Three pillars of knowledge management in SMEs: evidence from Serbia

Abstract

While studies highlighting influencing factors and their relationships with knowledge management in large companies in developed economies are plentiful, research on knowledge management in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and in transition economies is lacking. Drawing on prior research of knowledge management in developed economies and adopting the mechanisms to transition economies, this study examines the relationship between three pillars of knowledge management in SMEs. These three pillars represent strategy, marketing and human resource management. We use a survey tool on a sample of 114 managers in Serbian SMEs and the partial least square-based structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses. Our results suggest that knowledge management in Serbian SMEs could be described via a second-order hierarchical model composed of strategy, marketing and human resource management pillars. The model is likely to be generalizable to other developing and transition economies.