THE IMPACT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ON INNOVATION PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES – AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN LAM DONG PROVINCE

Abstract

   In the context of today's globalization, Vietnamese enterprises, especially small and medium ones (SMEs), have to face with many challenges and have to innovate for survival and development. The global integration process also means that local enterprises have to compete with foreign enterprises with advanced knowledge and modern management skills. Therefore, in order to ensure the sustainable development, local enterprises should be ready with knowledge management (KM) practices in order to achieve high efficiency and strong competitive advantages. This research is to explore the impact factors on the innovation performance of SMEs in Lam Dong province. Based on previous model of Berraies et al. (2014), some factors of KM processes impacting on the innovation performance of Vietnamese SMEs are explored and evaluated. Measurement scales are inherited selectively to suit the context of this research. The analysis results of this study showed that the innovation performance of SMEs was affected by knowledge creation process. This result pointed out knowledge creation process was affected by some KM enabling factors, such as trust, collaboration, learning, reward, decentralization, formalization, IT support and T-shaped skills. From this result, some recommendations for improving the innovation performance of Vietnamese SMEs by KM approach are also suggested.