Does knowledge management produce practical outcomes?

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Rex Massingham ◽  
Rada K Massingham
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Financial Impact ◽  
Longitudinal Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Partner Organisation

Purpose – The paper examines ways that Knowledge Management (KM) can demonstrate practical value for organizations. It begins by reviewing the claims made about KM, i.e. the benefits KM can provide to organizations. These claims are compared with traditional firm performance metrics to derive a criterion to measure the value of KM. Seven practical outcomes of KM are then presented as methods to persuade managers to invest in KM. These practical outcomes are then evaluated against the value criterion. The paper is based on empirical evidence from a five year longitudinal study. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a longitudinal change project for a large Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project grant in the period 2008-2013. The Project was a transformational change program which aimed to help make the partner organisation a learning organisation. The partner organisation was a large Australian Government Department, which faced the threat of knowledge loss caused by its ageing workforce. The sample was 118 respondents, mainly engineering and technical workers. A total of 150 respondents were invited to participate in the study which involved an annual survey and attendance at regular training workshops and related activities, with a participation rate of 79 per cent. Findings – This paper provides a checklist from which to evaluate KM in terms of financial and non-financial measures and seven practical outcomes from which to identify the organisational problem which may be addressed by KM. Lead and lag indicators – what needs to be done and what will result – are also provided. Managers may use this framework to identify the value proposition in any KM investment. Research limitations/implications – The research is based on a single case study in a public sector organization. While the longitudinal nature of the study and the rich data collected offsets this issue, it also presents good opportunities for researchers and practitioners to test the ideas presented in this paper in other industry contexts. The seven practical outcomes also vary in the maturity of the empirical evidence supporting KM ' s impact. Strategic alignment, value management, and psychological contract, in particular, are still under-developed and could be areas for specific further research testing the ideas presented here. Practical implications – This paper argues that investment decisions regarding KM may benefit from focusing on significant and on-going organisational problems, which will connect KM with firm performance and demonstrate financial and non-financial impact. The seven practical outcomes were evaluated against measurement criteria and against KM ' s claims. Overall, common themes were time and cost, as well as capability growth and performance improvements. Financial impact was mainly found in cost savings. Non-financial impact was found across the seven practical outcomes. It provides management with a checklist to make investment decisions regarding KM. Originality/value – The decision whether to invest in KM begins with methods used to evaluate any organisational project. Managers must determine first whether necessary funds are available; and then whether the project is worthwhile. The standard method for evaluating a project ' s worth is return on investment (ROI). However, calculating ROI for KM investment is problematic. Unless KM can be proven to directly improve performance in financial terms, managers may struggle to see its ROI. The paper begins by reviewing the claims made about KM, i.e. the benefits KM can provide to organizations. These claims are compared with traditional firm performance metrics to derive a criterion to measure the value of KM.

An evaluation of knowledge management tools: Part 1 – managing knowledge resources

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 1075-1100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Massingham
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Longitudinal Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Resources ◽  
And Performance

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate a range of best practice knowledge management (KM) ideas used to manage knowledge resources. In total, four KM toolkits and 16 KM tools were tested over a five-year period (2008-2013), as part of a large-scale longitudinal change project. Each tool was assessed against an evaluative framework designed to test criticisms of KM: strategy, implementation and performance. The results provide empirical evidence about which KM tools work and which do not and why, and outcomes for practitioners, researchers and consultants. Design/methodology/approach – The case study organization participating in the study was selected because it was a knowledge-intensive organization, with an ageing workforce. An invitation and cover letter explaining the study were sent via email to all 150 engineering and technical staff at the case study organization. Therefore, the entire population was included in the study. Respondents were asked to attend training workshops. Following each workshop, respondents were asked to complete feedback in the form of learning journals and to be involved in work-place based trials of the KM tools. Both management and staff participated in the project. Findings – The results provide empirical evidence that KM can be used to manage knowledge resources. The highest rating toolkit was knowledge strategy, followed by knowledge measurement. The most value was created by using KM to introduce objectivity into future thinking (future capability requirements) and decisions when filling competency gaps (sourcing). The results tended to support criticism that KM is difficult to implement and identified the main barriers as participation located at the operational action research level, i.e. how do we make this work? Evidence that KM works was found in progress towards learning organization capacity and in practical outcomes. Research limitations/implications – The action research cycle and learning flows provide opportunities to examine barriers to KM implementation. The research also presents opportunities for further research to examine the findings in other organizational and industry settings, for example, the relationship between the KM toolkits and organizational change and performance, presents an important area for further research. Researchers might also consider some of the toolkits which rated poorly, e.g. knowledge creation (KC), and challenge these findings, perhaps selecting different KC tools for testing. The paper has limitations. It is based on a single case study organization, offset, to some degree, by the longitudinal nature of the empirical evidence. It is ambitious, and the findings may be controversial. However, the depth of the study and its findings provide rare longitudinal empirical evidence about KM, and the results should be useful for practitioners, researchers and consultants. Practical implications – There are many critics of KM. It has been described as overwhelmingly optimistic and managerial rhetoric; that its claims are false; and that many KM initiatives fail and, therefore, it does not create value for the firm, and its return on investment is unlikely. There is a shortage of empirical studies demonstrating an actual connection between KM and organizational performance. Despite widespread interest and growth in investment by practitioners and growth in research, KM needs validation to give people confidence in its value and some of the problems associated with implementation. This paper provides rare empirical evidence gathered from a five-year (2008-2013) large-scale longitudinal change project to address this gap. For practitioners, the research findings provide management with an evaluative framework to use when making decisions regarding KM. Originality/value – Much of the previous research on this topic looks at specific KM tools only, and often at one point in time. This study examined a wide range of best-practice KM tools as part of an integrated set of KM systems, launched at the same time and studied over five years. The study did not examine what the case study does in terms of KM. Instead, it deliberately introduced tools which were new to the case study organization. The results provide practical outcomes in terms of the effectiveness of KM when introduced to an organization as a system of integrated tools, and what happens in the five years that follow.

