Management of information-credibility risk in an ICT society

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a new direction for managing information-credibility risk in the current information and communications technology (ICT) era, where ICT has had both positive and negative effects on contemporary society. Design/methodology/approach - The paper takes a practical and inductive approach to study the Kyoto avian influenza panic and countermeasures taken in 2004. Findings - The paper identifies factors which led to enormous damage through harmful rumors and proposes new perspectives for devising countermeasures, such as increasing consumer confidence in an agency as a source of information and effective management of knowledge transfer from experts to non-experts. Practical implications - The study gains a better understanding of both technological and social factors that enable or detract from effective nationwide management of information-credibility risk. Many related ICT projects have been based on either human resource systems or advanced technology. It considers the integration of both factors from three perspectives. Originality/value - This is a new perspective for examining the transfer of knowledge from experts to consumers in terms of practical solutions, in contrast to the many existing knowledge-related articles that have mainly focused on knowledge management among experts.