Can knowledge be more accessible in a virtual network?: Collective dynamics of knowledge transfer in a virtual knowledge organization network

Virtual knowledge organizations (VKOs) produce and embrace priceless, and often, unique knowledge assets within the boundary of each virtual community. An important question is how do we maximize the benefits from these valuable assets at the entire VKO network level? Relying on the graph theory, this study is to investigate how the structure of virtual knowledge networks formed by knowledge agents and knowledge profile of each VKO influence the dynamics of knowledge transfer in a virtual knowledge organization network (VKON). We develop a network model through which knowledge will be efficiently disseminated when knowledge agents are uniformly distributed across the network. Using this model's intrinsic capability to assess global effects of local transformations in a network, we found that VKON complexity, a measure for efficiency of knowledge transfer, is optimized when a new knowledge agent is placed between two communities with the minimum knowledge transfer capacity. The results of this study will help understand the inter-community knowledge transfer dynamics in virtual knowledge community networks. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.