InImpact: The Journal of Innovation Impact

Publisher Future Technology Press
Vol. 7 No. 2 KES Transactions on SDM I - Sustainable Design and Manufacturing 2014
Volume Editors KES International
Journal ISSN 2051-6002
 
Article TitleKnowledge Management and the Development of Maritime Research Institutes
Primary AuthorTaih-Cherng LIRN, National Taiwan Ocean University
Other Author(s) Kuo-Chung SHANG; Shih-Wei Huang
Pages 1049 - 1072
Article ID sdm14-013
Publication Date 01-May-16
AbstractThis study first reviews the structures and services of several leading maritime research institutions and then employs the knowledge management model to assess the performance of the existing maritime research institutes in Taiwan. Maritime research institutions(MRI) in Taiwan belong to one of the following three types of organization: a government-supported organization, a non-profit corporation (NPC), and a private consulting firm. Finally,based on a comprehensive questionnaire survey and post-survey interviews with shipping professionals, the best type of maritime research organization is proposed. This study employs the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) technique to propose and develop an appropriate type of maritime research institution in Taiwan. However, amaritime research institution cannot perform well without an appropriate knowledge management structure. Thus, this research aims to evaluate the performance differences between three types of maritime research institutions. The hierarchical structure is composed of three major criteria: knowledge creation, knowledge storage, and knowledge application. These three major criteriacomprise nine sub-criteria: data collection, data mining, knowledge collaboration, data security, data integration, data transfer, information sharing and exchange, advisory planning, and innovation promotion. Using these nine sub-criteria the 30 surveyees were asked to evaluate the performance of the three types of shipping research institutions.The authors found non-profit corporations have the highest overall performance, followed by private consultingfirms and lastly, government agencies. The research findings could be used as a road map if a new maritime research institution has to be developed in the fast growing maritime economics. These findings can also be used by the extant maritime research organizations to improve their performance on those sub-criteria and criteria with the greater degree of importance.
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