The Impacts Of Knowledge Management And E-Commerce Business On Organizational Performance

Definition of the Relevant Terms, Concepts and Theories

Discuss about the Management and Business Technological Context.

Knowledge management is one of those significant management practices that help the business managers to create, share, and use the knowledge with other associates. Managers from different departments focus on evaluating the knowledge management procedure implemented within the organisational scenario (Sila, 2015). The existing and new employees can avail the opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills in a professional setting. On the other hand, e-commerce business is a useful way of shopping the necessary items through online sources. The study is based on the case scenario of The Iconic, which sells the fashion garments and accessories through online sites. The study will be analysing the theoretical concepts related to the knowledge management and e-commerce business. The impacts of these two business concepts will also be identified in this study.  

Business managers take the responsibility to establish the knowledgeable business environment to ensure growth in this current scenario. The purpose of the knowledge management is to increase the performance parameter of the employees for maintaining the psychological balance. It helps in participating in a competitive business environment with high skills and capabilities (Menguc & Barker, 2015). It is to be indicated that the organisational sustainability depends on the high performance attribute of the associated employees. in the business market that helps in If the employees can perform well, it would reflect on the annual performance report. The company would be able to earn more profitability in a competitive business environment. Therefore, it is necessary to bring more innovative procedures in the business functionalities. The knowledge management practices help in providing the proper training to the employees and make them knowledgeable about the innovative business procedures. 

The Electronic Commerce is the effective and systematic business networking process. Through the electronic commerce process, the company can sell the products through the online sources. In this current era, people spend a quality of time in browsing internet and social media (Ming-Ru et al., 2014). Therefore, the e-commerce process is providing these customers a fruitful platform for purchasing their necessary items and services without visiting the outdoor stores. The study is based on the case scenario of The Iconic, which sells the fashion clothes and accessories through online channels. The official online site of the company includes individual departments from where the customers can select their preferable items. Moreover, the site even includes the necessary information for online transaction and shipping facilities. In this current scenario, these e-commerce facilities are much useful for both the companies and the customers.

Effects of Knowledge Management and E-Commerce Business Process

There are two primary types of knowledge management, such as explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. The major focus of The Iconic is to utilise the tacit knowledge, which is procedure of transferring the knowledge through effective training and development sessions. It is reported that the company has been focusing on channelling the latest technologies for providing unrivalled access to more international and local brands (Eprints.qut.edu.au, 2016). In order to achieve this goal, it is important for the company to engage the efficient workforce who can develop such technicalities in the online systems (Buckley & Ollenburg, 2013). Therefore, the company has decided to provide the fruitful training session to the employees for developing the technologies and achieving the determined goals.

On the contrary, the explicit knowledge management is the method of availing opportunities for understanding and gathering knowledge about the service process. The company needs to gather the information and feedback from the customers as well as the internal stakeholders. If the management of the company can understand the basic needs and demands of the internal and external stakeholders, it would be beneficial enough in improving the business functionalities. The application of tacit knowledge by The Iconic is quite effective for the e-commerce business. The company is focusing on the technological development to improve their online shopping sites and get access to numerous brands. Hence, it is necessary to develop knowledge of the employees through the training and development process. However, it is also necessary for the company to pay attention towards the customers’ demands that will help in restructuring the business functionalities.

In this current era of business market, knowledge management and e-commerce business have the significant impacts on the business practices. The associated pros and cons will be described in the further section of the study.

E-commerce business is one of the most helpful sources of dragging people from different geographic locations. It is noted that the e-commerce business is much wider and vast. People from different location and diverse cultures can get access to the necessary items and services through the online sources (Obeidat et al., 2016). The Iconic has occupied the significant position in the online business market. People from diversified geographic location can order the preferable items through online sources (Theiconic.com.au, 2016). The efficient shipping services are also available in the websites.

Knowledge management is a procedure of maintaining a systematic approach, which helps in keeping balance among the employees. For example, The Iconic has applied the tacit knowledge within the organisational scenario. It provides the necessary training and development sessions to the employees and makes them aware of the necessary technologies used for e-commerce business (Wang, Noe & Wang 2014). It is somewhat works as the motivating factor for the employees, which generates the sense of job satisfaction through learning and development process.

Systematic Maintenance of the Services through Knowledge Management

E-commerce business is much useful in this current business environment. It is quite difficult for the business companies to get direct access to the feedbacks of the customers. The service providers need to be dependent on the telecommunication process to contact the registered customers (Marra, Ho & Edwards 2012). Collecting the feedback becomes much difficult for the service providers since it lacks the transparency.

