KCEBSA Development of online knowledge community evaluation model using the balanced scorecard approach

Purpose - From the academic perspective, there are challenges to develop an appropriate evaluation model that is linked to both theoretical and professional viewpoints for online knowledge community evaluation (KCE). These challenges are mainly the evaluation principles, the method used to derive the evaluation items, and the techniques used to determine the importance of evaluation items to formulate the evaluation model. The purpose of this paper is to propose and develop an online KCE model by considering the Delphi method, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique, and balanced scorecard (BSC) approach that contains facets of member, strategy, learning and growth, and internal process. Design/methodology/approach - The qualitative study was used to develop the KCE model. The BSC approach was used to construct the facets of evaluation model. The Delphi method and AHP technique were utilized to derive structural measure items and to determine item weight in the development process, respectively. An illustrated practical case was used to demonstrate the proposed KCE model. Findings - The member facet is perceived the most important facet while the internal process the least, implying that the invited participants perceive that community members, as represented by member satisfaction and loyalty, are the most important factors. In the knowledge management process sub-facet, knowledge creation obtains the highest weight compared with knowledge acquisition, dissemination, and utilization. Data analysis results based on 822 survey samples for the demonstrated Yahoo! Kimo Knowledge+ case are obtained. Findings and implications are also addressed. Originality/value - Unlike the exclusively quantitative approach, the proposed KCE model balances both qualitative and quantitative approaches. First, it performed a face-to-face collaboration based on the Delphi method to deal with the unstructured cognition, opinions, and comments of the invited participants. Second, it developed an evaluation model based on the consensus of the invited participants by using the AHP technique in which the perceived importance of measure item to their immediate super item (qualitative variable) is transformed into number (quantitative variable).