A study of the factors influencing knowledge management within inter-organizational projects

Modern management theories agree that the effective use of knowledgemanagement (KM) is one of the key determinants in the performance of a businessorganization. KM permits a firm to accurately measure its adaptability andcompetencies and predict its survival in the market place. There are two types of KM:one that focuses upon measuring the performance of a single organization (known as"internal KM") and another that measures performance across organizationalboundaries (known as "cross-organizational KM"). This research deals only withcross-organizational KM, a topic that has received scant attention in prior studies.The research focuses upon the factors that are measured to produce a statistical analysis of performance in cross-organizational collaborations. The study concludesthat four clusters of factors have the greatest influence on the success of interorganizationalprojects. These clusters relate to: knowledge reserve, corporateculture/institution, communication and cooperation, and the characteristics of the specific project.