Performance of knowledge management practices: a causal analysis

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of knowledge management (KM) infrastructure and KM processes on the performance of KM practices. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on personal interviews, data were collected from 83 managers from a single case study of a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operator in Turkey. Findings – The paper finds that hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Test of hypotheses revealed that both KM processes and KM infrastructure positively and significantly influenced the performance of KM practices. These findings tend to corroborate our conceptual model and are also in line with the existing literature. KM infrastructure was found to be more significantly affecting KM performance than KM processes, indicating that the context and background of KM is more important than the application aspects of KM. Research limitations/implications – The findings in this paper cannot be generalized due to the case study approach. It may not be claimed that both KM processes and KM infrastructure solely determine the performance of KM practices. Instead, there are many other factors that may influence KM performance, which are somewhat beyond the scope of this research. Practical implications – The paper shows that the evaluation of KM performance is expected to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and adaptability of KM efforts so as to add more value to the overall performance of the organization. Originality/value – In this paper there is little or no empirical evidence investigating the influence of KM infrastructure and KM processes on KM performance. This paper rectifies this imbalance by clarifying the link between KM infrastructure, processes and performance.