While implementing the knowledge management practices, The Iconic needs to pay the significant attention towards the business functionalities. The application of the knowledge management procedure helps in gathering the fruitful ideas about the business process (Hislop, 2013). There are some of the risks factors associated with the implementation of knowledge management. It is much difficult for the business managers to manage the employees while undertaking these initiatives. Challenges emerge when the employees are not fully aware of the importance of knowledge management training process. It sometimes generates the sense of job insecurity due to the changes in organisational functionalities. Hence, it is necessary for The Iconic to maintain proper efficiency level that will convince the employees to take the active participation in this business activity.

In time of establishing the e-commerce business, it is essential for the employees to apply the proper skills and competency level for the operational activities. In such cases, the application of the knowledge management is much essential. The Iconic tends to provide the effective training and development session to the employees for upgrading the technical skills. In fact, it is essential for them to make the employees aware of the business essentialities and other fruitful concerns (Chua & Banerjee, 2013). The lack of proper operational skills can affect the business procedure much significantly.

In order to develop the knowledge management procedure, it is necessary to select the relevant strategy that will assimilate the employees for improving business. The business management firstly needs to focus on the business requirements. The business functionalities are structured based on the demands of the stakeholders (Aggestam, 2015). Accordingly, while implementing theoretical practices, it is necessary for the company to concentrate on the suitable knowledge management theory. The application of the wrong theory will affect the business functions in a significant manner.

The fluctuation in the domestic and international economic market also has the significant impacts on the business functions. In order to derive a large amount of profit, the company requires focusing on the sufficient capital investments (Sila, 2015). Investing the sufficient amount in structuring the infrastructure would be helpful enough for the company to conduct the business. Accordingly, the instable growth in the economic structure is much impactful for the business progress in this current business environment. The concerns on these areas are ensuring much limitation for the company. The maintenance of the economic flexibility would be helpful for The Iconic to establish the e-commerce business more significantly.

Conclusion

The effects of the current business scenario signify many challenges for the business companies. The Iconic is a renowned fashion retail e-commerce business, which has selected the effective knowledge management practices to ensure the organisational growth. It is necessary for the company to develop the proper training and development session to mitigate the emerging risks. In fact, it is even necessary to concentrate on the investments of the sufficient capita; resources that will be helpful enough in managing the necessary infrastructure.

References

Aggestam, L. (2015). Learning Organization or Knowledge Management–Which Came First, The Chicken or the Egg? Information technology and control, 35(3).

Buckley, R., & Ollenburg, C. (2013). Tacit knowledge transfer: Cross-cultural adventure. Tourism Tribune, 23(10), 87-92.

Chua, A. Y., & Banerjee, S. (2013). Customer knowledge management via social media: the case of Starbucks. Journal of Knowledge Management,17(2), 237-249.

Eprints.qut.edu.au, (2016). A Structurationist review of knowledge management theories [online] Available at: <https://eprints.qut.edu.au/10104/1/10104_2.pdf> [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

Hislop, D. (2013). Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford University Press.

Marra, M., Ho, W., & Edwards, J. S. (2012). Supply chain knowledge management: A literature review. Expert systems with applications, 39(5), 6103-6110.

Menguc, B., & Barker, T. A. (2015). The Role of Human Capital Resources in Rent Generation and Rent Appropriation: Implications for Knowledge Management Process. In Assessing the Different Roles of Marketing Theory and Practice in the Jaws of Economic Uncertainty (pp. 37-37). Springer International Publishing.

Ming-Ru, Z., Yang, C. C., Ho, S. Y., & Chang, C. H. (2014). A study on Enterprise under Globalization Competition Knowledge Management and Creation Overhead Construction. Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics, 17(5-6), 423-433.

Obeidat, B. Y., Hashem, L., Alansari, I., Tarhini, A., & Al-Salti, Z. (2016). The effect of knowledge management uses on total quality management practices: A theoretical perspective. Journal of Management and strategy, 7(4), 18.

Sila, I. (2015). The state of empirical research on the adoption and diffusion of business-to-business e-commerce. International Journal of Electronic Business, 12(3), 258-301.

Theiconic.com.au, (2016). About THE ICONIC – Australia’s Online Fashion Retailer. [online] Theiconic.com.au. Available at: <https://www.theiconic.com.au/about/> [Accessed 17 Jan. 2017].

Wang, S., Noe, R. A., & Wang, Z. M. (2014). Motivating knowledge sharing in knowledge management systems a quasi–field experiment. Journal of Management, 40(4), 978-1009.