E-PLATFORM is a private training organisation who delivers courses such as PRINCE2 or ITEL. The aim of the KTP was to establish a new eLearning capability, which was not previously existent. This particular KTP already started in 2003, and hence some of the technology discussions are not cutting edge anymore but were certainly innovative at the time.
The KTP proved to be of critical importance for the company and the associate stayed within the company to become the Head of eLearning and is now one of the directors. In this case study, at the time, the CEO was newly appointed and took over from his father who was still partly involved in the company and suspicious about the eLearning idea.
Implementing an eLearning system was the new CEO’s idea who took on the role of Academic Supervisor. Compared to the previous two KTPs where the Academic Leader (AL) engaged in knowledge transfer throughout the project, this KTP seems to be slightly different in terms of the AL being more hands off. The AL wrote the first version of the software for the associate to have a platform to start from. It took the KTP 6 months between KTP approval and start to find an associate with the right skillset. The associate used the platform from the AL as a base but changed the original software considerably. Furthermore, the scope of the eLearning solution shifted and included online payment gateways etc. but such add-ons were bought
152 | P a g e into the platform rather than coded from scratch. One of the reasons why this three- year KTP was a success is described as having commitment, other ideas in the past started as a good idea and then got lost in the day to day work.
“We are very good with having ideas but to see them through is another thing” (E- PLATFORM Company Supervisor Transcript)
Before the KTP the company had neither an online learning platform nor online payment etc. The establishment of an eLearning platform gave the company a competitive advantage at the time.
“I think it put us ahead of the market by a few years from our closest competitor, who was ahead before we start the project. In terms of revenue itself, I think it near enough doubled …” (E-PLATFORM Associate Transcript)
The KTP proved to be of critical importance to the company and gave them the means to survive during the financial crises. The online sales quickly became their main source of income with traditional training declining rapidly at that time. E-PLATFORM is a relatively small company compared to some of the leading training organisations.
“I feel if we hadn’t had the KTP we would have followed the crowd. Whereas the difference now is, that we are pioneering a lot of different technologies, just in online learning, never mind within our own industry. I think in the wider learning industry we are very much sort of front end” (E-PLATFORM Company Supervisor Transcript)
Between, 2003-2006, the company accredited the world’s first online-only Practitioner qualification for PRINCE2.
“It had never been done before and a lot of the accrediting bodies felt that practitioner levels could not be delivered online” (E-PLATFORM Company Supervisor Transcript)
153 | P a g e The number of eLearning candidates, have since the KTP, amounted to over 400,000 people and was described as significant.
“And also from a numbers point of view there are so many more people coming through online learning rather than classroom. Probably around 80/20, so much of the work is through the online learning which is a legacy of the KTP” (E-PLATFORM Company Supervisor Transcript)
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4.2 - KBV value chain – analysis of supporting knowledge
themes
The previous section gave an introduction to the KTP case studies. This section will give an in-depth discussion based on the case studies and the previously identified KBV-themes. Table 6 below, is a quick overview indicating, how strong the KBV-theme discussions and subsequent assumptions within the literature review, are in line with my case study findings.
Transferability Coordination within the
firm
Organisational Structure/Design
Capacity of Aggregation Integration of
specialised knowledge
Role of hierarchy in decision-making
Appropriability The role of common
knowledge Location of Decision- making Specialisation in knowledge acquisition Organisational Capability
Table 6: Theme Overview
To understand, how and why, the identified knowledge elements explain SCA, the earlier discussed knowledge elements value chain will be used.
Figure 11: KBV value chain model (Serkan Ceylan)
Knowledge Elements Supporting Knowledge Elements SCA SCA Knowledge Production Knowledge Coordination Organisational Structure for Decision-making 11 Knowledge-based
themes & assumptions
155 | P a g e The following subsections will analyse the supporting KBV themes. Each KBV-theme will be analysed separately and will have its own subsection. To do so, the specific KBV-theme will be analysed by providing the findings of each case study separately and therefore, will not be compared with one and another. After all case studies are analysed within the specific theme, a conclusion of the theme will follow. This theme conclusion will sum up the theme specific assumption by taking the previous case studies discussion into account.
The previously created KBV value chain (Figure 11 above) links the analysed themes and assumptions towards the three primary processes. Hence, an overall conclusion of the findings and analysis will revisit the general KBV assumption before a holistic view with focus on each primary knowledge process will be given in order to complete the KBV value chain analysis and to satisfy my research objective four.