Managing virtual knowledge networks: topology and performance

Virtual informal communication networks are widely recognized as an important part of corporate knowledge management (KM). Unfortunately, most practices of community-engineering are characterized by intuitive actions from KM managers rather than systematic network development based on detailed analysis. Therefore, as part of a larger research framework, this paper addresses topological structures as action variable of community-engineering. A dynamic computer-based simulation model is introduced and applied to real-life data from over 800 students and staff of the Economics and Business Administration Department at Frankfurt University, Germany. Several metrics of networks performance are developed and illustrated using different exemplary actions of community-engineering.