Knowledge creation in focus groups: can group technologies help?

Knowledge creation is an important competitive factor in many organizations. Focus groups are one way that organizations are using to create knowledge about new products, processes, and procedures. Group technologies, specifically face-to-face group support systems (GSS), make it possible to enhance knowledge creation in focus groups by capturing and enhancing more ideas. It is suggested that facilitated GSS can enhance the quality and quantity of ideas that emerge and hence improve the knowledge that is captured about the product or process under study. The results of two experimental studies are presented. The first addressed the relevance of GSS to knowledge creation in focus group processes, and concluded that the use of a facilitated GSS can lead to greater knowledge creation in terms of the number of relevant ideas. In the second, it was found that focus groups using a GSS produced a greater number of better quality ideas, reached consensus more easily, but were less satisfied than groups not supported by a GSS. This suggests that GSS are useful to both practitioners and researchers seeking to maximize the knowledge created in focus group sessions. However, some human factor and participant satisfaction issues remain to be addressed.