Identify Key Technological Influences On the Internationalisation Process - Essay Example

Research Report Submitted by: XXXXX XXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXXXX of XXXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX Date of Submission: XX – XX – 2009 Research Summary: Businesses and individuals from across the globe have an increase awareness to ensure that they are constantly in the loop and are updated at all times. Coakes (2004) concludes that if KM is implemented well, it can enhance productivity, develop worker collaboration, and condense product development times. “Implemented badly it may incur significant costs without delivering these benefits” (p. 406). Introduction: Over the past few decades technology has grown to great heights and is still improving. Technology is shaping our world. It has become a part of everyone’s lives and it rules almost every action of ours. The internet has had a very strong impact on almost all aspects of the society and the commercial world as well. This report aims at highlighting the effects of the Internet on the internationalisation process of a company. The main focus of this assignment will be specifically on how the Internet has altered the way in which firms use information, knowledge and networks to facilitate international market growth. The main idea being discussed here is that of the knowledge management within the organisations and how they assist the internationalism process. Analysis: Literature review: Knowledge Management (KM) has been in use for a very long period and has a strong and distinguished history. Peter Drucker introduced the first related term ‘Knowledge Worker’ in 1960. Over the years, there has been a significant growth in this field and various authors and scholars have brought a number of different areas of focus on the subject. Carlie (1998) highlighted that several theories were developed to manage the intellectual capital in the 21st century. Graham and Thomas (2008) believed that KM is supported as a means of harnessing and utilizing intellectual resources to address challenges, as well as improving innovation, business performance and client approval. Knowledge is the awareness of what one knows through study, reasoning, experience or association, or through various other types of learning (McInerney, 2002). The use of this knowledge has been effectively facilitated by the internet. Since ages there has been an extremely important and true saying, ‘Knowledge is Power’. The use of knowledge within the internationalism process is very vast. Hence the Internet has provided a chance for knowledge to be easily and well transferred anywhere in the world, which is a very essential element in the internationalism of any business. “The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it” (Carnegie, 2009). Creed and Zutshi (2008) noted that “since the emergence of information technology tools with mass dissemination capacity, from the printing press through to modem personal computers, information innovations have become a normal part of human existence” (p. 30). In the current times, computers and other IT related products lead to the better and more connectivity and easier modes of knowledge transfers. With the growth of technology, the availability of information and accessibility is higher, making knowledge transfer easy within companies and even across the world. With the steady progress and improvement that have developed over the years, newer elements like the neutral networks, intelligence agents and many other widely accepted applications are now being put to use. Knowledge management is the framework of principles and procedures that drives the transformation of organizational information into knowledge (Creed and Zutshi, 2008). In order to obtain knowledge, information must exist. Technology allows knowledge to be presented in digital form. Technology via the web creates a community and environment where people can congregate. This congregation creates discussion, which ultimately creates knowledge. Using technology as communication medium, knowledge and information can be obtained from virtual communities. Technology provides companies with easier modes of knowledge transfer and allows for easier interactivity not only among people, but also people and computers and computer with computers as well. There are several tools available for the knowledge transfer among the countries, and each of the tools provide a mode for the knowledge to be transferred and have a great impact on the KM transfer process on the whole (Lewis, 2000). Today the Information Communication (ICT) technology plays a very important role in the development and transfer of information and knowledge across the companies and the organizations (Leonard & Straus, 1998). The role of the ICT is very impactful and has a strong impact on the mode of communication. Several technologies for the KM process are available and can be used for different situations and different programs. The Internet has made it easy for all users and has provided accessible and available information. The internet can act in many formats and knowledge tools for people to include i decision support and document management. Online knowledge is available to provide a wealth of information. Active information management allows the information to remain well structured and relevant. Every organisation is faced with a number of different