Foundations of knowledge management: intellectual structure and citation drivers of the Journal of Knowledge Management

Purpose Knowledge management and innovation play an important role in enhancing the business performance of family firms. Nonetheless, there exists a notable deficiency in research concerning the mechanisms that elucidate the relationship between knowledge management, innovation and business performance of family firms. The objective of this research is to examine the impact of knowledge management and innovation on the business performance of family firms through competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach The research method used in this study is a mixed method, including qualitative research and quantitative research conducted in chronological order. Specifically, qualitative research was conducted first with in-depth interview techniques to adjust the scale. Quantitative research was conducted later and was the main research. Using survey method, the research collected 197 valid samples of family firms for analysis. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the theoretical model. Findings Research results show that knowledge management and innovation have positive influences on business performance of family firms. In addition, competitive advantage plays a mediating role in the effect of knowledge management and innovation on business performance of family firms. Originality/value The literature supports the direct influence of knowledge management and innovation on business performance. However, no other study has investigated the mediating role of competitive advantage on the relationship between knowledge management, innovation and business performance of family firms. This work contributes to theoretical understanding by demonstrating that competitive advantage is a mediating mechanism that better explains the simultaneous impact of knowledge management and innovation on business performance. This work also contributes to practical knowledge by inferring that family firms should focus and invest in knowledge management and innovation to enhance their competitive advantage. Then, competitive advantages improve the business performance of family firms.

This paper examines a question of long standing: How can one obtain operational indexes of inventive and innovative activity and technical change? Specifically, for a sample of fifty-seven pharmaceutical manufacturing firms, we attempt to determine how well a simple count of invention patents serves as a surrogate for two alternative measures of technical change: the number of research and development personnel employed, reflecting inputs into the innovative process, and the value of new product sales, which reflects outputs of the process.

The separation of ownership from control produces a condition where the interests of owner and of ultimate manager may, and often do, diverge, and where many of the checks which formerly operated to limit the use of power disappear.... In creating these new relationships, the quasi-public corporation may fairly be said to work a revolution. It ... has divided ownership into nominal ownership and the power formerly joined to it. Thereby the corporation has changed the nature of profit-seeking enterprise.1

In the business world, Knowledge Management (KM) is increasingly recognized as a crucial factor for organizational success, especially within consulting firms. This research investigates the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) necessary for the effective implementation of KM in consulting firms. Faced with the complexities and challenges of a dynamic business environment, where efficient KM is vital for delivering high-quality services, this study conducts a thorough review of the CSFs related to KM foundations in consulting firms. The aim is to identify the CSFs essential to KM foundations. Using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) based on the PRISMA methodology, the study synthesizes findings from five databases. From an initial pool of 1,173 papers, the selection was narrowed down to 20 papers with the most relevant content for analysis, detailing the CSFs essential to KM foundations. These factors are categorized into several dimensions, including technology, strategy, leadership, organizational culture, and regulatory policies, each contributing uniquely to the effective implementation of KM in consulting firms.

: If organization theory finds it useful to draw upon some of the ideas that have emerged in cognitive psychology, it will be advantageous to borrow also the terminology used in discussing these ideas. Without working toward a higher level of consistency in terminology than prevails in organization theory today, it will be difficult or impossible to cumulate and assemble into a coherent structure the knowledge we are gaining from individual case studies and experiments. We will be continually reinventing wheels. That is a luxury we cannot afford. The happy band of researchers on organization theory is sufficiently small to be kept fully occupied discovering and verifying the theory just once. (Author) (kr)

While it is well-known knowledge management is crucial for an organization’s competitive advantage, relatively little research has explored the process whereby knowledge management affects firm performance in a collectivistic culture such as China. This study is to explore the mechanism through which knowledge management helps improve firm performance and then to examine the mediating role of decision quality in the Chinese context. Using a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from Chinese entrepreneurs and with structural equation modeling, this study shows that knowledge accumulation, internal sharing, and external knowledge sharing all have a positive impact on firm performance, and decision quality partially mediates the impact of knowledge management on firm performance. This study adds value to the knowledge management literature by introducing decision quality as a mediating variable to examine the impact of knowledge sharing on firm performance in China. The findings of this study can help enrich the literature on knowledge management and firm performance and highlight the important impact of decision quality on knowledge management and firm performance. Management practitioners can also benefit from the findings.

