Developing A Theoretical Framework For Knowledge Management Strategic Orientation Among Smes

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to national economies. They have distinct characteristics and challenges which need to be addressed differently compared to large organisations. These characteristics may lead SMEs to different practices in many areas of business. Knowledge management (KM) is one of these areas in which SMEs’ practices could be different to large organisations. The aim of this paper is to present a developed framework which identifies SMEs’ KM strategic orientations. Based on a wide range of literature, four main dimensions: knowledge source (external, internal), knowledge type (codification, personalisation), knowledge focus (exploration, exploitation) and knowledge breadth (narrow, broad), are identified as bases on which KM strategic orientation can be investigated. Three main strategic orientations: aggressive, conservative and balanced have also been identified based on these dimensions. These three orientations have been found related and linked to Miles and Snow’s (1978) typology which classifies organisations into three strategies: prospectors, defenders and analysers.