initiatives is becoming a reality.
This special issue therefore aims to attract theoretical and empirical papers that consider the embedding of technology (in various forms) within the social practices and interactions of individuals, and the resultant effects on, and opportunities for, knowledge management theories and practice.

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Potential Topics:
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We welcome papers from a range of perspectives, potential topics include …

* Relationships between knowledge management and web2.0.
* The use of the semantic web in knowledge management initiatives.
* The growth of global information in society and its impact on organizational knowledge management practice.
* The use of technology as a medium of social networking, differing social networking models, social networking models that enable or inhibit knowledge sharing.
* The application of ontologies, or taxonomies and the emergence of folksonomies as collaboratively constructed taxonomies (e.g. http://del.icio.us/) for supporting knowledge management.
* The weaving of technology with narrative and storytelling.
* Social construction of knowing through technology.
* Social construction of knowledge management technologies.
* e-Science, e-Research and Grid technologies and their potential impact on collaboration and knowledge management within research practice.
* The role of e-science and cyber-infrastructure in scientific and social science knowledge.
* Issues of demographics, age, gender, sexuality and technologies role as shield or mediator within the design of knowledge management technologies.
* How technology supports communities.
* The use of technology to share knowledge around difficult and sensitive topics - to break down social barriers, engender trust and enable wider learning
* Philosophical perspectives on knowledge management technologies e.g. the role of knowing in artificial intelligence; the tacit dimension of knowing mediated through technology;

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Associate Editors:
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* Peter Baloh, Ljubljana, Slovenia
* Laurence Brooks, Brunel, UK.
* Mike Cushman, LSE, UK.
* Magda Hercheui, LSE, UK.
* Annemette Kjaergaard, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.
* Giovan-Francesco Lanzara, Università di Bologna, Italy.
* Aurelio Ravarini, Cattaneo, Italy.
* Steve Sawyer, Penn State, USA.
* Duane Truex III, Georgia State, USA
* Bob Wood, Manchester University, UK.
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Submission
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Papers should be submitted online at http://www.theorsociety.com and must comply with the KMRP Instructions to Authors at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/kmrp/author_instructions.html  - especially the requirement that author names should not appear anywhere in the manuscript file that is submitted. Normal KMRP reviewing procedures and standards will apply.

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The Guest Editors will be happy to answer any queries from potential authors.
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ICIS 2008 reviewer role

I have been invited to review for the worlds’ most prestigious IS-conference: ICIS, which, this year, is taking part in Paris, France. A great honor for me to be part of the best reviewer-teams in IS. An opportunity to review papers that represent the cutting edge of IS-research, is an opportunity to grow by learning from the best.

Attending the NT Conference 2008

From May 12 till May 15 I will be attending the biggest Slovenian IT-event, Microsoft’s NT Conference. This is the 13th occurence, and as each year, I am sure it will be even better than the previous one, which was a blast. Loads of interesting presentations, talks and fun events announced, nice weather and great location, plus loads of formal and informal meetings already scheduled. If you are there too, give me a howler, and let’s meet…

A new fine publication - IJIM this time

I am very pleased to hear from the IJIM editor-in-chief and the IJIM case study section editor that my submission titled “A business process oriented method of KM solution design: A  case study of Samsung Electronics” was accepted for publication. This is the abstract of the paper which I authored with help of Prof Dr Gyewan Moon and Katharina Uthicke, both of Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea, and which is forhcoming in October 2008 issue of the journal:

Improving how knowledge is leveraged in organizations for improved business performance is today considered as a major organizational change. Knowledge management (KM) projects are stigmatized as demanding, fuzzy and complex, with questionable outcomes – more than 70% of them do not deliver what they promised. A case of Samsung Electronics mobile branch we present shows how KM projects can be more successful if they are treated as business process oriented organizational change projects. Both organizations and academia can stand on the shoulders of giants as previous experience and research in that area is rich. Adding the KM flavour to such organizational change is the goal of this case study; the learning outcomes include a six-step KM solution design method, a justification for the business-process level of analysis and managerial action, and the need for modest and just-do-it approach when introducing KM-related organizational interventions.

IJIM is an international, SSCI  indexed peer-reviewed journal which aims to bring its readers the very best analysis and discussion in the developing field of information management. According to JCR2006, it has an impact factor of 0.754 (and a growing trend), plus, an excellent reputation among scholars in the Inf Sys / Inf Mmgt / Org Change areas.

ISOneWorld 2008 - Submission accepted

Besides meeting outstanding guest speakers, I am very much looking forward to presenting a paper at the forthcoming ISOneWorld 2008 conference. The organizing committee sent out notifications of acceptance, and I am happy to share that my submission was accepted for the conference programme and presentation there:

• Vre?ar P, Damij T, Baloh P: Business Process Improvement Methodology: The Case of “Merkur” Trading Company.

Customer-Driven Innovation published in R-TM

A research paper from the Leveraging Ideas for Innovation project which was led by Prof Kevin C Desouza and funded through the Institute for Innovation in Information Management (I3M) has been published:

• Desouza, K.C., Awazu, Y., Jha, S., Dombrowski, C., Papagari, S. Baloh, P., and Kim, J.Y. “Customer-Driven Innovation,” Research-Technology Management, 51 (3), 2008, 35-44.

The paper can be retrieved from the R-TM website at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iri/rtm/2008/00000051/00000003.

Research-Technology Management is the award-winning, bi-monthly SCI/SSCI indexed journal of the Industrial Research Institute, published since 1958. It contains peer-reviewed articles covering the entire spectrum of technological innovation, from research and development through product development to marketing. RTM is a leading source of knowledge and best practices on innovation management for leaders of research, development, and engineering worldwide.