Knowledge
management in small
and medium-sized
companies: knowledge
management for
entrepreneurs
R.P. uit Beijerse
Introduction[1]
Changes in society: pluralisation and
individualisation
Society has changed drastically over the last
few years. But this is nothing new, or so it
appears. Societies are always changing, just as
people are always changing. And seeing as it is
the people who form the societies, a
constantly changing society is only natural.
However something more seems to have
happened over the last few years. Without
wanting to frighten off the reader straight
away, we can point to a diversity of social
developments that indicate that the changes
seem to be following each other faster,
especially over the last few decades. We can
for instance, point to the pluralisation (or a
growing versatility), differentialisation and
specialisation of society as a whole. On a more
personal note, we see the diversification of
communities, an emphasis on emancipation,
individualisation and post-materialism and an
increasing wish to live one's life as one wishes,
free from social, religious or ideological
contexts.
Changes in the economy: the knowledge
economy
If we take a more economic focus, we see for
example individualisation, immaterialisation,
initiation and ageing in consumer markets,
whereby the markets in their turn are
increasingly steered by a capricious
consumer. Besides this, we see trends such as
flexibilisation, deregulation,
professionalisation, specialisation and an
increasing mobility on employment markets.
We also see developments such as the
increasing interest for individual
entrepreneurship, network formation,
computerisation and internationalisation
within economic contexts. Altogether, the
western economy has evolved into a
knowledge economy in which the
technological and scientific developments
follow each other in a rapid tempo and in
which things such as information and
communications technology, networks,
international competition and knowledge
intensive products such as services, play a
dominant role.
Consequences for company life:
changing requirements
These types of trends manifest themselves in
company life for instance in increasingly
The author
R.P. uit Beijerse, formerly a Researcher for EIM Small
Business Research and Consultancy, The Netherlands, and
presently a Researcher with the consultancy agency B & A
Groep, Den Haag, The Netherlands.
Keywords
Knowledge management,
Small-to-medium sized enterprises, Case studies
Abstract
This article deals with a field which gets little or no
attention in the research done into knowledge
management: small and medium-sized companies. In the
first part of this article a conceptual model will be
developed. This model can be used to analyse the most
important knowledge management processes in
companies. In the second part of the article our model is
used to analyse 12 innovative companies from the
industrial and business service sector. Knowledge
management appears in small and medium-sized
companies to get its form especially at an operational
level. A total of 79 instruments were found with which
knowledge is organised in practice: 18 instruments for
determining the knowledge gap and for evaluating
knowledge; 41 instruments for acquiring and developing
knowledge; 20 instruments for knowledge sharing. On a
strategic and tactical level there are provisions for
knowledge management but they have not been
developed as such.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com
162
Journal of Knowledge Management
Volume 4
.
Number 2
.
2000
.
pp. 162±179
# MCB University Press
.
ISSN 1367-3270