Abstract
This paper reports a descriptive study of KM research and researchers based on articles published in four specialised academic journals in KM. For each published article, keyword and author analysis were used to discover the main contributors and dominant themes and topics examined. The study shows that KM research is grounded in both KM and non-KM theories, split equally between theoretical and empirical approaches and dominated by the interpretivist over positivist paradigm. So far, core KM elements (enablers, processes and stocks) have been explored more than the extended KM elements (contexts, drivers and outcomes). This might change in the future in order to remain relevant to practice. Published authors are distributed all over the world and tend to be collaborative, but not very productive contributors to KM journals. These findings need to be interpreted and applied with caution due to a number of limiting factors in research design and analysis. Future research is recommended to address these limitations and extend current research to a wider range of publication outlets and issues in KM.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baruch, L. (2000). Knowledge management: Fad or need? Research Technology Management, 43(5), 9.
Cummings, S., Regeer, B. J., Ho, W. W. S., & Zweekhorst, M. B. M. (2013). Proposing a fifth generation of knowledge management for development: Investigating convergence between knowledge management for development and transdisciplinary research. Knowledge Management for Development Journal, 9(2), 10–36.
Drucker, P. (1993). Post-capitalist society. New York: Harper Business.
Durst, S., & Edvardsson, I. R. (2012). Knowledge management in SMEs: A literature review. Journal of Knowledge Management, 16(6), 879–903.
Dwivedi, Y. K., Venkitachalam, K., Sharif, A. M., Al-Karaghouli, W., & Weerakkody, V. (2011). Research trends in knowledge management: Analyzing the past and predicting the future. Information Systems Management, 28, 43–56.
Earl, M. (2001). Knowledge management strategies: Toward a taxonomy. Journal of Management Information Systems, 18(1), 215–233.
Edwards, J., Handzic, M., Carlsson, S., & Nissen, M. (2003). Knowledge management research & practice: Visions and directions. Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 1(1), 49–60.
Epler, M., & Burkhard, R. (2007). Visual representations in knowledge management: Framework and cases. Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(4), 112–122.
Gu, Y. (2004). Global knowledge management research: A bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics, 61(2), 171–190.
Handzic, M. (2012). Surveying the field of KM: Evidence from KMR&P. Presentation at the first IAKM workshop, Padua, 16 Apr 2012.
Handzic, M., & Durmic, N. (2013). Mapping research community and interests in KM: A case of JKM. In Proceedings of the European conference on knowledge management (ECKM 2013), Kaunas, 5–6 Sept 2013.
Handzic, M., & Hasan, H. (2003). The search for an integrated KM framework, chapter 1. In H. Hasan & M. Handzic (Eds.), Australian studies in knowledge management (pp. 3–34). Wollongong: UOW Press.
Handzic, M., & Zhou, A. Z. (2005). Knowledge management: An integrative approach. Oxford: Chandos Publishing.
Handzic, M., Lagumdzija, A., & Celjo, A. (2008). Auditing knowledge management practices: Model and application. Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 6(1), 90–99.
Hansen, M. T., Nohria, N., & Tierney, T. (1999). What’s your strategy for managing knowledge? Harvard Business Review, 77(2), 106–116.
Heisig, P. (2009). Harmonisation of knowledge management – Comparing 160 KM frameworks around the globe. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(4), 4–31.
Hislop, D. (2010). Knowledge management as an ephemeral management fashion? Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(6), 779–790.
Holsapple, C. W. (2003). Knowledge management handbook. Berlin: Springer.
Lee, M. R., & Chen, T. T. (2012). Revealing research themes and trends in knowledge management: From 1995 to 2010. Knowledge-Based Systems, 20, 47–58.
Ma, Z., & Yu, K.-H. (2010). Research paradigms of contemporary knowledge management studies: 1998–2007. Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(2), 175–189.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, M. A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. London: Sage.
Oliver, G. (2013). A tenth anniversary assessment of Davenport and Prusak (1998/2000) working knowledge: Practitioner approaches to knowledge in organisations. Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 11(1), 10–22.
Ribiere, V., & Walter, C. (2013). 10 years of KM theory and practices. Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 11(1), 4–9.
Schwartz, D. G., & Te’eni, D. (2011). Encyclopedia of knowledge management (2nd ed.). Hershey: IGI Global.
Serenko, A. (2013). Meta-analysis of scientometric research of knowledge management: Discovering the identity of the discipline. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(5), 773–812.
Serenko, A., & Bontis, N. (2004). Meta review of knowledge management and intellectual capital literature: Citation impact and research productivity rankings. Knowledge and Process Management, 11(3), 185–198.
Serenko, A., & Bontis, N. (2009). Global ranking of knowledge management and intellectual capital academic journals. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(1), 4–15.
Serenko, A., & Bontis, N. (2013a). The intellectual core and impact of the knowledge management academic discipline. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(1), 137–155.
Serenko, A., & Bontis, N. (2013b). Global ranking of knowledge management and intellectual capital academic journals: 2013 update. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(2), 307–326.
Serenko, A., Bontis, N., Booker, L., Sadeddi, K., & Hardie, T. (2010). A scientometric analysis of knowledge management and intellectual capital academic literature. Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(1), 3–23.
Swan, J., Scarbrough, H., & Preston, J. (1999). Knowledge management: The next fad to forget people? In 7th European conference on information systems, Copenhagen.
Venters, W. (2006). Knowledge management: The fad that forgot technology. In OLKC 2006 conference, University of Warwick, Coventry, 20–22 Mar 2006.
Von Krogh, G., Ichijo, K., & Nonaka, I. (2000). Enabling knowledge creation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wallace, D. P. (2012). Authorship productivity in the knowledge management literature. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 49(1), 1–6.
Wallace, D. P., Van Fleet, C., & Downs, L. J. (2011). The research core of the knowledge management literature. International Journal of Information Management, 31, 14–20.
Acknowledgments
The author is thankful to six PhD students from International Burch University, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely Zeynep Kara, Nermina Durmic, Dino Arnaut, Azizah bin Ibrahim, Tarik Kraljic and Adnan Kraljic for their assistance in extracting and coding data from source journals.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Handzic, M. (2015). A Descriptive Analysis of Knowledge Management Research: Period from 1997 to 2012. In: Bolisani, E., Handzic, M. (eds) Advances in Knowledge Management. Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09501-1_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09501-1_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09500-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09501-1
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)