In the ever-evolving landscape of organisational optimisation, the integration of business process management (BPM) and knowledge management (KM) emerges as a critical challenge. Beyond the opportunity to expedite the improvement of the organisation’s operations, this integration serves as a gateway to unlocking the full potential of organisational knowledge and digital transformation. With its comprehensive evaluation of the dimensions of research on BPM and KM, this article aims to unveil predominant topics and evolving trends within this intersection. By doing so, it seeks to catalyse meaningful advancements in organisational management practices, underscoring the relevance and importance of this topic to the audience. The authors conducted a rigorous research process. Using bibliographic analysis, they selected 359 publications from the Scopus database. They employed performance analysis and scientific mapping methods to extract meaningful insights facilitated by MS Excel and VOSviewer applications. Additionally, they conducted an in-depth analysis of 37 publications chosen through bibliographic coupling analysis. The findings highlight a significant gap in the scholarly discourse on BPM and KM, which is evident in the limited research outcomes and minimal influence on decision-making processes. This study reiterates the need for increased dedication to this research realm, particularly in areas identified in the future research agenda recommendations, to stimulate significant advancements in organisational management practices. This paper stands out from the up-to-date reviews by offering a unique contribution to the BPM and KM integration field. While these reviews often focus on specific niches within the broader domain, this study takes a holistic approach. It provides a comprehensive overview of the existing literature on integrating BPM and KM, delving into the quantity and quality of existing research. It also identifies emerging themes and potential directions for future scholarship, ensuring a robust understanding of the integrative landscape of BPM and KM.

The nexus between innovativeness and knowledge management: A focus on firm performance in the hospitality sector

Aim/Purpose: The rise of modern artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, machine learning (ML), has provided new opportunities and directions for knowledge management (KM). A central question for the future of KM is whether it will be dominated by an automation strategy that replaces knowledge work or whether it will support a knowledge-enablement strategy that enhances knowledge work and uplifts knowledge workers. This paper addresses this question by re-examining and updating a critical argument against KM by the sociologist of science Steve Fuller (2002), who held that KM was extractive and exploitative from its origins. Background: This paper re-examines Fuller’s argument in light of current developments in artificial intelligence and knowledge management technologies. It reviews Fuller’s arguments in its original context wherein expert systems and knowledge engineering were influential paradigms in KM, and it then considers how the arguments put forward are given new life in light of current developments in AI and efforts to incorporate AI in the KM technical stack. The paper shows that conceptions of tacit knowledge play a key role in answering the question of whether an automating or enabling strategy will dominate. It shows that a better understanding of tacit knowledge, as reflected in more recent literature, supports an enabling vision. Methodology: The paper uses a conceptual analysis methodology grounded in epistemology and knowledge studies. It reviews a set of historically important works in the field of knowledge management and identifies and analyzes their core concepts and conceptual structure. Contribution: The paper shows that KM has had a faulty conception of tacit knowledge from its origins and that this conception lends credibility to an extractive vision supportive of replacement automation strategies. The paper then shows that recent scholarship on tacit knowledge and related forms of reasoning, in particular, abduction, provide a more theoretically robust conception of tacit knowledge that supports the centrality of human knowledge and knowledge workers against replacement automation strategies. The paper provides new insights into tacit knowledge and human reasoning vis-à-vis knowledge work. It lays the foundation for KM as a field with an independent, ethically defensible approach to technology-based business strategies that can leverage AI without becoming a merely supporting field for AI. Findings: Fuller’s argument is forceful when updated with examples from current AI technologies such as deep learning (DL) (e.g., image recognition algorithms) and large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. Fuller’s view that KM presupposed a specific epistemology in which knowledge can be extracted into embodied (computerized) but disembedded (decontextualized) information applies to current forms of AI, such as machine learning, as much as it does to expert systems. Fuller’s concept of expertise is narrower than necessary for the context of KM but can be expanded to other forms of knowledge work. His account of the social dynamics of expertise as professionalism can be expanded as well and fits more plausibly in corporate contexts. The concept of tacit knowledge that has dominated the KM literature from its origins is overly simplistic and outdated. As such, it supports an extractive view of KM. More recent scholarship on tacit knowledge shows it is a complex and variegated concept. In particular, current work on tacit knowledge is developing a more theoretically robust and detailed conception of human knowledge that shows its centrality in organizations as a driver of innovation and higher-order thinking. These new understandings of tacit knowledge support a non-extractive, human enabling view of KM in relation to AI. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can use the findings of the paper to consider ways to implement KM technologies in ways that do not neglect the importance of tacit knowledge in automation projects (which neglect often leads to failure). They should also consider how to enhance and fully leverage tacit knowledge through AI technologies and augment human knowledge. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can use these findings as a conceptual framework in research concerning the impact of AI on knowledge work. In particular, the distinction between replacement and enabling technologies, and the analysis of tacit knowledge as a structural concept, can be used to categorize and analyze AI technologies relative to KM research objectives. Impact on Society: The potential of AI on employment in the knowledge economy is a major issue in the ethics of AI literature and is widely recognized in the popular press as one of the pressing societal risks created by AI and specific types such as generative AI. This paper shows that KM, as a field of research and practice, does not need to and should not add to the risks created by automation-replacement strategies. Rather, KM has the conceptual resources to pursue a (human) knowledge enablement approach that can stand as a viable alternative to the automation-replacement vision. Future Research: The findings of the paper suggest a number of research trajectories. They include: Further study of tacit knowledge and its underlying cognitive mechanisms and structures in relation to knowledge work and KM objectives. Research into different types of knowledge work and knowledge processes and the role that tacit and explicit knowledge play. Research into the relation between KM and automation in terms of KM’s history and current technical developments. Research into how AI arguments knowledge works and how KM can provide an enabling framework.

