IS Support for Knowledge Management and Firm Performance: An Empirical Study

While a great deal has been written about how information systems (IS) can be deployed to facilitate knowledge management for performance improvements, there is little empirical evidence suggesting such IS deployment can actually improve a firm’s bottom-line performance. This study attempted to assess the impacts of IS support for two key knowledge management activities (knowledge generation and knowledge transfer) on labor productivity and profitability with both survey and archival data. The potential moderating effects of firm-specific, complementary organizational resources on the performance impacts of the IS support were also examined and tested. The results showed that IS support for knowledge generation and IS support for knowledge transfer both had direct positive effects on labor productivity. Coupled with firm-specific, complementary organizational resources, both types of IS support exerted positive effects on profitability