=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1684/paper3
|storemode=property
|title=Modelling of Knowledge Sharing Processes for the Provision of Trilateral Cooperation
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1684/paper3.pdf
|volume=Vol-1684
|authors=Andra Jakobsone,Sarma Cakula,Monica Florea
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/bir/JakobsoneCF16
}}
==Modelling of Knowledge Sharing Processes for the Provision of Trilateral Cooperation==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1684/paper3.pdf
Modelling of Knowledge Sharing Processes for the
Provision of Trilateral Cooperation
Andra Jakobsone1, Sarma Cakula2, and Monica Florea3
1 Liepaja University, Liepaja, Latvia
andra.jakobsone@gmail.com
2 Sociotechnical Systems Engineering Institute, Valmiera, Latvia
sarma.cakula@va.lv
3SIVECO, Victoria Business Park, Bucurest, Romania
monica.florea@siveco.ro
Abstract. Information technologies in today’s world function as support net for
sharing knowledge and information coming more important as well as promoter
of mutual cooperation when it comes to development of further education of
adults. Because of a passive cooperation between educational institutions and
enterprises, society is still in search of approaches and methods, new
information systems and technology to improve service of knowledge, skills,
abilities and attitudes. The research aims to justify and develop the knowledge
sharing imitation model and prototype for trilateral cooperation. The goal
involves innovative methods and web-based automated cooperation system.
The main study question is what kind of modelling tools and technological
solutions can be applied to improve and automate knowledge sharing efficiency
and cooperation indicators? The results of this research are intended to be used
in practice as promotional technology of cooperation development between
potential interns/working individuals, adult educational institutions and
enterprises.
Key words: Information and communication technologies, Information
systems, Knowledge sharing models, Sustainable cooperation.
1 Introduction
Access to education and the opportunity to gain practical experience is important for
every individual for their personal growth, as well as for companies to create and
develop new, advanced products and services through high-quality work. Knowledge
sharing is an endless process, where all parties involved need to be motivated constantly
ensuring it remains sufficiently intense. Because of a passive cooperation between
educational institutions and enterprises, society is still in search of approaches and
methods, new information systems and technology to improve service of knowledge,
skills, abilities and attitudes. In order to ensure sustainable success, emphasis should be
put on building and strengthening cooperation between educational institutions and
enterprises, and potential trainees and working individuals should be involved. The
research aims to justify and develop the knowledge sharing imitation model and
prototype for trilateral cooperation. The goal involves innovative methods and web-
based automated cooperation system. The results of this research are intended to be
used in practice as promotional technology of cooperation development between
potential interns/working individuals, adult educational institutions and enterprises.
Changes and developments in available methods and technologies increasingly affect
development of sustainable information society and determine educational tendencies
thus affecting specificity of adult education as well.
2 Knowledge Sharing Model Development
First of all, knowledge transfer that is based on knowledge demand is linked with the
cooperation, which depends on having the knowledge necessary and, secondly,
knowledge can be formed when knowledge "suppliers" and "beneficiaries" meet. When
providing and developing the prototype of cooperation system, functionality knowledge
sharing is promoted which leads to educational institutions gaining experience in
communicating directly with enterprises and creating personalized training courses on
the particular case and actual topics. In turn, companies, showing initiative and
cooperating with educational institutions, will gain the knowledge required for more
effective work in industry and first-hand information on how to acquire young
professionals and their knowledge. This trilateral knowledge sharing model is
unthinkable without the young professionals as its main users, since they would be the
ones getting actively and creatively involved in promoting electronic cooperation, while
ensuring sustainable competitiveness of the system with their enthusiasm.
For imitation modelling of knowledge sharing processes, the process management
tool [1] QPR ProcessDesigner was selected, which is a solution for rationalising
different operations. Knowledge sharing and cooperation process is revaluated and
modelled using business process [2] management tool QPR ProcessDesigner on
purpose, since by modifying the flow of knowledge model it would be possible to
analyze and predict user behaviour and knowledge sharing activities and business
purposes in the long term. Modelling of the knowledge sharing allows to plan, develop
and monitor the cooperation process as a whole, as well as the separate steps of each
activity, the actors involved and to describe in a detailed manner the knowledge streams
in the system. It is also possible to analyse how the changing factors change the shared
environment of the system. Modelling and simulation has generally proved to be useful
when addressing issues in complicated information systems’ analysis, project drafting
[3] and optimisation [4, 5, and 6]. Analysing results of the imitation model allows
arriving at well grounded conclusions about ensuring sustainable cooperation and the
necessary support mechanisms so as to achieve more precise and higher quality results
for knowledge sharing between stakeholders.
