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How to conduct a literature review: A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs

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Roberto Cerchione
Roberto Cerchione

Guidelines for writing a literature review applied to the topic of Knowledge Management in SMEs. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on knowledge management (KM) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and SME networks. The main objective is to highlight the state-of-the-art of KM from the management point of view in order to identify relevant research gaps. The review highlights that in recent years the trend of papers on the topic is growing and involves a variety of approaches, methodologies and models from different research areas. The vast majority of papers analysed focus on the topic of KM in the SME while there are only few papers analysing KM in networks populated by SMEs. The content analysis of the papers highlights six areas of investigation from which were derived ten research questions concerning three perspectives: the factors affecting KM; the impact of KM on firm’s performance; the knowledge management systems. to cite this paper: Cerchione, R., Esposito, E., Spadaro, M.R. A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs (2016) Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 169-177. to link to this paper: doi:10.1057/kmrp.2015.12

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1 A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs Roberto Cerchione*, Emilio Esposito**, Maria Rosaria Spadaro*** Department of Industrial Engineering - University of Naples Federico II P.le Tecchio, 80 - 80125 Naples - Italy * roberto.cerchione@unina.it, ** emilio.esposito@unina.it, *** mariarosaria.spadaro@unina.it to cite this paper: Cerchione, R., Esposito, E., Spadaro, M.R. A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs (2016) Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 169-177. to link to this paper: doi:10.1057/kmrp.2015.12
2 Agenda Background Literature review: • Sampling • Classification • Analysis • Gap recognition • Formulation of the research questions 2
 A vast literature underlines that in modern industrial environment SME are playing a crucial role for large companies competitiveness  There is an abdundance of studies describing how large companies are successfully practising KM but the reasons why small firms show both poor usage of KM systems and why the benefits of the adoption of KMS have not been fully exploited by small and medium sized enterprises are still unclear Nevertheless  The reality is constantly changing and the ICTs are cutting human and financial barriers connecting KMSs adoption in SMEs by offering new tools that are: Low cost Ease to use More effective 3 Background (I)
There is a strong need for more research on this important topic Background (II)
Recent reviews of the literature stress some evidence concerning the phases of Knowledge management process (Durst and Edvardsson, 2002). They highlight that: •The areas of KM implementation, perception and transfer are well researched •The areas of knowledge identification, storage and utilisation are rather poor Our literature review aims to explore the factors affecting (enablers and barriers), the used systems (practices and tools), and the impact of KM on firm’s performance The Research aim By a review research on KM in SMEs: To identify gaps in the literature Future research tracks
6 We can identify the three following main steps to get a systematic study of existing publications adapting Kolbe and Burnett,1991, approach: 1. sampling 2. classification 3. analysis The literature review
7 Sampling • The sampling phase is aimed at identifying all relevant papers that cover the topic of knowledge management in small and medium firms • The search was conducted using the combination of the following keywords: “knowledge management”, “SMEs”, “small business”, “small firms”, “small enterprises”. • Journal articles, which appeared in the period from 2003 to 2013, were collected. These articles were sourced from Scopus database database and ISI WEB of KNOWLEDGE Yielded documents: 269 journal articles Selection criteria: titles, keywords, and abstracts 70 journal articles
Journal title Number Journal of Knowledge Management 8 African Journal of Business Management 5 International Small Business Journal 4 Knowledge management Research & Practice 4 Human Factors and Ergonomics In Manufacturing 3 Business Information Review 2 Industrial Management & Data Systems 2 International Journal of Information Management 2 International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development 2 International Journal of Technology Management 2 Acta Polytechnica Hungarica 1 Actual Problems of Economics 1 Advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering 1 Asian Social Science 1 Contemporary Economics 1 Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 1 Decision Support Systems 1 Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 1 European Journal of Information Systems 1 Expert Systems with