Latest articles in english

• [Cahier de recherche] How does knowledge integration occur during Information Systems projects. An empirical investigation of the influence of social capital.

  14 juin 2007, par Caroline Sargis-Roussel, François Deltour

  Les projets concernant les systèmes d’information sont caractérisés par leur forte dimension organisationnelle. Ils doivent intégrer les connaissances spécifiques possédées par les membres de l’organisation pour réussir. Cela implique de nombreux échanges avec des personnes du groupe de projet, mais aussi hors de ce groupe. L’intégration des connaissances, c’est-à-dire le partage et la création de nouvelles connaissances, fait partie de chaque projet. Cette intégration suit différentes phases, qui sont souvent longues et complexes, dépendant des acteurs impliqués. Par conséquent, la l’intégration des connaissances peut être affectée par le capital social des membres du projet. Une étude empirique sur deux PME françaises cherchant à transformer leur système d’information montre que les trois dimensions du capital social (structurelle, relationnelle et cognitive) influencent le processus de capitalisation, même si nous n’observons pas d’effet différencié dans les différentes phases du processus. La distinction de trois phases dans l’intégration, mobilisant différents niveaux de connaissance, est confirmé, proposant un cadre de compréhension prometteur des mécanismes de création de la connaissance dans le contexte des projets de système d’information.

  Mots clefs : gestion de projet - gestion de la connaissance - capital social - étude de cas.

  ABSTRACT.

  IS Projects are characterized by their organizational scope. They need to integrate the specific knowledge held by an organization’s members to succeed. To do so, broad exchanges between people inside and outside the project team are required. Knowledge integration, i.e. sharing and creation of new knowledge, is part of any project. Knowledge integration follows several phases that are often long and complex, depending on the actors involved. As a consequence, knowledge integration can be affected by the social capital of the project members. An empirical investigation in two French SMEs aiming to improve their information systems shows that the three dimensions of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) influence the knowledge integration process, even if no differentiated effect is observed through the different phases of the process. The distinction of three phases in integration, mobilizing different levels of knowledge, is confirmed, offering a promising understanding of the knowledge creation mechanisms in context of IS projects.

  Keywords : project management - knowledge management - social capital - case study

• Research seminar about the concept of “ICT object”. Project Presentation.

  13 June 2007, by Annabelle Boutet-Diéye, Christèle Dondeyne, Christine Chauvin-Blottiaux, Nicolas Jullien, Pascal Plantard

  During previous projects and collaborations carried out by our different research teams, we have identified the polysemy of the concept of objects and the existence of connections that should be made between previous studies and current research on the issue of ICT dispersion and its impact on the social network.

  At first, our project aims to build a common basis of understanding of this polysemy. Thus, it is based upon a shared bibliographical and theoretical work. It will especially deal with the definition of the complex relationships between concrete objects and theoretical objects which meet up without merging in ICT investigations.

• Internet uses and social practises. Presentation of the project.

  12 June 2007, by Annabelle Boutet-Diéye, Christèle Dondeyne, Ludivine Martin, Nathalie Colombier, Raphaël Suire, Thierry Pénard, Virginie Lethiais

  Internet uses and practises are more sensitive to social interactions than other uses, no matter if they take the form of network externalities, of informational externalities or of technical support (Forman and Goldfarb, 2006, Goldfarb, 2005, Goldfarb and Prince, 2006, Goolsbee and Zittrain, 1999).

  In this project, we have several objectives, several angles of approach for the analysis of the bond between the Internet and the social life.

• Journalists in the convergence process - project presentation

  12 June 2007, by Denis Ruellan, Godefroy Dang Nguyen

  This program aims to observe the circumstances and to analyse the potential consequences of a phenomenon that has a crawling impact on media since two decades and has brutally speed up from the beginning of the year 2000: the process of “multi-mediatization” (or convergence) of information contents produced by media companies. This phenomenon finds expression particularly in a reorganisation of companies’ capital and production structures on the one hand, in a modification of continuums and information products on the other hand. These evolutions would denote a double shifting. Firstly, it would indicate a shift of the place of media companies within the communication market, henceforth in competition, especially in the diffusion/distribution process, with other actors of whose are telecommunications providers, equipment manufacturers, content or software developers who invest massively in the production of individual terminals or other devices that provide access to information content (portals on the Internet). Secondly, it would denote a shift of competencies, status and finally identity of journalistic staff that has to produce contents in which production-broadcasting-valuation processes are evolving. This project intends to tackle these issues on a socio-economical approach decentred from the information strategies of a large and emblematic North American group, News Corporation and on the other hand, by a set of in-depth case studies on French media companies involved in convergence development strategies.

• Virtual model for museology and education means: the swing bridge of Recouvrance in Brest (1861-1944).

  6 June 2007, by Stéphane Sire, Sylvain Laubé

  It consists of three main objectives:

  ► to reproduce historical technical objects which are not or not anymore accessible (fragility, materials or disappeared technical objects) and thus to constitute a technical database related to national heritage. The technical object involved in this particular project is the National Bridge in Brest (the swing bridge between Brest and Recouvrance) build in 1861 (by Cadiat and Oudry) and destroyed during the 1944’s bombings.

  – to represent scientific or industrial technical objects with virtual images and consequently to develop computer-based environments for human learning in order to realize learning activities within the frame of:

  i). museology

  ii). engineering teachers training (schools, colleges)

  – to describe the use and the new competencies at stake for the targeted users of the computer-based environment (students, visitors) as well as the professional skills for the actors (teachers, museum...)

• [Cahier de recherche] Proximity, technology and mode of diffusion as determinants of knowledge flows

  30 mai 2007, par Christophe Cariou, Virginie Lethiais

  Dans cet article, nous étudions les relations de coopération entre les entreprises, comprises en tant que diffusion et partage de connaissances, proximité entre partenaires et mode de diffusion. Nous avons réalisés une étude empirique auprès de 348 entreprises. Les résultats sont en ligne avec ceux trouvés dans la littérature : la distance, les communications virtuelles et le savoir-quoi (know-what) augmente la connaissance codifiée échangée entre les entreprises, alors que les communications « physiques » ont l’effet inverse. De plus, plus les entreprises échangent de savoir-quoi, plus elles échangent aussi des types de connaissance complémentaires (savoir comment, savoir pourquoi) ; plus la collaboration est inter-régionale, et fondée sur des communications virtuelles, plus la connaissance échangée est codifiée.

  Cet article fait suite à une revue de la littérature sur les relations de coopérations entre les entreprises et le lien avec l’usage des TIC.

  Mots clefs : diffusion des connaissances, utilisation des TIC, proximité géographique, changement technique.

  ABSTRACT.

  In this paper, we analyze the cooperative relations of firms, in term of knowledge diffused and shared, proximities between partners, and modes of diffusion. An empirical investigation is undertaken near 348 firms. The results are consistent with the literature : the distance, the virtual communication and the know-what increase the codified knowledge shared among firms, while the real communication have the opposite effect. However, the results do not suggest an opposition between virtual and real communication or between know-what and know-how, but rather a complementarity of these elements. Indeed, the more firms share know-what, the more they share complementary types of knowledge (know-how and know-why), and the more the collaboration is inter-regional and funded on virtual communication, and the more the shared knowledge is codified.

  Keywords : knowledge diffusion, ICT use, geographical proximity, technological change