3 Criteria for Evaluating Changes in Knowledge Sharing
Activity and Cooperation Level
It is important to assess the factors affecting knowledge sharing activity and choose the
criteria of changes regarding the level of cooperation. Public opinion states that the
main reason slowing down cooperation between educational institutions and enterprises
is by general lack of trust or an existence of large proportion of small and medium
entrepreneurs with limited resources.
In order to identify all the possible options, factors affecting involvement in
knowledge sharing and cooperation are characterized. Knowledge sharing activity is
measured by how often stakeholders share actual needs and desires. The level of
cooperation is measured by request and offer units complying with the requirements of
the side interested in cooperation. People's willingness to cooperate and share their
knowledge could be affected by a wide range of factors that have been identified within
the study [7, 8] are further developed by the author and are then summarized in 4
categories: usefulness, efficiency, accessibility and sustainability (see table 1).
Table 1. Categorized influencing factors.
Usefulness Accessibility (electronic system)
Skill evaluation level (on scale 1-5) Technically
Offer evaluation level (on scale 1-5) o Electronically for different Oss
Improved offers (complemented % of o Mobile, tablet
all) Content related
Recognisability level (view factor) o Offer precision and content
o Request precision and content
Eligibility of intern/internship
Efficiency Sustainability
Cost Motivation (repeated use of the
o Self advertising (savings from system)
average market price) Increase of offers and requests
Time (number)
o Storing of contacts in the database Reliability level (on scale 1-5)
(saved time when searching New knowledge and experience (on
repeatedly) scale 1-5)
Data security (no access to third Long term profit (increase of trainees,
party) efficiency of qualified employees)
Identifying influencing factors and criteria allows analysing the current situation and
forecasting possible future developments.
4 Development of the Prototype and Technological
Functionality
Today automation of technological processes is an objective necessity and it contributes
to increased productivity, improved service quality, reduced consumption of materials
and energy and improved working conditions.
The prototype mimics the structure of the actual program and is pivotal for the
process, since during the development of the information system it is changed and
adapted several times, to achieve the desired outcome. The users of the system are the
main driving force behind the development of the system’s functionality. This is
precisely why direct interaction is so important for the prototype - it has to be easy to
grasp, shouldn’t be challenging for the users and should allow processing the
functionality of the system easily.
Information base consists of two main categories: educational opportunities and
internships. These categories are then split in requests and offers which consist of needs
and desires of users and are transformed, categorised and stored in a single location
which is easy to access for all those involved. Simulation data of the imitation model
indicates that, in order for active knowledge sharing to take place and for the
cooperation to be sustainable, the critical mass for such a system is at least 200
motivated registered users.
Each individual user of the system can determine his or her needs independently
from other users. Everyone has a chance to offer educational opportunities or topics
they are interested in studying, as well as express their wish to become an intern of offer
an internship to someone. While being involved in mutual knowledge sharing and
cooperation processes, it is also pivotal to receive feedback [9]. During the process of
knowledge sharing information users are stating their offers, adding reviews and
suggestions for improvements for other offers. This way, effective cooperation-oriented
communication is established.
The usefulness and convenience are two distinct criteria [10, 11]. In 1986, Davis
developed a technology acceptance model, basing it on the motivated action theory,
with the purpose to predict acceptance of information systems (see figure 1.) [12].
Fig. 1. Technology acceptance model [12].
Changing external factors influence both usefulness and convenience, which in turn
affects system users’ attitude, intensity of their activity and the actual application. The
level of usefulness is assessed by how the user evaluates the level up to which his or
her performance is enhanced by using the available opportunities. Convenience, in turn,
relates to how easy it is to perceive the system.
After providing the functionality of the basic processes of the information system
the next step could be to develop agents' technologies in the way they are able to ensure
system's self-development and, when analysing the data of all users, the search of
hidden connections and discovering of unknown relations between them can be
performed [13, 14]. The goal of agents is to simplify the identification of possible
solving of cooperation system users needs and desires, to filter useless information and
to display offers in order to make the data of interest in the first place [15].
5 Analysis of the Pilot Project Data
In order to evaluate the pilot project, users of the cooperation system were interviewed.