Applications 1 Information Systems Management 1 Information Technology and Management 1 Information Technology and People 1 Innovation Management Policy & Practice 1 International Journal Management and Enterprise Development 1 International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology 1 International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research 1 International Journal of Human Resource Management 1 International Journal of Production Research 1 Journal of Applied Sciences 1 Journal of Documentation 1 Journal of Engineering Design 1 Journal of Information & Knowledge Mangement 1 Journal of Information Science 1 Journal of Management & Governance 1 Journal of software: evolution and process 1 Management Decision 1 Management Research News 1 Measuring Business Excellence 1 Prometheus 1 Small Business Economics 1 Research Policy 1 Structural Survey 1 the journal of information and knowledge management systems 1 Total Quality Management and Business Excellence 1 VINE 1 Total 70 Journal ranking
9 Classification Research areas Multidisciplinary Engineering Information System Computer Science Operation Research and Management Science 10 7 7 46
10 Classification (I) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Numbersofarticles
Classification (II) by country of author’s affiliation
Analysis (I): Methodologies 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 survey case study theoretical work others Numberofarticles Methodologies
13 Unit of investigation: The SME GAP: How knowledge transfers between small supplying firms (SMEs sub-group) members has not fully exploited (making reference to channels or component) SME SMEs’ network
14 Classification by object areas object areas Factors affecting KM in SMEs KM and firm performance KM SYSTEMS 47% (33) 17% (12) 36% (25)
15 Subject area (I): Factors affecting KM in SMEs Factors affecting KM in SMEs (33papers) Internal factors (23 papers) Managerial influence Resource influence Culture Technical infrastructure Contingency factors (6 papers) Barriers (4 papers)
Internal factors Authors Managerial influence Human resource Culture Technical infrastructure Leadership Measurement Organizational aspects Training Motivation Trust, collaboration Information technology Wong (2005)        Wong and Aspinwall (2005)        Tan and Hung. (2006)        Deng (2008)      Migdadi (2008)        Pillania (2008)  Cantù et al (2009)  Gholipour et al. (2010)    Jones et al. (2010)    Valmohammadi (2010)        Hussain et al. (2011)     Lee and Lan (2011)    Boden et al. (2012)  Tseng et al. (2012)    De Saá-Pérez(2012)  Chen et al. (2012)     Chen et al. (2013)     Patalas-Maliszewska and Hochmeister (2011)    Costa and Jimenez (2009)  Bocquet and Mothe (2010)  Montequin et al (2006)      Eze, (2013)     Wee (2013    16
17 Subject area (I): some evidence • The first well researched area concerns internal factors for KM • Very little attention has given to the barriers (5%) connecting to KMSs implementation which seem to belong more to cultural area rather than technological one GAP: there is a lack of a detailed analysis on the barriers preventing the adoption of KM approach
Subject area(II): KM in SMEs and firm performance Organization oriented performance analysis (12 papers) Human performance (creativity, staff performance, increasing employees number) Financial performance (profit, sales growth, return to investment) Technical performance (innovation, product quality, productivity, efficiency) Market performance (market share increase, service quality, market flexibility, reputation, customer satisfaction) Managerial performance
Papers dealing with the impact of knowledge management on performance by author/s Financial performance Market performance Technical performance Human performance Managerial performance Total Alegre et al. (2011)  1 Bagnoli and Vedovato (2012)   2 Daud and Yusoff (2011)     4 Delen et al. (2013)    3 Egbu et al.(2005)     4 Filippini et al. (2012)  1 Gholami et al. (2013)      5 Liu and Abdalla (2013)      5 Salojärvi et al. (2004)  1 Soon and Zaino (2011)     4 Talebi and Tajeddin (2011)   2 Wei et al. (2011)      5 Total 8 7 11 6 5 19
Subject area (II): some evidence The articles belonging to the second cluster deal with the improvement for SMEs in terms of components of firm performance thanks to KM adoption Gap: Further empirical evidence could strengthen this analysis and confirm that the impact of KM on firms’ performance is extremely wide affecting several performance indicators simultaneously
Subject area(III): KM systems in SMEs KM SYSTEMS KM practices (17 papers): communities of practice, job rotation, coaching, mentoring, storytelling, status meeting KM tools (8 papers): blogs, information portals, wikis
Subject area (III): some evidence • KMSs are based mostly on human oriented practices rather than on KM tools, it is in accordance with Durst’recognition concerning knowledge identification lack in literature • The used KM tools are simple and old while more sophisticated technoligies are rarely used GAP: There is a clear need for a deeper analysis of the KMSs used by SMEs.
