Gestion De Conocimiento

Expert Systems with Applications 25 (2003) 155–164 www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa

Review

Knowledge management technologies and applications—literature review from 1995 to 2002
Shu-hsien Liao
Department of Management Sciences & Decision Making, Tamkang University, No. 151, Yingjuan Rd., Danshuei Jen, TaiPei, Taiwan 251 R.O.C.

Abstract This paper surveys knowledge management (KM)development using a literature review and classification of articles from 1995 to 2002 with keyword index in order to explore how KM technologies and applications have developed in this period. Based on the scope of 234 articles of knowledge management applications, this paper surveys and classifies KM technologies using the seven categories as: KM framework, knowledge-based systems, data mining, informationand communication technology, artificial intelligence/expert systems, database technology, and modeling, together with their applications for different research and problem domains. Some discussion is presented, indicating future development for knowledge management technologies and applications as the followings: (1) KM technologies tend to develop towards expert orientation, and KM applicationsdevelopment is a problem-oriented domain. (2) Different social studies methodologies, such as statistical method, are suggested to implement in KM as another kind of technology. (3) Integration of qualitative and quantitative methods, and integration of KM technologies studies may broaden our horizon on this subject. (4) The ability to continually change and obtain new understanding is the powerof KM technologies and will be the application of future works. q 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Knowledge management; Knowledge management technologies; Knowledge management applications; Literature survey

1. Introduction As Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power”. The power of knowledge is a very important resource for preserving valuable heritage, learning newthings, solving problems, creating core competences, and initiating new situations for both individual and organizations now and in the future. How to manage this knowledge has become an important issue in the past few decades, and the knowledge management (KM) community has developed a wide range of technologies and applications for both academic research and practical applications. In addition, KMhas attracted much effort to explore its nature, concepts, frameworks, architectures, methodologies, tools, functions, real world implementations in terms of demonstrating KM technologies and their applications. As a part of KM research, this paper focuses on surveying knowledge management development through a literature review and classification of articles from 1995 to 2002 in order to explorethe KM technologies and applications from that period. The reason for choosing this period is that the Internet was opened to general users in 1994 and this new era of information and communication
E-mail address: michael.liao2@msa.hinet.net (S. -h. Liao).

technology plays important roles not only in electronic commerce but also in knowledge management. The literature survey is based on asearch for the keyword index ‘knowledge management’ on the Elsevier SDOS online database, from which 1471 articles were found on December 25, 2002. After topic filtering, there were only 234 articles related to the keyword ‘knowledge management applications’ and 67 of them were connected to the methodology of keyword ‘knowledge management technology’. Based on the scope of 234 articles on knowledgemanagement application, this paper surveys and classifies KM technologies using seven categories: KM framework, knowledge-based systems (KBS), data mining (DM), information and communication technology (ICT), artificial intelligence (AI)/expert systems (ES), database technology (DT), and modeling, together with their applications on different research and problem domains. The rest of the paper is...