An empirical assessment of knowledge management criticality for sustainable development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the importance of knowledge management (KM) for sustainable development. Two main hypotheses about the critical success factors of knowledge and technology contribution to sustainable development are tested. Design/methodology/approach – The research is carried out using surveys and interviews among a KM/integrated information and communication technologies (IICTs) sustainable development community. Findings – Results show that KM is critical for innovation, prioritization and efficient use of resources. A significant linear association between IICTs and KM across time and geography is detected. IICTs improve the quality of shared decision making in inter‐ and intra‐organizational settings. Paradoxically, IICTs lead to information overload, and digitization leads to knowledge dilution “de‐contextualization”. Nevertheless, these drawbacks are outweighed by the multitude of the converged technologies benefits. Research limitations/implications – There is a limited amount of data subjected to the statistical analysis. This may skew some of the results, and inflate the experimental error. However, the limited data are due to the restricted targeted population itself. Originality/value – The results in this paper led to the proposal of the knowledge iterative supply network (KISN) framework, which describes knowledge lifecycle that lessens technology negative impacts. This would be a valuable roadmap for KM practitioners who are planning to deploy KM technology for supporting sustainable development.