Rising GAPS Object area Gaps Internal factor Contingency factor Barriers KM and firm performance Km practices Km tools GAPs SMEs 1 GAP GAP GAP GAPs Network SMEs 2 GAP GAP GAP GAP GAP GAP
Research questions The above literature analysis allows us to formulate the following 9 research questions: • RQ1: What are the main KMSs adopted by SMEs? • RQ2: What are the major barriers hindering the adoption of KMSs in these firms? • RQ3: What is the impact of knowledge management on firm performance? • RQ4: What are the triggers, barriers, practices, tools and the impact of KM on firm’s performance according to SMEs’network viewpoint?
Research design Literature review Gaps recognition RQs Methodologies Empirical study Finding 25
Roberto Cerchione University of Naples, Federico II 30- 10th Doctoral Workshop on Purchasing and Supply Management, Bologna 15 October 2014 Roberto Cerchione ROBERTO CERCHIONE University of Naples Federico II E-mail: roberto.cerchione@unina.it
27 to cite this paper: Cerchione, R., Esposito, E., Spadaro, M.R. A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs (2016) Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 169-177. to link to this paper: doi:10.1057/kmrp.2015.12 A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs

More Related Content

How to conduct a literature review: A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs

  • 1. 1 A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs Roberto Cerchione*, Emilio Esposito**, Maria Rosaria Spadaro*** Department of Industrial Engineering - University of Naples Federico II P.le Tecchio, 80 - 80125 Naples - Italy * roberto.cerchione@unina.it, ** emilio.esposito@unina.it, *** mariarosaria.spadaro@unina.it to cite this paper: Cerchione, R., Esposito, E., Spadaro, M.R. A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs (2016) Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 169-177. to link to this paper: doi:10.1057/kmrp.2015.12
  • 2. 2 Agenda Background Literature review: • Sampling • Classification • Analysis • Gap recognition • Formulation of the research questions 2
  • 3.  A vast literature underlines that in modern industrial environment SME are playing a crucial role for large companies competitiveness  There is an abdundance of studies describing how large companies are successfully practising KM but the reasons why small firms show both poor usage of KM systems and why the benefits of the adoption of KMS have not been fully exploited by small and medium sized enterprises are still unclear Nevertheless  The reality is constantly changing and the ICTs are cutting human and financial barriers connecting KMSs adoption in SMEs by offering new tools that are: Low cost Ease to use More effective 3 Background (I)
  • 4. There is a strong need for more research on this important topic Background (II)
  • 5. Recent reviews of the literature stress some evidence concerning the phases of Knowledge management process (Durst and Edvardsson, 2002). They highlight that: •The areas of KM implementation, perception and transfer are well researched •The areas of knowledge identification, storage and utilisation are rather poor Our literature review aims to explore the factors affecting (enablers and barriers), the used systems (practices and tools), and the impact of KM on firm’s performance The Research aim By a review research on KM in SMEs: To identify gaps in the literature Future research tracks
  • 6. 6 We can identify the three following main steps to get a systematic study of existing publications adapting Kolbe and Burnett,1991, approach: 1. sampling 2. classification 3. analysis The literature review
  • 7. 7 Sampling • The sampling phase is aimed at identifying all relevant papers that cover the topic of knowledge management in small and medium firms • The search was conducted using the combination of the following keywords: “knowledge management”, “SMEs”, “small business”, “small firms”, “small enterprises”. • Journal articles, which appeared in the period from 2003 to 2013, were collected. These articles were sourced from Scopus database database and ISI WEB of KNOWLEDGE Yielded documents: 269 journal articles Selection criteria: titles, keywords, and abstracts 70 journal articles
