Advanced Technology and Knowledge Transfer

This paper reports on a specific food and agribusiness industry project, employing new technological capabilities to better transfer expert knowledge. Knowledge transfer and technical support are key components of this project. VisIT, which stands for Visualization of Information Tool, is a powerful organizational tool, which provides an Internet-based graphical learning environment. As a means to more effectively disseminate knowledge, the project support group desired to employ the VisIT technology to create “expert search maps”. Before devoting extensive resources to the use of the VisIT technology, an evaluation of this approach was conducted relative to more traditional methods used on the Internet. The hypothesis of the study is that the students with access to the graphical expert search map will have a better understanding of the complex issues as compared to students given the now traditional linear list of search results. The study results in counterintuitive findings. These findings have significant implications for managers as well as for researchers developing knowledge management tools.