Revealing deeper relationships between knowledge management leadership and organisational performance: a meta-analytic study

ABSTRACT

Many empirical studies have tried to investigate the relationship between knowledge management (KM) leadership and organisational performance; however, the findings of such studies have been inconsistent. In response to this, we apply a meta-analysis technique to systematically assess the existing pool of empirical research results and derive conclusions. We also examine the impacts of contextual moderators, such as national culture, economy, and industry, on the KM leadership–organisational performance relationships. The findings, stemming from 6,272 research subjects making up 22 studies, demonstrate that KM leadership is positively associated with the overall (financial and non-financial) performance of firms. Specifically, it was found that the KM leadership–non-financial performance relationship is strengthened in collective cultures, developing economies, and the manufacturing industry. This paper is the first meta-analytic study concerning KM leadership and organisational performance, producing new understanding of contextual factors in the KM field.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge management leadership
• organisational performance
• national culture
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors of this paper would like to thank the Research Committee of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for the scholarship (project code: RUNQ) to conduct this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. Organisational performance includes 1) overall organisational performance, 2) financial performance, and 3) non-financial performance.

2. H_I2 could not be tested, because there was only one study in each manufacturing and service industry category.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Hong Kong Polytechnic University [RUNQ].