Research On Analysis And Evaluation Of Growth System For Knowledge-based Enterprises

In the era of knowledge economy, a knowledge-based enterprise is featured with outstanding competitive strengths in quick adaptation to the changing environment and creative performance in running business, however it has to face with some prominent problems, such as short life span, small scale and difficulties in management, etc. And the issue of knowledge-based enterprise growth draws apparently inadequate attention from the existing theoretical researches, not to mention the systematic study. Under these circumstances, this paper focuses its attention and made a systematic study on the issue of growth of knowledge-based enterprise both in terms of theory and practice.The enterprise growth is a complicated dynamic system, which, though appears to be outcome of the evolvement of its manifest variables, in nature, is a result of interactions among all related elements in the enterprise growth system. And there are a large number of feed back relationships among all those elements, which make the overall dynamic activity of the system complicated. Therefore, this study is supposed to be made on the base of regarding the knowledge based enterprise growth system as a complicated dynamic one. The growth system comprises of growth elements and their interrelationships. The change of growth state of knowledge based enterprise is not only induced by the change of elements in the growth system themselves, but also by their interactions among them. In order to study the issue in a systematic way, the paper made a system analysis, design and evaluations to the growth of knowledge-based enterprise under the principles and methodologies of system engineering. The research contents of this text include following seven chapters:Chapter one, the research problems raises. First, analyses the environment changes faced by a knowledge-based enterprise in its development and problems encountered with in its practice of management and theoretical research on the background of the knowledge economy, and ascertains the issue of knowledge based enterprise growth as the main study subject. Then the main concepts and categories mentioned in this paper are defined accordingly. At last, the purpose and meaning of this study are presented and study route, frame and methodology are clarified, together with the creative points of the paper summed up.Chapter two, relevant literature reviews. Mainly composed of two parts: Part one is the enterprise growth theory review, found that economics perspective enterprise theory looks for the reasons for enterprise development more from the external environment. Management perspective enterprise theory analyze the development more from the internal environment, but the research domains are too scattered, lack of systematic research results. Part two reviews the theory of enterprise growth theory from the aspects of the effective elements, the life cycle and the growth system of the knowledge-based enterprises, found that the knowledge-based enterprise growth theory also stays in using the research results of general enterprise growth theory, lack of knowledge-based enterprises relevance. The research methods of the knowledge-based enterprises' growth are mainly empirical methods, the use of systemic approach is still inadequate.Chapter three, analysis of the knowledge-based enterprise growth system. First, defined the definition and characteristics of the knowledge-based enterprise growth system , and described the principles and theoretical basis points of knowledge-based enterprise growth systems analysis; Then, with research results of the knowledge-based enterprise growth systems, particularly on the basis of an amendment for the McKinsey 7S model, puts forward the structure of the growth system of the knowledge-based enterprises which is consisting of strategy subsystem, organization subsystem, system subsystem, person subsystem, culture subsystem, and knowledge subsystem; Thus, through research and collate literature, brings forward the analysis scope of knowledge-based enterprises' growth factor, conducts a questionnaire survey for knowledge-based enterprises associated personnel, uses Kendall coefficient of concordance test survey results; Finally, determined the 29 elements of knowledge-based enterprise growth system.Chapter four, design of the growth system of the knowledge-based enterprises. First, by analyzing the growth logic of the knowledge-based enterprises, determined use of system dynamics method to design the knowledge-based enterprises growth system; Then, through the module design and integration design of the knowledge-based enterprises growth system, analyzed the interrelated relations of the 29 interrelated elements of the knowledge-based enterprises growth system; Finally, with the help of system dynamics analysis and simulation software - Vensim software, analyzed all elements loop in the knowledge-based enterprises growth system , statistical draw on the most significant key elements and the key loop, reveals the operating mechanism of knowledge-based enterprises growth system.Chapter five, evaluation of the knowledge-based enterprises growth system. Compared the basic principles of conditions between Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytic Network Process (ANP), ultimately used ANP as a knowledge- based enterprises systematic evaluation methods, which better reveal the complex relationship between system elements. According to the interrelationships in the system elements which are revealed in Chapter four, through the feedback loops number to measure the importance of elements in the growth system of knowledge-based enterprises , used the SD (Super Decisions) software to calculate weights of evaluation index, and then built the knowledge-based enterprises growth system evaluation model.Chapter six, research of demonstration. First, based on the characteristics of knowledge-based enterprises to choose a representative software company as demonstration object, and designed demonstration program; Then, obtains the datas of demonstration object through questionnaire, uses system evaluation model in chapter five to evaluate the growth quality of demonstration objects synthetically; Thus, according to analysis of the demonstration object based on system operating mechanism from chapter 4, to find key elements and key loops in the demonstration object and puts forward relevant betterment management improvement measures; Finally, obtains the score of every element of demonstration object through back-questionnaire and compares to the first result to certificate the effectiveness of system analysis, system design and system evaluation.Chapter seven, conclusion and prospect. In this department, first introduces the conclusion of the research; then, points the limitations of the study and follow-up research directions.The innovation of this dissertation can be divided into the following three points:Firstly, use of systems engineering principles, through systems analysis, systems design and system evaluation process, built a knowledge-based enterprises growth system, provide a new research ideas for studying of knowledge-based enterprises growth from the perspective of upgrading systems. Based on existing research results at home and abroad the analysis found, the researches for the growth of knowledge-based enterprises continue to use the general enterprises growth theory such as the life cycle theory, influencing factors theory. These theories tend to research the change of enterprises growth state on the surface, which more concerned about the variables of the enterprises growth from external factors. In this paper, a knowledge-based enterprises operated as a complex dynamic system, it is studied in depth the perspective of internal knowledge-based enterprise systems, using of systems engineering methods, through system analysis, systems design, system evaluation process, the knowledge-based enterprise growth systems were studied.Secondly, by using of system dynamics method, constitute elements of the knowledge-based enterprise growth systems were refined and ordered, the coupling between the elements were in-depth analyzed, operating mechanism of the knowledge-based enterprises growth system were revealed, and achieved the design of the knowledge-based enterprise growth system. Existing research results more from the changes of individual elements start to study the impact on the system. In this paper, through the targeted questionnaire, refined the elements of the knowledge-based enterprise growth system, used system dynamics approach to analyze the links between elements to reflect the changes of knowledge-based enterprises' growth system. This study avoided the clips thinking, through the module design and integration design, revealed the operating mechanism of knowledge-based enterprises growth systems.Thirdly, applied ANP to built a knowledge-based enterprises growth system evaluation model, discovered the problems of knowledge-based enterprises in the growth process, found the way to solve the problems. It is different from the past study which pay more attention to the theoretical, but from the perspective of application. This paper used ANP to calculate the weight of each element and build a knowledge-based enterprises growth system evaluation model which sidestepped the limitation of AHP method. The evaluation model can be used to determine the actual knowledge-based enterprises' grow situation, and can provides methods and tools to improve the targeted growth situation of a knowledge-based enterprises.There are certainly some limitations in the paper, such as more attention paid to the internal elements of the knowledge-based enterprise growth system, and less to the impacts on the system of the external factors. And the solid evidences are comparatively inadequate due to the difficulties in questionnaire collection and limited research time. However, the follow-up study the writer will conduct in the near future would stress on these deficiency.