decisions that it is required to make to enhance their business. It is a known fact that behind every successful business there is a strong and well planned strategy (Mintzberg, et.al, 2002). Strategy plays a very essential role in every business and is the in some terms the backbone for the businesses. According to Hill (2003), there are four main types of strategies that are used by firms to enter and compete in the international environment. These he explains include: international strategy, multi domestic strategy, global strategy and transnational strategy. The diagram below illustrates the same. Four Basic Strategies (Hill, 2003, p. 422) The type of the strategy bee chosen will have a strong impact on implementation and selection of the business level strategies for the business. Also the choice of the strategy will also impact the overall working of the business to a great extent. Arguments & Evaluation: As discussed above, if a company needs to decide the strategy to be used to help it improve the overall move and internationalisation process then the company requires to have the available knowledge to do so. Information overload is a high issue that is being faced by most professionals. Intelligent agent is a related technology, which provides a chance to roam networks and selectively refer users to information that would prove to be useful and beneficial (Gordon & Edge, 1997). However, it is clear that the best intelligent agent is a human being by himself. Jonscher (2000) stated in one of his books that deep down, the information revolution is not about technology working with data but about people working with knowledge. However, it is obvious that computers are useful in KM as they do not slow down the learning, but help the KM to be more efficient and effective in order to support learning to a greater extent. OECD (1996) has noted that “knowledge and information tend to be abundant, what is scarce is the capacity to use them in meaningful ways” (p.11). This has highlighted the main constructs that have the most influence on the internalisation process. The most essential factor is the market-specific experiential knowledge is central in explaining the firms internationalization process. This is got only by the knowledge that is shared and spread across the organisation. Conclusions: Based on the above discussion it is clear that the main aspect and factors that affect the internationalisation of any business is the knowledge that is shared within the organisation and the ability of the company to transfer the data and raw information into understandable knowledge. Based on this, it is essential to understand that KM can be improved not only based on the amount of money spent on it but also a great deal of focus is required to be on the efforts of the management process. It is safe to say that knowledge has already grown largely and it has become one of the most essential aspects of any business. It has become a major driver and money is now slowly phasing out of the scene and as the old saying of ‘Knowledge is king’, is now being put to use in almost every industry and every company across the world (Carlie, 1998). Bibliography Carlie, P.R. (1998). Working Knowledge: How Organizations manage What they Know. Human resource Planning, 21 (4), 58 -59. Carnegie, A. (2009). The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and The Gospel of Wealth. 1st January 2009. Digireads.com Coakes, E. (2004). Knowledge management--a primer. Communications of AIS, 2004(14), 406-489. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=16744170&site=ehost-live&scope=site Creed, A., & Zutshi, A. (2008). The wellhouse of knowledge globalization: IT and virtual communities. Journal of Knowledge Globalization, 1(1), 29-42. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=35881748&site=ehost-live&scope=site Drucker, P. (1998). The coming of the New Organization. In Harvard Business review on Knowledge Management. Harvard Business School Publishing Gordon, J.L., & Edge, M. (1997). Focused Knowledge Management Applications and Innovations in Expert Systems. SGES Publications. pp 207 – 219 Graham, B., & Thomas, K. (2008). Building knowledge -- developing a grounded theory of knowledge management for construction. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 6(2), 115-121. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=37221644&site=ehost-live&scope=site Hill, C.W., 2003, ‘International Business’, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin Jonscher, C. (2000). Wired Life: Who are we in the digital age? Anchor [Transworld Publishers]. Random House. London Leonard, D & Straus, S. (1998). Putting Your Company’s Whole Brain to Work. In Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management. Harvard Business School Publishing Lewis, M (2000). The New New Thing: A Sillicon Vallet Story. Hodder and Stoughton, London McInerney, C. (2002). Knowledge management and the dynamic nature of knowledge. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 53(12), 1009-1018. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=7557676&site=ehost-live&scope=site Mintzberg, H., Lampel, J., Quinn, J.B., & Ghoshal, S., 2002, ‘The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts and Cases’, 4th Edition, Financial Times Management, Prentice Hall OECD, (1996). The Knowledge Based Economy. Paper presented at the OECD, Paris [Cited in Rollo and Clarke, 2001:4] Read More