How to be agile: the distinctive roles of IT capabilities for knowledge management and process integration

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
One-Ki Daniel Lee ◽  
Peng Xu ◽  
Jean-Pierre Kuilboer ◽  
Noushin Ashrafi
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Process Integration ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
It Capability ◽  
It Capabilities

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand how IT capabilities for knowledge management and process integration can build a firm's agile process capabilities for sensing, strategic decision and responding. The study also investigates how the three agile capabilities affect firm performance in different competitive environments.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a large-scale field survey with firms in the United States. Survey invitations were sent to business executives of the target firms. A total of 254 complete samples were collected for our hypotheses test.FindingsThe results confirm the overall significant roles of IT capabilities in the three agile capabilities. The results further reveal that the IT capability for knowledge management has a higher influence on sensing capability, while the IT capability for process integration has a higher influence on responding capability. Moreover, strategic decision and responding capabilities are more important in the high market competition. However, in the low market competition, sensing capability becomes more important while responding capability demonstrates a negative impact on firm performance.Originality/valueThis study helps both academics and practitioners better understand a firm's IT-agility-performance mechanism. Particularly, our findings guide how to achieve agile capabilities and what to focus on under the different levels of market competition.

Board diversity and performance in a masculine, aged and glocal supply chain: new empirical evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Giulio Calabrese ◽  
Alessandro Manello
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Board Diversity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Automotive Supply Chain ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Automotive Supply

Purpose This study aims to contribute to the debate on the relationship between board diversity and performance, a hot topic for scholars and shareholders. A number of studies have found contrasting impacts of board diversity on firm performance and this paper adds new and original evidence in the context of the automotive supply chain focusing on gender, age and nationality diversity. Design/methodology/approach The authors propose a triple stage empirical analysis. First, the authors use linear models according to different performance indexes for investigating diversity (gender, age and nationality) within the board of directors and executives. Second, the authors investigate the issue of diversity in different contexts such as position in the supply chain, nationality of the owner and family/corporate ownership. Finally, the authors use non-linear models to find a better combination of diversity in terms of gender and nationality for retrieving some managerial implications. Findings First, the authors demonstrate a robust positive effect of women in board representation on firm performance in terms of profitability and firm risk. In the case of, age and nationality the results are more equivocal in particular for the former. Second, the authors depict board diversity in different contexts as follows: positioning in the supply chain, type and nationality of the final owner. Again, gender heterogeneity is more adequate in the complex firm as Tier 1 suppliers, corporate and foreign company. Originality/value The authors focused the analysis on a specific industry, shedding light on the main specificities linked to operating in certain phases of the supply chain, a substantial novelty in this field. The empirical evidence is based on a very large data set containing quantitative and qualitative information on a representative sample of 1,538 firms operating in the Italian automotive supply chain, one of the most relevant in Europe.