In addition, experts of the field were invited to review the theoretical and practical
findings of the research. The analysed data demonstrates that successful categorisation
and easily accessible functionality ensures faster and more precise locating of the
necessary information. On average, the usefulness of the cooperation system was most
highly evaluated by potential interns/working individuals. The usefulness of
determining levels of the required skill in scale from 1 to 5 where 5 being ‘very useful’,
and 166 respondents answered with either 4 or 5, which constitutes 82% of all
responses. This target-audience group also evaluates the possibility to receive
cooperation recommendations as prepared by the system most highly (see figure 2).
Fig. 2. Evaluation of information categorisation and search result precision.
This shows that potential interns/working individuals and entrepreneurs are least
interested in spending a lot of time on searching for opportunities that correspond to
their needs. Respondents were also asked to evaluate their motivation to use this type
of cooperation systems. One or several answers were allowed. The total number of
responses was 414. Most respondents (41%) indicated that they would like to follow
the updates of new opportunities and requests, 19% stated they would like to add new
course requests, 16% - to add internship opportunities, 12% - to add internship requests
and 12% - to add training opportunities (see figure 3).
Fig. 3. Percentage distribution of the user-motivating activities.
It is possible that the acquired data is distributed in this way, since more enterprises
were interviewed than educational institutions. Potential interns and working
individuals have also expressed their wish to add their requests. The number of those
users, who indicated that they would only wish to follow news updates, is very small
and thus leads to a conclusion that most users are willing to get involved. The potential
knowledge sharing activity in the information system is evaluated as high by most
respondents, predicting that the educational institutions would be the most active ones.
In the trilateral knowledge sharing model both motivation of all those involved as
well as mutual trust are key. It seems to be the case, that the level of trust for the
enterprises regarding their potential partners is slightly lower than the level of trust of
educational institutions and potential interns/working individuals. Considering the
opinions of the current prototype users allows evaluating important factors that may
affect the system in the future. After processing statistical results, recommendations
have been developed for the use of a more individually oriented, automatic cooperation
system for the potential interns/working individuals, educational institutions and
enterprises.
6 Conclusion and Further Work
The research aim was to justify and develop the knowledge sharing imitation model
and prototype for trilateral cooperation. With carrying out the task of the research,
following theoretical results were achieved:
• Research and analysis carried out for the purposes of the thesis justifies the claim
that process imitation modelling and the designed information system prototype is
topical for the general public and useful for knowledge sharing and promotion of
trilateral cooperation.
• Imitation model of knowledge sharing describes relation between potential
interns/working individuals, educational institutions and enterprises, data and
processes.
• Conclusions and suggestions of the research are important for promoting sustainable
trilateral cooperation in further education.
With carrying out the task of the research, following practical results were achieved:
• Imitation model of knowledge sharing allows analysing and predicting potential
knowledge sharing activities of all involved parties. The model can be adapted and
modified also for analysis of business process.
• All three actors involved benefit directly from being involved, since they receive
additional information for initiating cooperation and as a result, gain useful
knowledge for developing a successful career, obtain new, field-specific studying
modules or attract competitive employees for developing innovative business
product.
• Cooperation information system prototype can be used in practice as promotional
tool of knowledge sharing and cooperation between all involved actors.
Novelty of the research:
• Factors and criteria affecting the intensity of knowledge sharing and levels of
cooperation have been identified, which allows to assess the existing situation and
to predict potential future developments.
• Imitation model for knowledge sharing was designed, which allows to analyse
motivation of the general public as well as the activity between interns/working
individuals, educational institutions and enterprises.
• Cooperation information system prototype for trilateral cooperation has been
designed, which affects and leaves a positive impact on development of knowledge-
society, with an emphasis with immediate and easy-to-achieve benefits (saving
time, financial resources, access information, improve communication skills,
participate in social life and to increase one’s competitiveness in the labour market).
The results of the research show that the applied information technologies play an
important role in knowledge sharing and cooperation-promoting activities. Results of
research provides basis for further inquiries about knowledge sharing, promotion of
cooperation and design of support technologies. Sometimes society is unable to follow
the rapid technological development that is why it is important to balance the use of
technology in the cooperation process and to create a user friendly and motivating
information systems and electronic data base where possibilities of information
exchange between adult education institutions, students and branch experts can be
found. When developing functionality of a cooperation system it is necessary to work
actively with agents for ensuring information exchange between all involved sides, so
that self-development of the information system is ensured.
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