KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES IN SMALL-MEDIUM ENTERPRISES: Significance of knowledge management in SMEs

The combination of organizational resources and capabilities needs to be developed, deployed and protected in order to enhance organizational performance. The performance among organizations differs as a result of their different knowledge bases and differing capabilities in developing and deploying organizational knowledge. The attention is focused on the implicit knowledge and skills required to co-ordinate heterogeneous resources in distinct, organization-specific resource bundles in such a way that current capabilities are leveraged and new capabilities are created. The development of a new product and service is an example of an organization attaining a competitive advantage resulting from learning processes that have been incurred with the integration of knowledge management processes and organizational assets. The trend for knowledge-based organizations is to move towards knowledge adaptation where knowledge serves two vital functions within an organization, acting as resources for organizational growth, and providing valuable assets for organizational survival.