Index evaluations and business strategies on communities of practice

Business strategies and index evaluations on communities of practice (CoPs) could be the prevailing way for group learning and innovation building within firms. As firms grow in size, scope, and complexity, CoPs members who regularly engage in sharing and learning based on common interests, could improve organizational performance. Due to multi-criteria consideration and uncertain information handling, the purpose of this research is to use the fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method to analyze various index priorities and strategy preferences of CoPs, by undertaking empirical studies of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan. Fourteen units in survey case were given fifty-seven questionnaires about their priorities towards sixteen different pairs of criteria. Additionally, they were also asked to estimate their four highest achievable business strategies. These evaluation criteria include satisfying multi-dimensions to capable operators. Under each of the four first-tier dimensions, four second-tier criteria are used to assess and echo their first-tier dimensions. The findings of this paper can promote performance value of implementing knowledge management systems and modelling of competitive strategies for CoPs. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.