Chapter 11: Business analytics and knowledge management

How do you define data and information (Peter Drucker) and how do you turn data into information?

Data are specific, objective facts or observations. Facts have no intrinsic meaning but can be easily captured, transmitted, and stored electronically. Information is defined by Peter Drucker as "data endowed with relevance and purpose." People turn data into information by organizing them into some unit of analysis. This involves interpreting the context of the data and summarizing it into a more condensed form.

name three other modes of knowledge conversion

Externalization - from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. Combination - from explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge. Internalization - from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge.

What does Davenport and Harris suggest that succesfull business analytics have for five capabilities?

Hard to duplicate. Uniqueness. Adaptability. Better than the competition. Renewability.

What is the most important source of information knowledge?

Individuals are the ultimate source of organizational knowledge. To obtain the full value of knowledge, it must be captured and transferred across the organization.

What is intellectual capital?

Intellectual capital is knowledge that has been identified, captured, and leveraged to produce higher-value goods or services or some other competitive advantage for the firm.

What is intellectual property and what is the owner of such property entitled to?

Intellectual property allows individuals to own their creativity and innovation in the same way that they can own physical property. Intellectual property enables owners to be rewarded for the use of their ideas. It allows them to have a say in how their ideas are used. Owners are granted intellectual property rights.

What is social analytics and can you give an example of two softwares used to evaluate social buzz?

Is a set of tools developed to measure the impact of the social IT investments on the business. analyzes conversations, tweets, blogs, and other social IT data to create meaningful, actionable facts. Google analytics and Radian6

How does intellectual property differ from physical property?

It is non-exclusive. When one person uses it, it can be used again by another person. The marginal cost of producing additional copies of information-based property is negligible compared with the cost of original production.

List three different types of "knowing"

Knowing what: based on assembling information and applying it. Knowing how: focuses on applying knowledge. Knowing why: is synthesized through a reasoning process. is the casual knowledge of why something occurs.

Describe the 4 main knowledge management processes

Knowledge generation: Includes all activities that discover "new" knowledge—whether such knowledge is new to the individual, the firm, or the entire discipline. Knowledge capture: Involves continuous processes of scanning, organizing, and packaging knowledge after it has been generated. Knowledge codification: The representation of knowledge in a manner that can be easily accessed and transferred. Knowledge transfer: Involves transmitting knowledge from one person or group to another and the absorption of that knowledge.

How would you define knowledge management?

Knowledge management includes the processes necessary to generate, capture, codify, and transfer knowledge across the organization to achieve competitive advantage.

Give examples of different types of intellectual property

Patents for inventions. Trademarks for brand identity. Designs for product appearance. Copyrights.

List and describe the different copyright acts

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) makes it a crime to circumvent copy protection—even if that copy protection impairs rights established by the Audio Home Recording Act. The Digital Tech Corps Act of 2002 bans employees from revealing trade secrets during their lifetime and imposes a criminal penalty of up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine. The Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement in the U.S. Department of Commerce coordinates the battle against global piracy of intellectual property. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) were introduced to protect intellectual property.

what is business analytics according to Davenport and Harris?

The use of quantitative and predictive models as well as fact-based management to drive decisions.

How has knowledge management evolved from traditional to modern?

Traditional knowledge management systems had well-defined processes for generation, capture, codification, and transfer. Large data warehouses, ubiquitous websites, search tools, and tagging make it possible to capture and find information without the formal processes. Modern technologies have replaced traditional knowledge management systems. Individuals have the ability to find information that traditionally was locked within structures that had to be designed, managed, and then taught to users.

What have values and beliefs to do with knowledge and what does Davenport and Prusak say about it?

Values and beliefs determine the interpretation and the organization of knowledge. "The power of knowledge to organize, select, learn, and judge comes from values and beliefs as much as, and probably more than, from information and logic."

What attributes defines knowledge?

a mix of contextual information, experiences, rules, and values. both richer and deeper than information. more valuable because it includes someone's unique experience, judgment, and wisdom.

What does traditional BI usually provide and what are these?

dashboards and reports to assist managers in monitoring key performance metrics. simple online displays of key metrics often graphically displayed in pie charts, bar charts, red-yellow-green coded data, and other images. easily convey both the value of the metric and—via the color coding—if the metric is within acceptable parameters.

How does socialization work for knowledge conversion?

from tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge. Socialization is the process of sharing experiences. It occurs through observation, imitation, and practice. Common examples include sharing war stories, apprenticeships, conferences, and casual, unstructured discussions in the office or "at the water cooler."

What attributes defines business intelligence?

is a set of technologies and processes that use data to understand and analyze business performance. is a management strategy used to create a more structured approach to decision making. analyzes information collected in company databases, extracting knowledge from data.

What attributes define explicit knowledge?

is the focus of IT. is knowledge that can be easily collected, organized, and transferred through digital means such as a memorandum or financial report. gained from reading this textbook is objective, theoretical, and codified for transmission in a formal, systematic method using grammar, syntax, and the printed word.

What is BI 2.0 or collaborative BI?

is the next generation of business intelligence. incorporates a more proactive perspective. provides for querying of real-time data. provides visualization and analytics tools.

Identify the attributes of data mining

is the process of analyzing data warehouses for "gems" that can be used in management decision making. identifies previously unknown relationships among data. refers to combing through massive amounts of customer data to understand buying habits and to identify new products, features, and enhancements.

What has knowledge management been enabled and envigorated by?

new technologies for collaborative systems. the emergence of the Internet and intranets. large, geographically-distributed knowledge repositories. well-publicized successes of companies using business analytics (e.g., Caesars). Established sources.

What three things are important to remember regarding IT when talking about knowledge management?

provides an infrastructure for capturing and transferring knowledge. does not create knowledge. cannot guarantee knowledge sharing or use.

what do companies want to acheive with knowledge conversion?

take an expert's tacit knowledge and make it explicit. take a new hire's explicit book-learning and make it tacit.

what attributes define tacit knowledge?

was first described by Michael Polyani: "We can know more than we can tell." is personal, context-specific, and hard to formalize and communicate. consists of experiences, beliefs, and skills. is entirely subjective. is acquired through physically practicing a skill or activity.