The Features of Knowledge Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

The article considers features of knowledge management (KM) in the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Knowledge management is a processes management that allows to create, transfer, accumulate and use the organization’s knowledge. The use of knowledge management leads to important benefits for SMEs in business development. Four groups of characteristics of SMEs that distinguish them from large companies and define the features of use of KM in the SME sector have been identified as follows: organizational, economic, social and specificity of the company’s business. The introduction and use of KM depends on the specifics of the company’s business. Comparison of SMEs in traditional industries and the high-tech SMEs showed that the specificity of business determines the needs of companies in KM, awareness of the importance of knowledge resources for business, availability of information and communication technologies, preparedness of employees for use of the KM systems, intensity of use of IT-instruments and specific practices of knowledge management.

Keywords

• knowledge management
• organizational knowledge
• small and medium-sized enterprises
• large enterprises
• knowledge management instruments
• knowledge management practices