Analysis of Knowledge Community for Knowledge Creation and Use

Internet communities are a typical space for knowledge creation and use on the Internet as people discuss their common interests within the internet communities. When we define 'Knowledge Communities' as internet communities that are related to knowledge creation and use, they are categorized into 4 different types such as 'Search Engine,' 'Open Communities,' 'Specialty Communities,' and 'Activity Communities.' Each type of knowledge community does not remain the same, for example. Rather, it changes with time and is also affected by the external business environment. Therefore, it is critical to develop processes for practical use of such changeable knowledge communities. Yet there is little research regarding a strategic framework for knowledge communities as a source of knowledge creation and use. The purposes of this study are (1) to find factors that can affect knowledge creation and use for each type of knowledge community and (2) to develop a strategic framework for practical use of the knowledge communities. Based on previous research, we found 7 factors that have considerable impacts on knowledge creation and use. They were 'Fitness,' 'Reliability,' 'Systemicity,' 'Richness,' 'Similarity,' 'Feedback,' and 'Understanding.' We created 30 different questions from each type of knowledge community. The questions included common sense, IT, business and hobbies, and were uniformly selected from various knowledge communities. Instead of using survey, we used these questions to ask users of the 4 representative web sites such as Google from Search Engine, NAVER Knowledge iN from Open Communities, SLRClub from Specialty Communities, and Wikipedia from Activity Communities. These 4 representative web sites were selected based on popularity (i.e., the 4 most popular sites in Korea). They were also among the 4 most frequently mentioned sitesin previous research. The answers of the 30 knowledge questions were collected and evaluated by the 11 IT experts who have been working for IT companies more than 3 years. When evaluating, the 11 experts used the above 7 knowledge factors as criteria. Using a stepwise linear regression for the evaluation of the 7 knowledge factors, we found that each factors affects differently knowledge creation and use for each type of knowledge community. The results of the stepwise linear regression analysis showed the relationship between 'Understanding' and other knowledge factors. The relationship was different regarding the type of knowledge community. The results indicated that 'Understanding' was significantly related to 'Reliability' at 'Search Engine type', to 'Fitness' at 'Open Community type', to 'Reliability' and 'Similarity' at 'Specialty Community type', and to 'Richness' and 'Similarity' at 'Activity Community type'. A strategic framework was created from the results of this study and such framework can be useful for knowledge communities that are not stable with time. For the success of knowledge community, the results of this study suggest that it is essential to ensure there are factors that can influence knowledge communities. It is also vital to reinforce each factor has its unique influence on related knowledge community. Thus, these changeable knowledge communities should be transformed into an adequate type with proper business strategies and objectives. They also should be progressed into a type that covers varioustypes of knowledge communities. For example, DCInside started from a small specialty community focusing on digital camera hardware and camerawork and then was transformed to an open community focusing on social issues through well-known photo galleries. NAVER started from a typical search engine and now covers an open community and a special community through additional web services such as NAVER knowledge iN, NAVER Cafe, and NAVER Blog. NAVER is currently competing withan activity community such as Wikipedia through the NAVER encyclopedia that provides similar services with NAVER encyclopedia's users as Wikipedia does. Finally, the results of this study provide meaningfully practical guidance for practitioners in that which type of knowledge community is most appropriate to the fluctuated business environment as knowledge community itself evolves with time.

지식 생성 및 활용을 위한 지식 커뮤니티 효과 분석

지식의 생성과 활용의 원천으로서 인터넷 커뮤니티를 '지식 커뮤니티'로 정의할 때 지식 커뮤니티는 '검색엔진', '공개공동체', '전문공동체', '활동공동체'의 4대 유형으로 구분되며 개별 지식 커뮤니티는 시간이나 환경의 변화에 따라 각 유형을 넘나들며 변화하고 있다. 변화하는 지식 커뮤니티를 기업경영에 적절하게 활용하기 위해서는 각 지식 커뮤니티 유형별 활용전략이 절실함에도 불구하고, 지식 커뮤니티 유형별 효과 분석과 활용전략에 대한 연구는 많지 않다. 이에 본 연구에서는 지식 커뮤니티 유형별 분류에서 제안한 4대 지식 커뮤니티 유형에 대해 지식 생성 및 활용에 영향을 미치는 요인을 실증분석을 통해 도출함으로써 지식 커뮤니티의 변화를 설명하고 그 활용방안을 제시하고자 한다. 첫째, 관련 선행연구를 통해 지식 커뮤니티 유형별로 지식의 생성과 활용에 영향을 미치는 요인을 적합성, 신뢰성, 체계성, 충실성, 유사성, 피드백, 이해도로 파악하였다. 둘째, 유형별 대표사이트에 30개의 실제 질문을 질의하여 전문가의 평가를 통해 각 요인을 평가했다. 마지막으로 Stepwise 회귀분석을 이용해 각 유형별로 지식 커뮤니티의 지식 생성과 활용에 영향을 미치는 주요 요인을 도출했다. 회귀분석 결과 검색엔진 유형의 지식 커뮤니티는 신뢰성과, 공개 공동체 유형은 적합성과, 전문공동체 유형은 신뢰성 및 유사성과, 활동공동체 유형은 충실성 및 유사성과 높은 상관관계가 있었다. 본 연구에서 제시한 지식 커뮤니티 유형별 영향요인에 대한 실증분석 결과는 지식 커뮤니티의 변화를 설명하고 그 활용방안을 제시하는데 유용할 것으로 기대된다.