3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Adoption of knowledge management systems by South African municipalities: a technology-organizational-environment (TOE) perspective(2018) Ndaba, Sandile LennoxThe purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which South African municipalities have adopted the use of knowledge management systems. The study was also aimed at explaining the reasons behind the adoption of these systems. As knowledge management systems are there to enable the use of knowledge management in organizations, the adoption of knowledge management practice was briefly reviewed. The causal factors that enable or inhibit such adoption were explained. The focus of the research was both descriptive and explanatory. Within municipalities, questionnaires through an on-line system, were sent to senior managers/executives such as Chief Financial Officers or Chief Information Officers or Knowledge and Information Officers. Questionnaires were sent to all 281 South African municipalities. 93 responses were received from these municipalities. Although the target respondents were the heads of departments with municipalities, some responses were from the category “other”. The research paradigm that was employed was a positivist approach.. The research was based on a firm-level theory, called the Technology-Organisational-Environmental(TOE) model. This model was chosen, after a comparison with other theories such as Diffusion on Innovation, Institutional theory and lacovou et al model. The results on the extent of adoption of knowledge management systems showed that half of the municipalities that responded to the questionnaire have adopted some form of knowledge management systems. The results of the type of knowledge management systems adopted showed that more than 50% of the municipalities that responded have adopted at least one knowledge management system. The discrepancy can be attributed to the understanding of knowledge management systems by some of the respondents. The hypotheses that were supported were that size has a positive correlation to the adoption of knowledge management systems, and that the complexity of the knowledge management system has a negative relationship to the adoption of knowledge management systems. Relative advantage and compatibility were partially supported, while cost, top management support, maturity and stakeholder pressure were not supported. The implications for practice are successful adoption of knowledge management systems are that the systems to be adopted must be usable and less complex, must be compatible with other legacy systems in the organisation and that the benefits that these systems bring to organisation must be clearly communicated. Implications for academia are that both the technology and organisational factors play a crucial role in the adoption of knowledge management systems in the South African context.Item Second generation innovation and academic research productivity in South African universities(2016) Rubin, AsafIt has been suggested that a global ‘Second Generation’ of innovation (SGI) is required in order to address the deficiencies of contemporary innovation practice. In the commercial context, contemporary innovation practice is often constrained by market forces and the profit mechanism, effectively resulting in stagnation in the innovation pipeline. As a consequence, many potentially profitable and beneficial innovations are not pursued. SGI is a proposed new paradigm that makes use of open innovation, open source and crowdsourcing in order to extricate the full potential of distributed knowledge systems to ultimately ameliorate the free flow of knowledge and innovation. Much of SGI theory relates to pharmaceutical research but there exists a paucity of literature that applies SGI theory in the academic research context, where similar problems exist. It has been purported that academic research is inherently non-innovative and the occurrence of ‘academic failure’, or the inability of academia to produce innovative research output is a serious concern. In order to examine the relationship between SGI and academic research, a mixed methodology approach, which incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies has been used. First, a model of relationships between important theoretical concepts was derived from the literature. Next, a questionnaire survey was distributed to a sample of 529 academic researchers across South African universities and research institutions in order to gauge potential ‘SGI Propensity’ in relation to academic research output (or productivity) along with all other relevant variables in the literature-derived model. It is argued that the relationship between SGI Propensity and academic research productivity can provide a clear indication of the potential of SGI in the South African academic context. Aggregated data collected from this sample was then tested using a variety of statistical tests, including correlation analysis, hierarchical multiple regression, as well as tests of moderation and mediation. Additionally, a sample of 30 high-ranking South African academic researchers was also sampled for a parallel qualitative study, which occurred through a one-on-one interview process. Results from both studies were recorded, analysed and contrasted. Thereafter, conclusions were drawn and recommendations made.Item Social media, knowledge management adoption and information and communication technology project success in the South African context(2016) Medjo, DanielleMany ICT projects continue to fail despite the use of established projects methods and techniques as the proper communication systems required for successful project outcomes have been lacking. It is generally believed that the adoption and diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) makes a contribution to a nation‟s economic and sustainable development. The explosion of social media is changing the way we communicate and therefore the processes involving project management information systems. Research shows that as technology usage lags, so does per capita income, skills development and productivity. Despite much global literature that relates to the failure of ICT projects, what is absent from the literature is knowledge of the relative contribution of different factors to ICT project success in the South African context. This study sought to address this absence. From a review of the literature on social media tools and knowledge sharing and reuse, four propositions relating the use of social media and adoption of certain knowledge management practices to the success of ICT projects were generated about the likely impact of these variables on ICT project performance. The research study was conducted over twenty-month effort. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained. The qualitative study based on a grounded theory analysis of ICT professionals, derived propositions that were tested empirically. Bivariate correlation analysis, multiple linear regressions and multiple hierarchical regression analyses were applied. Results indicated that knowledge management adoption mediates the relationship between social media usage and ICT project cost performance. Additionally project type was found to play a moderating role in the relationship between knowledge management and project performance. Implications for practice and theory are discussed.