Central European Business Review 2021, 10(3):51-65 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.260

Knowledge Management and Perceived Organisational Innovativeness in Global Organisations

Vida Škudienė ORCID...¹, Ieva Augutytė-Kvedaravičienė ORCID...², Ugne Gabrielaityte ORCID...³

¹ ISM University of Management and Economics, Vilnius, Lithuania, vidsku@ism.lt

² ISM University of Management and Economics, Vilnius, Lithuania, ievkve@ism.lt

³ ISM University of Management and Economics, Vilnius, Lithuania, ugne.gabrielaityte@gmail.com

This paper aims to examine how knowledge management is associated with perceived organisational innovativeness in global companies operating in Central European country and what role in this relationship is played by organisational environment stimulants – organisational trust, leadership support, training and access to resources, and information and communication technology (ICT). This empirical study used a quantitative approach with the data gathered by questionnaire from global companies functioning in IT service (94) and in money transfer service (109). The findings revealed that knowledge management is significantly associated with perceived organisational innovativeness in the global organisations’ context. Organisational environment stimulants (organisational trust, leadership support, training and access to resources, ICT) were confirmed to have a moderate positive association with perceived organisational innovativeness and mediated the relationship between knowledge management and perceived organisational innovativeness. The findings provide additional insights into the existing research on global companies’ knowledge management and suggest that global organisations aiming to foster their innovativeness through knowledge management should focus on the development of learning capability and orientation at the organisational level, as well as reconsider their level of organisational trust and leadership support perceived by employees. This research contributes to the literature by examining the relationship between knowledge management and perceived organisational innovativeness and looking into organisational environment stimulants’ role in this link in a specific global organisations’ context.
Implications for Central European audience: when more and more global IT or financial service providers are looking for options to expand their business across the international borders, Central European countries like Lithuania become an attractive destination. The recommendations derived from the results indicate that leadership in global organisations should strive to create a sense of benevolence and aim to maintain integrity between communication and behaviour, particularly focusing on organisational trust development. Global business organisations’ managers must be able to communicate values and norms in a clear and transparent manner as well as ensure that organisational policies are governed in a coherent way across the offices around the world.

Keywords: knowledge management; perceived organisational innovativeness; Lithuania

JEL classification: M16

Received: June 5, 2020; Revised: August 3, 2020; Accepted: August 30, 2020; Prepublished online: December 28, 2020; Published: July 2, 2021  Show citation