Knowledge management, problem solving and performance in top Italian firms

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Giampaoli ◽  
Massimo Ciambotti ◽  
Nick Bontis
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Problem ◽  
Creative Problem Solving ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Management Practices ◽  
Creative Problem

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the link between knowledge management practices, problem-solving processes and organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach This study uses survey data from 112 leading Italian companies. To test the structural relations of the research model, we used the partial least squares method. Findings Results show a strong relationship between knowledge management practices and intermediate activities of creative problem solving and problem-solving speed. In addition, creative problem solving has a direct impact on both organizational and financial performances, whereas problem-solving speed has a direct effect only on financial performance. Research limitations/implications The focus on top Italian firms limits the generalizability of results. Practical implications This study provides empirical evidence of the importance of knowledge management practices for problem-solving activities and firm performance. Originality/value The present paper fills an important gap in the extant literature by conceptualizing and empirically testing the relationship between knowledge management, problem-solving processes (creative problem solving and problem-solving speed) and firm performance. This study is the first ever to study these relationships within the Italian context.

Academic logics in changing performance measurement systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Guarini ◽  
Francesca Magli ◽  
Andrea Francesconi
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
Performance Measurement Systems

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyse how academic staff cope with the new culture of performance measurement and assessment in universities. In particular, the study aims to shed light on how external pressures related to measurement of research performance are translated into organisational and individual academic responses within the university and the extent to which these responses are related specifically to the operational features of performance measurement systems (PMS). Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a case study conducted in an Italian public university and based on interviews with a cross-disciplinary sample of faculty members. Findings The study provides insights into how linking financial incentives and career progression to research performance metrics at the system and organisational levels may have important reorientation effects on individual behaviours and epistemic consequences for the academic work. Research limitations/implications The study is based on interviews, so one limitation is related to the risk of researcher and interviewee personal bias. Moreover, this study is focused on one single case of a specific university setting, which cannot be fully representative of the experiences of others. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature on management accounting by exploring the factors that might explain why the unintended effects of PMS on academics’ behaviour reported by several studies might occur. From a practitioner’s point of view, it shows features of PMS that may produce unintended effects on academic activities. It also highlights the need to rethink PMS for the evaluation of university performance through the involvement of different stakeholders.

Knowledge diversity and firm performance: an ecological view

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deng-Neng Chen ◽  
Ting-Peng Liang
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Company Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Diversity ◽  
Ecological View ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Knowledge has been considered a crucial organizational asset for gaining competitive advantages. It is critical for a firm to maintain a knowledge composition that is productive. This study aims to examine the applicability of the diversity–stability principle in ecology to knowledge management and further investigate the impact of knowledge diversity on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical framework for knowledge diversity and firm performance is proposed; a questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the research framework. Fifty-eight valid responses from experts were collected to measure knowledge strength and diversity of 20 enterprises in four industries, and financial indexes of the 20 enterprises from 2008 to 2012 were collected to analyze the research model. Findings The results show that higher information technology (IT) capabilities in a firm lead to higher levels of knowledge strength and diversity. The strength and diversity of knowledge in a company can improve average company performance and reduce performance variations. Research limitations/implications This paper presents a new perspective that applies the ecological concept of diversity to examine the value of knowledge in organizations. The findings expand our understanding of the role of IT and knowledge in organizational performance. A limitation is that the sample size is relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications CEOs and chief knowledge officers can apply the findings herein to assess their organizational knowledge profiles and maintain a healthy knowledge ecology in strategic planning. They should be aware that both knowledge strength and knowledge diversity are crucial to the stability of firm performance. Originality/value The ecological view of knowledge management stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy intensity and diversity of knowledge at the macro level and indicates a new direction for knowledge management.

scholarly journals Entrepreneurial orientation, competitive advantage and strategic knowledge management capability in Malaysian family firms

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Imtiaz Mostafiz ◽  
Mathew Hughes ◽  
Murali Sambasivan
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Strategic Knowledge Management

Purpose The purpose of this study is to test the thesis that the family firm’s success hinges on effective strategic knowledge management (SKM) capability coupled with an entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Contingency theory holds that entrepreneurial success is contingent on strategic capabilities and resource orchestration theory explains how well family firms nurture capabilities to structure, bundle and leverage resources that define competitive advantage (CA). This study combines these two theoretical viewpoints to propose the effects of EO and SKM capability on CA to achieve successful performance in family firms. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a hybrid approach applying structural equation modelling (SEM) and deep-learning artificial intelligence (DL-AI) analysis to survey data on 268 Malaysian family firms. Findings SEM results confirm that CA mediates the relationship between innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking dimensions of EO and firm performance. Autonomy and competitive aggressiveness have no bearing, however. The relationships among innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking with CA and performance are positively moderated by SKM capability, becoming more potent at higher levels. Moreover, four additional DL-AI models reveal the necessity of specific EO dimensions and the interacting effects of EO–SKM capability to influence CA and to attain performance success subsequently. Originality/value This study theorizes and presents two new boundary conditions to a knowledge-based theory of the family firm and its firm performance. First, CA mediates the relationship between EO and performance; and second, SKM capability moderates the relationships between EO and CA and between EO and family firm performance. Methodologically, this study uses DL-AI to embrace non-linearity and prioritize predictor variables based on normalized importance to produce greater accuracy over regression analysis. Hence, DL-AI adds methodological novelty to the knowledge management and family firm literature.