  • 8. Journal title Number Journal of Knowledge Management 8 African Journal of Business Management 5 International Small Business Journal 4 Knowledge management Research & Practice 4 Human Factors and Ergonomics In Manufacturing 3 Business Information Review 2 Industrial Management & Data Systems 2 International Journal of Information Management 2 International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development 2 International Journal of Technology Management 2 Acta Polytechnica Hungarica 1 Actual Problems of Economics 1 Advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering 1 Asian Social Science 1 Contemporary Economics 1 Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 1 Decision Support Systems 1 Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 1 European Journal of Information Systems 1 Expert Systems with Applications 1 Information Systems Management 1 Information Technology and Management 1 Information Technology and People 1 Innovation Management Policy & Practice 1 International Journal Management and Enterprise Development 1 International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology 1 International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research 1 International Journal of Human Resource Management 1 International Journal of Production Research 1 Journal of Applied Sciences 1 Journal of Documentation 1 Journal of Engineering Design 1 Journal of Information & Knowledge Mangement 1 Journal of Information Science 1 Journal of Management & Governance 1 Journal of software: evolution and process 1 Management Decision 1 Management Research News 1 Measuring Business Excellence 1 Prometheus 1 Small Business Economics 1 Research Policy 1 Structural Survey 1 the journal of information and knowledge management systems 1 Total Quality Management and Business Excellence 1 VINE 1 Total 70 Journal ranking
  • 10. 10 Classification (I) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Numbersofarticles
  • 11. Classification (II) by country of author’s affiliation
  • 12. Analysis (I): Methodologies 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 survey case study theoretical work others Numberofarticles Methodologies
  • 13. 13 Unit of investigation: The SME GAP: How knowledge transfers between small supplying firms (SMEs sub-group) members has not fully exploited (making reference to channels or component) SME SMEs’ network
  • 14. 14 Classification by object areas object areas Factors affecting KM in SMEs KM and firm performance KM SYSTEMS 47% (33) 17% (12) 36% (25)
  • 15. 15 Subject area (I): Factors affecting KM in SMEs Factors affecting KM in SMEs (33papers) Internal factors (23 papers) Managerial influence Resource influence Culture Technical infrastructure Contingency factors (6 papers) Barriers (4 papers)
  • 16. Internal factors Authors Managerial influence Human resource Culture Technical infrastructure Leadership Measurement Organizational aspects Training Motivation Trust, collaboration Information technology Wong (2005)        Wong and Aspinwall (2005)        Tan and Hung. (2006)        Deng (2008)      Migdadi (2008)        Pillania (2008)  Cantù et al (2009)  Gholipour et al. (2010)    Jones et al. (2010)    Valmohammadi (2010)        Hussain et al. (2011)     Lee and Lan (2011)    Boden et al. (2012)  Tseng et al. (2012)    De Saá-Pérez(2012)  Chen et al. (2012)     Chen et al. (2013)     Patalas-Maliszewska and Hochmeister (2011)    Costa and Jimenez (2009)  Bocquet and Mothe (2010)  Montequin et al (2006)      Eze, (2013)     Wee (2013    16
  • 17. 17 Subject area (I): some evidence • The first well researched area concerns internal factors for KM • Very little attention has given to the barriers (5%) connecting to KMSs implementation which seem to belong more to cultural area rather than technological one GAP: there is a lack of a detailed analysis on the barriers preventing the adoption of KM approach
  • 18. Subject area(II): KM in SMEs and firm performance Organization oriented performance analysis (12 papers) Human performance (creativity, staff performance, increasing employees number) Financial performance (profit, sales growth, return to investment) Technical performance (innovation, product quality, productivity, efficiency) Market performance (market share increase, service quality, market flexibility, reputation, customer satisfaction) Managerial performance
  • 19. Papers dealing with the impact of knowledge management on performance by author/s Financial performance Market performance Technical performance Human performance Managerial performance Total Alegre et al. (2011)  1 Bagnoli and Vedovato (2012)   2 Daud and Yusoff (2011)     4 Delen et al. (2013)    3 Egbu et al.(2005)     4 Filippini et al. (2012)  1 Gholami et al. (2013)      5 Liu and Abdalla (2013)      5 Salojärvi et al. (2004)  1 Soon and Zaino (2011)     4 Talebi and Tajeddin (2011)   2 Wei et al. (2011)      5 Total 8 7 11 6 5 19