Knowledge Creation and Diffusion in Geographic Clusters

The main purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between strategic knowledge management, innovation and firm performance in the Vietnamese context. Our results show that strategic knowledge management significantly enhances innovation and organizational performance. It is also seen as playing an important mediating role in innovation between strategic knowledge management and firm performance. Although codification and personalization knowledge management strategies both have impact on innovation and performance, personalization knowledge management strategy has the dominant impact.

The single most important task of knowledge management (KM) performance measurement is comparing your company with its main rivals. Most of the metrics and methods of knowledge measurement that have been developed are concentrated on measuring the knowledge within the organization, which may be nice to know, but is not critical. In this paper, we propose a methodology for comparing a firm's knowledge management performance with its major rivals using the Analytical Network Process (ANP) to obtain a clear direction of the effort required to gain or maintain a competitive advantage. The ANP approach employed in the present study is a theory of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM), and is good at dealing with tangible and intangible information. Our methodology is designed to make a detailed comparison of a firm's KM performance with that of its main rivals, in order to be able to provide effective information for improving its KM and to increase its decision-making quality. This paper makes three important contributions: (1) it develops a comprehensive model, which incorporates a variety of issues for conducting KM performance measurements in comparison with major rivals; (2) case experience is provided to help us understand the advantages and disadvantages of the methodology for KM performance measurement from a practical point of view, and (3) the results obtained from exploring the case firm present changes that the case firm can make, implying that the case firm must reinforce its knowledge creation and internalization so as to improve its position in comparison with its most competitive rivals. The method proposed by this paper is generic in nature and is applicable to benefit any firm.

Knowledge management (KM) is maturing as a field of study with an interdisciplinary orientation, being taught in a variety of schools by the faculty from diverse affiliations. In this context, KM curriculum design becomes a major challenge for educators. This study was designed with the purpose of analyzing the perceptions of senior KM academics and KM experts about the relevance and value of KM constructs in graduate programs. KM curriculum content was proposed based on an earlier study of KM modules (Rehman and Sumait, 2010). KM modules: An analysis of course. In Paper presented at the Pre-conference on LIS Education in Developing Countries, 75th Annual IFLA Conference, Milan, Italy; revised version accepted for publication in Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 2010) about what is being taught in the KM programs. We also used findings of a validated set of KM taxonomy that indicated both the structure of the discipline and disciplinary content expressed in standard terminology (Tan, 2010; Chaudhry and Lee, 2009). Intellectual structure of knowledge management. The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, (9)). Two hundred KM academics and experts were identified internationally as potential participants. They were requested to respond to a Web-based survey, indicating their perceptions about the value and relevance of KM statements/modules. Fifty-one of them responded to the survey. The results have indicated that the academics placed a great deal of emphasis on the conceptual foundations of the discipline for its inclusion in the curriculum. KM modules related to KM processes, knowledge sources, KM technology, knowledge organisation, and knowledge sharing received a clear emphasis. It is expected that the findings of this study will be useful for those engaged in curriculum design or revision.

The performance of XYZ, a Government Higher Educational Institution (GHEI) in Indonesia is assessed through two unintegrated applications. The 2023 target performance was missed due to miscalculations outside applications while transforming large data amounts. Thus, business intelligence (BI) serves as a knowledge management (KM) tool to integrate those applications to achieve XYZ's target. Because BI is costly and has a 70% failure rate of development plans, a research model was evaluated to look at the current XYZ innovation capability for successful BI adoption from the KM foundation and KM solution implementation. This study used a quantitative method, employing a questionnaire for 94 civil servants and the partial least squares-structural equation model (PLS-SEM) for data analysis. Results indicate in the KM foundation, organizational (O) negatively influences KM process application (KMP) (β = -0.292, Pv = 0.010) while KM infrastructure (I) and process (P) positively influence KMP, but KM technology (T) does not. In KM solutions, KMP is proven to be linked to innovation capability when KM systems are lacking. Hence, several activities are suggested to activate T through T, O, P, and I. The model validated 80% of the hypotheses, laying the groundwork for future studies into which aspects of T strengthen innovation capabilities in GHEI.

This study aims to study the relation between knowledge management and knowledge management performance, in Taiwan semiconductor industry, as well as organizational citizenship behavior being the moderator in the relation. Questionnaires were distributed to RD (2) the higher level of organizational citizenship behavior exists, the more influence on knowledge management performance is believed. We also observed presence of organizational citizenship behavior resulting in positive moderating effect in the relation between knowledge management and knowledge capacity performance, but negative moderating effect in the relation between knowledge management and knowledge flow performance.