Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Seyed Esmaeil Asgharpour and Gholamreza Taleghani
Units <strong>of</strong> measurement (Khansari 2006)
Khalifa&Liu performed a research in Hong Kong city university in 2003 called ‘’knowledge
management success model ‘’. Main question <strong>of</strong> this research was: what factors are important for
success <strong>of</strong> knowledge management plans? Research hypo<strong>the</strong>ses were:
Organizational factors have direct and significant effect on success <strong>of</strong> knowledge management.
Information technology has limited effect on success <strong>of</strong> knowledge management plans.
Knowledge Management processes have direct and significant effect on success <strong>of</strong> knowledge
management plans.
Information technology has direct and significant effect on processes <strong>of</strong> knowledge management.
Effective Organizational factors on knowledge management include:
Knowledge management strategy
Knowledge leadership
Organizational culture
Knowledge attitudes.
Knowledge management processes include: creation, transfer, application and preservation <strong>of</strong>
knowledge. It was specified that organizational factors and knowledge management processes have
<strong>the</strong> most effect on success <strong>of</strong> knowledge management plans. Information technology is as effective
as transfer and preservation <strong>of</strong> knowledge due to its effect on knowledge management processes
(Fayerstone 1995).
4.3 Key factors <strong>of</strong> success in small and large companies
In a study that performed by Kuan Yew Wong in 2005, eleven key factors <strong>of</strong> success in
implementation <strong>of</strong> knowledge management were identified in small and large companies including:
Senior manager’s support
Culture
Information technology
Strategy and goal
Unit <strong>of</strong> measurement
Organizational substructure
Activities and processes
Motivational help
Sources
Education
Human resources management
Identification <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se 11 factors is result <strong>of</strong> systematic effort which has been made in comprehensive,
integrated and holistic way.
4.4 Competitive advantage
Competitive advantage is one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most important issues in <strong>the</strong>ories <strong>of</strong> strategic management
because competitive advantage in an organization means better performance in comparison to <strong>the</strong>
competitors and guarantees pr<strong>of</strong>itability in short term and survival and growth <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organization in
long term. Therefore, competitive advantage is not only increased, but also it has become more
critical .According to Porter, strategies allow organization to gain competitive advantage from three
different bases :Cost leadership, differentiation ,and focus. Porter calls <strong>the</strong>se bases "generic
strategies" (Fred 1995). Generally, components <strong>of</strong> competitive advantage include value , market
focus, customer satisfaction, recognition <strong>of</strong> potential ability , moving actual power , motivation ,
making skill, suitable price, accountability and innovation (Zar Abadipour 2006).
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