Novel - Knowledge Discovery – Challenges and Design Theory

Novel knowledge, defined as knowledge that is not currently known to the organization, interesting, related, but indirectly connected to what the organization currently knows and therefore difficult to find, can be very beneficial to the organization. Despite the potential benefits, organizations face a number of challenges discovering novel knowledge. Tools for the discovery of highly novel knowledge are rare. Accordingly, a design theory for novel-knowledge discovery (NKD) tools is proposed. An initial prototype, Athens, is evaluated against the NKD design theory. This design theory combines data-mining techniques with learning theories to support organizations in the discovery of novel knowledge.