Human Systems Management - Volume 37, issue 1

Authors: Al Karaawi, Mariam Ibrahim Hamood | Huimin, Ma

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This study analyzes the effects of information technology (IT) capacity with knowledge management (KM) on product design. IT capacity cannot provide competitive advantage in the market and thus the effect of KM as the mediating factor on this relationship must be examined. To test the hypotheses, data were collected through 220 questionnaires that were distributed to industrial companies in China. Results indicated that to achieve competitive advantage, companies should offer products that address customer needs through the design of identical product specifications, which are supported by KM and IT. Product design cannot succeed without knowledge of product qualities and characteristics. …Moreover, KM in companies relies on IT capability, and IT capability with KM can be used to explain variations in product design. Thus, companies who want to achieve competitive advantage in the design of their products must use the capability of IT with KM in obtaining their objectives and be consistent with customer requirements to achieve consumer satisfaction. This study contributes to the literature of industrialization through the introduction of KM as a critical intermediary between IT capability and product design and elucidates the real industrial value of product design. Show more

Keywords: Capability of using IT, knowledge management classifications, product design

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-17128

Citation: Human Systems Management, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 117-128, 2018

Authors: Choi, Tae-Hee | Nakano, Chiaki

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Using questionnaire surveys, this study investigates ethics-related attitudes and practices in Japan and South Korea, pertaining to their business enterprises. To enable assessing ethics-perceptions changes over time, said surveys replicate similar studies, conducted in both countries 10 years prior to the current one. Namely, this article investigates (1) ethical conflicts, (2) unethical practices, (3) managers’ responses to hypothetical situations, (4) ethics standards, and (5) the institutionalization of ethics in Japan and South Korea, pertaining to business enterprises. Overall, our 2014 and 2015 survey results are reasonably similar to those of previous studies. Also observed are, however, an increase in ethics …awareness among Japanese and South Korean business respondents, and an overall improvement in ethics standards in both countries. The empirical findings suggest that, through time, ethical perceptions of Japanese and South Korean business respondents seem to be converging, and coinciding with those of previous studies’ business respondents in US. Yet most persistent are some characteristics peculiar to Japan and South Korea, such as, for example situational ethics in Japan, company-interest-first in South Korea, and ethical relativism in both countries. Show more

Keywords: Ethics in business, Japan, Korea, recent changes, survey, M14, O57

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-17106

Citation: Human Systems Management, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 129-149, 2018