The effects of organizational size on knowledge management implementation: Opportunities for small firms?

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM) continues to develop as an emerging discourse within business and management. The area is eclectic in nature and covers the systematic management of knowledge, of all kinds, within all levels and types of organizations. However, the majority of studies, in common with other emergent business philosophies, are focused on larger organizations where, for example, readily available implementation resources is an underlying assumption. There is a paucity of studies that empirically study the effects of organizational size on the key factors of KM. This paper seeks to explore the effects of organizational size on KM by using a survey instrument and factor analysis based on the MeTCIP model. The results indicate that KM can be applied to small organizations without innate effects of lack of resources and skills. However, while many knowledge-orientated issues are applicable to all organizations, the manner in which they are addressed differs slightly depending on organization size.

Keywords:

• Knowledge management
• organization size
• MeCTIP model