An Empirical Research On The Relationships Between Knowledge Management Facets And Performance

Since the OECD published the report"The Knowledge-based Economy" in 1996, knowledge has been generally considered as an important driver of economic growth. Under the influence of this concept, enterprises regard knowledge as the greatest asset in the process of establishing strategies and find ways to stimulate knowledge on boosting firm performance. As a result, more and more companies tend to use knowledge management to promote and enhance their economic efficiency and market competitiveness. However, although many enterprises have understood that knowledge should be effectively managed in order to attain or maintain competitive advantage, the challenge in the process of knowledge management implementation has not been resolved well. How to utilize the knowledge resources, to select the appropriate knowledge management strategy, to motivate knowledge management, and to improve knowledge management capabilities to boost organizational performance is a very important issue. The scope of recent studies has covered the relationship between knowledge management and organizational performance. However, most studies research the influences of a single dimension of knowledge management upon knowledge management performance, few studies have expressed concern that there are may be relationships between knowledge management strategy, knowledge management motivators, knowledge management process capability and knowledge management performance and the inter-relationship may influence the organizational performance.Based on this concept, this study attempts to sort out the research fruits of knowledge management strategies, knowledge management motivators, knowledge management process capabilities and knowledge management performance, create an overall dimension theoretical framework and establish a more clear theoretical knowledge management system. Based on the perspective of regarding knowledge management performance as a core axis, this study also develop other relationships conceptual model between dimensions of knowledge management, as well as add another influential factor, the organizational property, in order to enhance the integrity of the overall theoretical model in the study of knowledge management strategies, motivators, process capabilities and knowledge management performance. Furthermore, this study also focuses on the mediator of knowledge process capability among knowledge management strategies, knowledge management motivators, knowledge management performance and organizational property, and open the perspective of the influence of the knowledge management strategy balance upon knowledge management performance. And the conclusions of this study help knowledge manager explore knowledge management strategies and motivators, mine the appropriate knowledge process capabilities, and balance knowledge strategies to improve knowledge management performance. The whole dissertation contains 14 figures and 54 tables.Chapter 1 clarifies the background and significance of this dissertation and describes the purpose, the research methods and routes, as well as major innovations.Chapter 2 analyzes dimensions theory of knowledge management strategy, knowledge management motivator, knowledge management process capability and knowledge management performance. Firstly knowledge management strategy is divided into two perspectives, system oriented and human oriented strategy from balanced point of view. Secondly, knowledge management motivators contain technology, structure and organizational culture. Thirdly, knowledge management process capability dimensions include knowledge acquisition, knowledge protection, knowledge conversion and knowledge application capabilities. Finally knowledge management performance theory is discussed.Chapter 3 comparatively analyzes 6 knowledge management models and builds a theoretical model of relationships among knowledge management strategies, motivators, process capabilities, performance and organizational property. Firstly comparative analysis indicates 6 different models' independent variables, dependent variables and empirical methods. Secondly, the relevant dimensions of the impact facts are analyzed based on the theoretical research and organizational property is added as an impact fact. Thirdly, the theoretical model is established to propose 3 research questions and 15 hypotheses including 3 sub-hypotheses.Chapter 4 describes the research design, sample data selection, data processing and data analysis methods. Empirical research design is based on knowledge management strategy, knowledge management motivator, knowledge management process capability, knowledge management performance and organizational property scales. The reliability and validity of these scales are also discussed. Finally this chapter indicates the survey data analysis approach and empirical research methods.Chapter 5 is the processing of sample data analysis and research questions descriptive statistics. 15 hypotheses including 3 sub-hypotheses are tested. Firstly this chapter describes validity and reliability of knowledge management strategy, motivators, process capability, performance and organizational property scales and the scale items are adjusted. Also, the convergent validity of the scale factors is tested. Secondly, the established hypotheses of relationships among knowledge strategy, motivators, process capability, performance and organizational property are tested.Chapter 6 is the interpretation of the data processing results and the conclusions of this study are summarized. Also the inspirations of this study are provided. Firstly, the basic information about knowledge management strategy, motivators, process capability, performance, organizational property and their relationships is described. Secondly, this chapter indicates the influence of the knowledge management strategy balance upon performance and mediator of knowledge process capability among other factors. Finally, there are 6 conclusions about this study.