Knowledge Transfusion from External Sources to Small and Medium-Sized Companies

This article addresses the issues of knowledge management (KM) from the point of view of external knowledge. Knowledge has been raised as a key success factor or key resource for organizations of all sizes. Knowledge worker, knowledge intensive business services, and knowledge society are commonly used nowadays. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that every organization could possess all the necessary knowledge to guarantee successful operations. External knowledge and its effective use can help an organization overcome many difficulties at various stages of its life cycle. The underlying challenge is to define what shape or form of external knowledge an organization should use to improve the likelihood of business success. The initial findings and conclusion indicate the tendency for start-up companies to emphasize tacit knowledge more in order to help overcome business barriers. An interesting research question is how companies can value external knowledge and how they can pay for it. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are typically short of financial resources. Their cash flow does not necessarily allow room for large investments in external knowledge projects. This paper utilizes the previously developed taxonomy of external knowledge, and studies the various options for compensating the knowledge acquired for improving the business performance of SMEs. The research utilizes multiple case studies and proposes a wider international quantitative study to draw a richer picture of the issue.