  • 20. Subject area (II): some evidence The articles belonging to the second cluster deal with the improvement for SMEs in terms of components of firm performance thanks to KM adoption Gap: Further empirical evidence could strengthen this analysis and confirm that the impact of KM on firms’ performance is extremely wide affecting several performance indicators simultaneously
  • 21. Subject area(III): KM systems in SMEs KM SYSTEMS KM practices (17 papers): communities of practice, job rotation, coaching, mentoring, storytelling, status meeting KM tools (8 papers): blogs, information portals, wikis
  • 22. Subject area (III): some evidence • KMSs are based mostly on human oriented practices rather than on KM tools, it is in accordance with Durst’recognition concerning knowledge identification lack in literature • The used KM tools are simple and old while more sophisticated technoligies are rarely used GAP: There is a clear need for a deeper analysis of the KMSs used by SMEs.
  • 23. Rising GAPS Object area Gaps Internal factor Contingency factor Barriers KM and firm performance Km practices Km tools GAPs SMEs 1 GAP GAP GAP GAPs Network SMEs 2 GAP GAP GAP GAP GAP GAP
  • 24. Research questions The above literature analysis allows us to formulate the following 9 research questions: • RQ1: What are the main KMSs adopted by SMEs? • RQ2: What are the major barriers hindering the adoption of KMSs in these firms? • RQ3: What is the impact of knowledge management on firm performance? • RQ4: What are the triggers, barriers, practices, tools and the impact of KM on firm’s performance according to SMEs’network viewpoint?
  • 25. Research design Literature review Gaps recognition RQs Methodologies Empirical study Finding 25
  • 26. Roberto Cerchione University of Naples, Federico II 30- 10th Doctoral Workshop on Purchasing and Supply Management, Bologna 15 October 2014 Roberto Cerchione ROBERTO CERCHIONE University of Naples Federico II E-mail: roberto.cerchione@unina.it
  • 27. 27 to cite this paper: Cerchione, R., Esposito, E., Spadaro, M.R. A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs (2016) Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 169-177. to link to this paper: doi:10.1057/kmrp.2015.12 A literature review on knowledge management in SMEs

Editor's Notes

  1. According to our classification we can identify some gaps in the literature. The articles belonging to factors affecting KM within supply chain focus particularly on the relational factors. Only two articles concern the managerial factors using a quantitative methodology and similarly for the impact of KM on performance of the entire supply chain, for KMS in supply chain and for models for the analysis of KM within supply chain. The two articles on the barriers of Knowledge Management in the supply chain use a mixed approach (literature review and focus groups) so none of them uses a quantitative approach. So there is a need to explore and deepen certain topic through the use of quantitative methods, such as survey. The articles on the critical success factors and having as their object of study the entire supply chain are only two: the first is related to the managerial factors while the second to industry-specific factors . There is no article that analyzes the influence of relational factors on knowledge management throughout the supply chain. The two articles on the barriers deal with the issue considering the entire supply chain. Regarding the relationship that exists between Knowledge Management and performance, 5 articles focus on business performance, and only three articles (out of a total of 18 related to the impact of KM on performance) have as their object the performance of the entire supply chain. There is only one article, out of a total of six articles included in the first level category of first level, concerning knowledge management systems that can be used across the entire supply chain. Finally, half of the articles (3 out of 6) that analyze models for the analysis of KM within supply chain refers to the customer-supplier relationship. Therefore, although the articles and reviews selected refer to the supply chain, only few of them have as their object of study the entire supply chain.