Linking organizational trust and performance through ambidexterity

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 956-973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odette Chams-Anturi ◽  
Maria D. Moreno-Luzon ◽  
Juan P. Escorcia-Caballero
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Organizational Trust ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Organizational Ambidexterity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Food Industries ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
And Performance

Purpose The literature provides mixed empirical evidence on the trust–performance relationship. The purpose of this paper is to shed additional light on this relationship, using organizational ambidexterity as an explanatory variable. Design/methodology/approach A structural equation technique was used to examine survey data obtained from 377 Spanish organic agro-food industries. Findings The results obtained provide support to show that organizational ambidexterity has a mediating role in the relationship between organizational trust and firm performance, in the organic agro-food industry. Research limitations/implications This study used a sample taken from only one industry and country. Future research could expand the model to other countries and industries. Practical implications This study suggests that managers could use tools to enhance organizational trust that would help to improve firm performance, given that trust can cause employees to adopt behaviors related to ambidexterity. Therefore, managers can use trust as a mechanism to encourage more stable relationships, increase the transfer of existing knowledge, facilitate experimentation and express ideas to promote organizational ambidexterity, thus benefiting firm performance. Originality/value This research paper offers a new insight into how ambidexterity affects the organizational trust-firm performance relationship. Even though there is growing theoretical importance given to the concepts of trust and ambidexterity, the empirical evidence that demonstrates how both variables are related to firm performance, especially in emerging sectors, is scarce.

Conditions of knowledge management, innovation capability and firm performance in Colombian NTBFs

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio César Acosta-Prado ◽  
Ana Karina Romero Severiche ◽  
Arnold Alejandro Tafur-Mendoza
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Test Reliability ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Validity Evidence ◽  
Management Innovation ◽  
Innovation Capability ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This paper aims to build and analyse the validity and reliability of a measurement scale that establishes the relationship between conditions of knowledge management, innovation capability and firm performance in Colombian New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs). Design/methodology/approach An instrumental study was carried out because of the design and revision of the psychometric properties of a scale. The techniques used for the statistical analysis were carried out in three sequences, namely, the first consists in collecting validity evidence based on test content; the second in an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to gather validity evidence based on internal structure; and third, estimate the test reliability of internal consistency through omega coefficient. Findings The results obtained show that the proposed measurement scale complies with the psychometrics properties required for a measurement instrument in social sciences. Originality/value The model of measurement scale, including three important constructs for firms, namely, conditions of knowledge management, innovation capability and firm performance, were not tested before for NTBFs. In this way, the present study contributes to the business sector. Finally, this scale can be useful to measure the variables studied in NTBFs of other countries, considering strategic purpose, flexible structure, information and communications technology and internal environment as internal conditions, and, as an external condition, the competitive environment, as conditions of knowledge management; exploration, exploitation and organizational ambidexterity as elements of innovation capability; and the non-economic performance and economic performance as one-dimensional structures.

Corporate philanthropic giving and sustainable development

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 837-849
Author(s):  
Hui-Cheng Yu
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Corporate Image ◽  
Chinese Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Controversial Industries ◽  
Impact Hypothesis

PurposeThis paper aims to use the social impact hypothesis and the shift of focus hypothesis to examine what drives controversial industries to make philanthropic donations: sustainable development, which can in turn lead to higher firm performance or a better corporate image.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a sample of Chinese firms from 2008–2015 and conducted regression analysis to explore the motivations behind corporate philanthropy.FindingsPhilanthropic giving is positively and significantly related to all indicators of firm performance; the interaction term of controversial industries and philanthropic giving is also positively and significantly related to firm performance. The empirical evidence supports the social impact hypothesis.Practical implicationsThe empirical evidence shows that firms engage in philanthropic giving, mainly in pursuit of their own interests. Hence, managers should consider the inherent characteristics of the company and then combine social interests with their economic interests to design a philanthropic strategy of their own, which can in turn contribute to sustainable development.Originality/valueThis paper empirically confirms that the social impact hypothesis holds for the philanthropic activities of Chinese firms. This is a rare finding in related studies.

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