Tracing the historical origins of knowledge management issues through referenced publication years spectroscopy (RPYS)

Abstract

Purpose This study, using a new method called Referenced Publication Years Spectroscopy (RPYS), aims to examine the most important historic works written in the area of knowledge management (KM). Design/methodology/approach Preliminary data of this study have been extracted from Web of Science through scientometric methods. The references used in all the papers in the core journals in this field since 1980 to the end of 2014 were studied. Findings The distribution of resources in the area of KM based on the publication year indicates that this field of study, during time intervals 1900 to 1980, has seen eight major mutations. A considerable influence of such fields as economics, business, social networks analysis, organizational learning and economic sociology on the realm of KM is evident. The association of Polanyi with the mutations of 1958, 1962 and 1967 suggests his obvious influence on the evolution of KM. The ratio of articles to books among the whole documents detected by RPYS was 2-13 which could direct us to the point that the channel for information transformation in KM is more focused on books than on articles. Originality/value None of the few studies done by scientometric methods in the realm of KM has been seen through the issue of the historical origins of this area. This piece of research, using a new scientometric method, can be considered the first study in which the origins of KM over time have been studied.

Translating the impact of knowledge management into knowledge‐based innovation: The neglected and mediating role of knowledge‐worker satisfaction

“…Knowledge management is about the processes and practices that utilize the knowledge assets of a knowledge‐based firm that are enabled by the knowledge management infrastructure, to improve the innovation, and thus organizational performance (e.g., Gold, Malhotra, & Segars, ; Khasseh & Mokhtarpour, ; Shujahat et al., a). Hence, by this definition, there are three components of knowledge management: practices, processes, and infrastructure.…”

“…Second knowledge process, Knowledge sharing , refers to the passing of knowledge from one actor to the other(s) (Al‐Husseini & Elbeltagi, ; Khasseh & Mokhtarpour, ). Final and third knowledge process, Knowledge utilization/knowledge responsiveness/knowledge application , refers to the application or responding of knowledge assets by the different actors in an organization (Andreeva & Kianto, ; Chen et al., ; Khasseh & Mokhtarpour, ; Rasula et al., ).…”

“…The use of knowledge‐based view of the firm theory and past studies investigating the impact of knowledge management on innovation performance helps to deduce that there is a universal positive relationship between knowledge management and innovation. The application of knowledge‐based view of the firm theory implies that the effective management of knowledge resources results in greater innovation performance (e.g., Grant, ; Khasseh & Mokhtarpour, ; Lee et al., ; Rasula et al., ).…”

Detecting seminal research contributions to the development of ethnobotany by reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS)

“…This method has also been used to determine the inclination of journals (Ballandonne 20120199, Haunschild et al 2019b). Further, it has also been used to trace the historical origins of various fields like Higgs boson (Barth et al 2014), density functional theory (Haunschild et al 2019a), climate change research (Marx et al 2017), health equity (Yao et al 2019), solar energy meteorology (SEM) (Scheidsteger and Haunschild 2019), academic efficiency assessments (Rhaiem and Bornmann 2018), gustatory perception (Yeung 2017), citation analysis (Hou 2017), global positioning system (GPS) (Comins and Hussey 2015b), tribology (Elango et al 2016), Collection Development (Malik and Ahmadi 2020) and knowledge management (KM) (Khasseh and Mokhtarpour 2016).…”

Identifying historical roots of knowledge development in cardiovascular nursing using bibliometrics

“…In that manner, it can be used to identify historical root papers, which can describe the knowledge development of the scientific area being analysed. RPYS has been used in identifying historical roots or research milestones, for example, in academic efficacy studies (Rhaiem & Bornmann, 2018), commercialization of knowledge (Biranvand, Shabani, Asemi, & Cheshmeh Sohrabi, 2017), biomedical innovations (Comins & Leydesdorff, 2017), citation analysis (Hou, 2017), global warming and tea production (Marx, Haunschild, & Bornmann, 2017a), the role of climate in the collapse of the Mayan civilization (Marx, Haunschild, & Bornmann, 2017b), tribology (Elango, Bornmann, & Kannan, 2016), knowledge management (Khasseh & Mokhtarpour, 2016), global positioning systems (Comins & Hussey, 2015), and Higgs boson (Barth, Marx, Bornmann, & Mutz, 2014).…”