Knowledge management orientation, innovativeness, and competitive intensity: evidence from Polish SMEs

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the link between knowledge management orientation (KMO), its dimensions (organizational memory, knowledge sharing, knowledge absorption, and knowledge receptivity), competitive intensity, and innovativeness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study uses survey data from 120 Polish SMEs and the partial least squares method. The results show a positive and significant relationship between KMO and the innovativeness of SMEs. Moreover, organizational memory has a direct effect on innovativeness. Competitive intensity does not have a moderating effect on the KMO and innovativeness relationship. This study provides empirical evidence for the importance of KMO for the innovativeness of SMEs. To increase a firm’s innovativeness, improvement should be made in all four dimensions of KMO. Each of these dimensions is important but not individually sufficient to influence innovativeness directly; they are able to improve innovativeness only when they appear together and shape KMO.