Knowledge management and the occasional links with performance

This paper argues that current research into knowledge management fails to recognize and offer a detailed understanding about the role of knowledge in improving firm performance. Instead of focusing, exclusively, on the nature and attributes of knowledge, and the management of learning, research should also direct attention to the factors that enable knowledge to contribute to performance. To aid in this, this paper suggests that the concept of knowledge management is divided into three instances; development, utilization and capitalization, based on the assumption that knowledge is not always utilized, and that utilized knowledge does not always result in improved performance. The paper also identifies challenges and solutions in relation to each of the instances. Empirical findings are based on empirical study of three knowledge ventures within a European manufacturing MNC.