“How to Find Answers Within Your Company” by Dr. Hind Benbya and Dr. Marshall Van Alstyne was ranked the second-most-read article in MIT Sloan Management Review and has been translated into German and Spanish. The authors present a unique concept to facilitate the flow of information, and to promote problem solving and innovation in large companies.

The development of such an “internal knowledge market” allows employees seeking answers to a specific problem to be put into relation with those in the company who might have the answers. It is run on a system of incentives to encourage participation and efficient use of the system. Dr. Benbya is developing software to create such an information-sharing system.

Toward the Democratization of Knowledge

Large companies invest heavily in information sharing and in encouraging the creativity of their employees. To date, most systems have been developed on a centralized database: A person within the organization gathers the most important information in a centralized system accessible to all.  Dr. Benbya, an associate professor at Montpellier Business School, has studied these traditional knowledge management systems. “These systems have too often ended in failure and a partial or total abandonment because they were too focused on content and not enough on people,” she said. “Even if the system is used a little bit at the beginning, employees quickly lose interest.”

The Suggestion Box Version 3.0

To overcome the limitations of traditional systems, Dr. Benbya proposes the concept of an internal knowledge market, a secure environment where users can share ideas through a system of points or virtual currency. "We analyzed several markets, both internal and external, studied the experience of 50 companies such as Eli Lilly, SAP and the World Bank, and identified emerging best practices," she said. Dr. Hind found that focusing on people rather than on content was more successful. “People are the source of ideas and innovations,” she noted.

Dr. Hind's prototype software under development is a mixture of eBay, Yahoo! Answers and peer-to-peer computing but is meant only for internal use. Let's imagine an employee named Mr. Martin, employee of a fictional company Gougli, who needs very specific technical advice. He logs on to the platform, asks his question and offers a reward of 120 points. In a few hours, he will receive responses from other users in the company. Different criteria – such as the qualitative score determined by Mr. Martin, the vote of the community and virtual points -- will then allow for the selection of the best answer and for the distribution of the reward to the person who offered it.


The software is currently being finalized. “We're still in an experimental phase, testing a prototype that's being used by 500 Montpellier Business School students this year,” Dr. Benbya said. She envisions that the next phase, which will test the software under real-life conditions in selected multinational corporations, will be in 2012.



INCENTIVES FOR PARTICIPATION IN INTERNAL KNOWLEDGE MARKETS

Researchers have studied different incentives used in internal knowledge markets. These include:

• The social reward: The number of points obtained by users allows them to be classified as beginner, advanced or expert and thus to be recognized within the community, listed among their peers for their expertise and to have their professional identity reinforced;
• Material benefits: Virtual points can be converted into material benefits, such as gifts;
• The intellectual challenge: Learning, searching for a solution;
• Freedom of expression: Sometimes employees may feel discouraged from participating in their organization, but with an internal knowledge market, anyone can have a voice and receive feedback from the community.
  
  

THE SIX COMMANDMENTS FOR LAUNCHING AN INTERNAL KNOWLEDGE MARKET


1)      Whether rewards are material or social, let prices float: When prices are fixed, if users feel that their information will not be rewarded at fair value, they will not share it.
2)      Seed and subsidize the knowledge market: To keep everyone's interest in using the platform, it must reach a critical mass so that both information owners and seekers get a fair deal.
3)      Offer points for improving information quality: To promote quality instead of quantity.
4)      Provide protected spaces: To overcome shyness or fear of showing ignorance, and to encourage the sharing of controversial information, provide the opportunity to ask questions and post answers anonymously or privately.
5)      Balance cooperation and competition: When problems are complex and require coordination, fostering collaboration and group incentives work best. But when the problems require speed and diversity, a competitive strategy and incentives are more effective.
6)      Protect strategic information: Create safe spaces with a limited number of members or participants to prevent leaks.



DR. HIND BENBYA

Dr. Hind Benbya is an associate professor and chair of the Technology and Innovation Management department at Montpellier Business School. Her areas of research and consultancy focus on the development of tools, frameworks and theories for the development and evaluation of complex technologies, to promote innovation and information exchange (co-creation communities, internal markets, information management systems). This research has been published in several academic and managerial journals such as Sloan Management Review, Information Technology & People, Journal of Information Technology, Communications of the AIS and others.
Dr. Benbya has published two books: Knowledge Management Systems Implementations: Lessons from the Silicon Valleyand Successful OSS Project Design and Implementation. She regularly works with leading companies in the U.S. and Europe and presents her research at top managerial and academic conferences.


Her most recent research offers solutions to reduce the gap between theory and practice and to promote the creation and transfer of knowledge between academics and practitioners.
This research was selected among the best papers presented at the Academy of Management (AOM) in San Antonio, Texas (August 12 to 16, 2011). This paper, entitled, “Using Power-Law Science to Enhance Knowledge for Practical Relevance” and her other articles are available at: http://ssrn.com/author=1029390

To Read on the Web
http://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/content/hind
http://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/devoutreach/article/533/managing-knowledge-organizations-summary-interview-marshall-van-alstyne-and-
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/improvisations/2011/01/19/learn-about-internal-knowledge-markets/
http://www.bwob.ca/industries/professional-services/the-best-ideas-come-from-the-janitor/
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/business-brains/six-steps-to-creating-an-8216internal-market-8217-within-your-organization/12732
http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/corpsec/blogs/corporateandsecuritieslawblog/archive/2011/01/27/how-to-find-answers-within-your-company-would-quora-work.aspx

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