Tatiana Andreeva

Does knowledge management really matter? Linking knowledge management practices, competitiveness and economic performance

Purpose – While nowadays an extensive literature promoting knowledge management (KM) exists, there is a worrying shortage of empirical studies demonstrating an actual connection between KM activities and organizational outcomes. To bridge this gap, this paper aims to examine the link between KM practices, firm competitiveness and economic performance.Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes a framework of KM practices consisting of human resource management (HRM) and information communication technology (ICT). These both are hypothesized to impact competitiveness and economic performance of the firm. Hypotheses are then tested with structural equation modeling by using a survey dataset of 234 companies.Findings – The results show that HRM and ICT practices for managing knowledge are quite strongly correlated and have a statistically significant influence on both financial performance and competitiveness of the firm. The findings also indicate that ICT practices improve financial performance only ...

Knowledge processes, knowledge‐intensity and innovation: a moderated mediation analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine innovation from a knowledge‐based view by exploring the effect of knowledge processes and knowledge intensity on innovation performance.Design/methodology/approach – First, a theoretical model of the connections between knowledge processes, knowledge intensity and innovation performance is presented. The posited hypotheses are then tested statistically, using a survey dataset of 221 organizations.Findings – The result shows that while all knowledge processes have a beneficial impact on innovation, knowledge creation impacts innovation the most and fully mediates the impact of knowledge documentation, intra‐organizational knowledge sharing and external knowledge acquisition on innovation performance. Furthermore, knowledge intensity increases all knowledge processes. Knowledge intensity also moderates the relationship of documentation and knowledge sharing with knowledge creation. The interaction effect is negative, meaning that firms in less knowledge‐inte...

Knowledge elicitation techniques in a knowledge management context

Purpose – A significant part of knowledge and experience in an organization belongs not to the organization itself, but to the individuals it employs. Therefore, knowledge management (KM) tasks should include eliciting knowledge from knowledgeable individuals. The paper aims to argue that the current palette of methods proposed for this in KM discourse is limited by idealistic assumptions about the behavior of knowledge owners. This paper also aims to enrich the repertoire of methods that can be used in an organization to extract knowledge (both tacit and explicit) from its employees by bridging KM and knowledge engineering and its accomplishments in the knowledge elicitation field.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on extensive literature review and 20 years of experience of one of the authors in applying various knowledge elicitation techniques in multiple companies and contexts.Findings – The paper proposes that the special agent (analyst) might be needed to elicit knowledge from individ...

The impact of intellectual capital management on company competitiveness and financial performance

Most of the existing research on intellectual capital (IC) has concentrated on identifying the key intangible resources and measuring their level in various contexts. However, the extent to which IC is being managed in companies and how IC management impacts on organizational performance have been relatively neglected issues. To bridge these gaps, the current paper examines how IC management affects company performance based on data collected from Finnish, Russian, and Chinese companies. The results demonstrate the importance of a conscious and systematic management of organizational knowledge for the company bottom line.

Do all elements of intellectual capital matter for organizational performance? Evidence from Russian context

Purpose – Intellectual capital (IC) has been argued to be the key element of value creation in contemporary economies and this argument has been widely supported by empirical research, but mainly based on data from developed markets. The question of how IC and its elements work in other contexts remains under-researched and the limited empirical evidence that exists contradicts the conclusions drawn from developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical insight into the relationship between three main elements of IC (human, relational and structural) and organizational performance in the particular context of Russian manufacturing companies. Design/methodology/approach – The sample comprises 240 Russian manufacturing companies. The data are collected by survey using the scales already validated in the international context. The authors use a two-step analysis – factor and regression analyses – to answer the research questions. Findings – The findings demonstrate that structural and hu...

Knowledge sharing research: bringing context back in

In response to the calls for more context-aware theorizing, in this essay we review the empirical research on individual knowledge sharing behavior in organizations, with a specific focus on the context in which employees share knowledge. We build on the “Who? / Where? / Why? / What?” framework to “flesh out” the contexts of the empirical studies on individual knowledge sharing published in top-level journals. Mapping the researched contexts, we indicate several biases of the literature as well as point to under-investigated spaces, suggesting theoretical dimensions, their contrasts, and new empirical settings that are missing from the major stream of knowledge sharing studies. We also find that context has been scarcely accounted for in the existing literature, discuss the reasons for it, show how accounting for context can be used to re-interpret some contradictions in existing literature, and suggest some ways to move forward.

The more the better…or is it? The contradictory effects of HR practices on knowledge sharing motivation and behavior

This article examines how individual-level antecedents such as motivation and ability to share knowledge mediate the relationship between HR practices and knowledge-sharing behaviour. The results of a survey of 329 secondary school teachers reveal the contradictory effects of different HR practices on the mediating roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to share knowledge and subsequent knowledge-sharing behaviour of teachers. The study demonstrates that opportunity-enhancing HR practices act as a moderating condition that activates either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to share knowledge and may completely offset the effect of motivation-enhancing HR practices. The study makes a distinctive contribution by demonstrating how certain combinations of HR practices aimed to enhance knowledge sharing might in fact be a costly solution for organisations, as they activate different mediating mechanisms in the HRM–knowledge-sharing behaviour link.

What are the sources of capability dynamism? Reconceptualizing dynamic capabilities from the perspective of organizational change

Purpose – The concept of dynamic capabilities emerged from strategic management theory, the aim being to determine how organizations can achieve and sustain competitive advantage in a continuously changing environment. It is widely accepted in the literature that this concept, although extremely popular and potentially powerful, still needs clarification and elaboration. The main criticisms are centered on the lack of understanding of where these capabilities originate and how their dynamism can be sustained in the long run. The purpose of this paper is to bring some novel insights into these issues in bridging the theories of strategic management and change management. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on extensive literature review and bridges dynamic capabilities and change management literatures. Findings – The paper proposes a distinction between domain-specific and generic dynamic capabilities and puts forward the concept of “organizational change capability” as representing a generi...

Can organizational change be planned and controlled? Evidence from Russian companies

This study explores limits of applicability of a planned change approach in Russian companies. The data on change management programmes in 59 Russian companies of various industries, regions and sizes was gathered with the help of questionnaires filled by management consultants. The study found that resulted changes often did not coincide with initial plans of change agents. Two groups of organizational elements were identified: ‘uncontrollable’ (those elements that changed outside of the planned change) and ‘unmanageable’ (those elements that did not change despite forming part of the planned change). The findings also indicate that the efficiency of the change programme was unaffected by whether the change programme plans were executed or not. The results suggest that the applicability of a planned change approach is dependent upon the organizational elements at which change interventions are targeted and that change content has to be incorporated into contingency models of change.

When the fit between HR practices backfires: Exploring the interaction effects between rewards for and appraisal of knowledge behaviours on innovation

This paper explores the idea that well-aligned HR practices may produce varied and even negative effects on innovation performance. To do so, we examine the interaction effect between rewards for and appraisal of knowledge behaviours on radical and incremental innovation outcomes. Drawing on the insights from the strategic HRM literature on the internal fit between HR practices, as well as the developments of the knowledge governance approach, we argue that rewards and appraisal applied together produce a setting that is conducive for deepening existing knowledge bases, but hindering for more distant and diverse knowledge search. Empirical test of these hypotheses using the data from 259 Finnish companies lends partial support for this argument. Intensive usage of appraisal of knowledge behaviours reduces the positive impact that rewards for such behaviours have on radical innovation. At the same time, rewards and appraisal do not intensify each others effect on incremental innovation.