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improvement in organizational performance.
Existence of adequate KM processes may contribute
direct benefits. However, it does not necessarily lead
to KM effectiveness as measured by performance
impacts unless KM structures are used properly
(Khalifa et al. 2001). As a corollary, Proposition 4
and 5 would be:
P4: KM intermediate outcomes have significant
effects on organizational performance.
P5: The association between KM intermediate
outcome and organizational performance is
mediated / moderated by appropriation.
3.4 Research Type IV - Reverse
Impacts of KM on an
Organization
Most previous research in KM usually study
relationships in one direction only, e.g. the causal
effect of KM enablers on KM processes and the
effect of KM processes on KM intermediate
outcomes or organizational performance. However,
as many organizations have already adopted some
kinds of KMS to facilitate KM, it is time to study
how those components are related in another/reverse
directions.
When the impacts of KM (i.e. intermediate
outcome or performance) are recognized, macro-
environmental factors and organizational context
will be changed. If positive and satisfactory impacts
are resulted, e.g. improved communication and
decision making, more resources will be invested in
establishing and enhancing KM and employees will
be more willing to engage in KM processes. When
negative or dissatisfactory outcomes are resulted, e.g.
threat of privacy, power relations and inequities
(Schultze et al. 2002), more resources have to be
invested to find solutions and employees’ trust and
motivation will be deteriorated. Macro-
environmental factors will also be affected directly
or indirectly, e.g. market environment, inter-
organizational relationships, external pressures (Teo
et al. 2003), technological standards, law and
regulations, etc. Therefore, as a corollary,
Proposition 6 and Proposition 7 would be:
P6: Changes in organizational performance have
significant effect on KM enablers.
P7: KM intermediate outcomes have significant
effect on KM enablers.
Feedback from changes in KM processes affect
organizational context. After the KM processes are
affected, the culture of the organization, employees’
attitudes towards KM, employees’ knowledge and
requirements for organizational technological level
may be changed. Besides, more issues relating to IT-
enabled KM processes may be experienced, e.g.
problems of IS security and privacy. Organizational
members are inevitably affected and new KMS may
have to be adopted to maintain or improve the KM
process. As a corollary, Proposition 8 would be:
P8: Changes in KM processes have significant
impact on organizational factors.
The changes in organization context will
probably affect macro-environment (e.g.
government policies and technological development).
For example, more and more people are focusing on
the effect of privacy on KM and privacy regulations
have been established (Wheelwright 1999). Steps
have also been done to protect users’ privacy and
alley their concerns by securing privacy through
careful design and implementation of KMS such as
allowing notice and choice of sharing knowledge,
highly targeted message, enabling novel kinds of ad
hoc conversation and anonymous messaging (Adar
et al. 2003; Schirmer 2003). As a corollary,
Proposition 9 would be:
P9: The association between KM process and
macro-environmental factors is mediated /
moderated by organization-environmental
factors.
4 EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
REVIEW
KM and KMS-related journals published between
1998 and 2003 were found. There were totally 293
articles. Only ten of them have been studied within
an IS context and covered empirical quantitative
studies. Table 1 summarizes the studies.
Most of the studies found were concentrated on the
north-east diagonal of the matrix. Type I, II and III
KM research have been studied. The hypotheses
studied were unidirectional. They focused mainly on
the impact of organization-environment KM
enablers or KM process. Besides, most of them were
interested in studying changes in organizational
performance. However, research on macro-
environment KM enabler is few. On the main
diagonal matrix, it shows that some previous
research has studied the relationships among
organization-environment enablers. There are no
studies stated on the south-west diagonal of the
matrix. Type IV KM research is currently poorly
covered and needs more attention.
Beside the problem of limited empirical
quantitative studies relating to IT-enabled KM, there
are some limitations of existing research. Among
those existing empirical quantitative studies, there is
a lack of replication of work and standard
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