Challenging the Knowledge Management Mystique

A central tenet in the knowledge management (KM) literature argues physical and financial assets are rather limited in their rent-generating capacity versus the firm's stocks of "intellectual capital" for the sustained creation of wealth. Firms such as Buckman Laboratories, Dow Chemical and Skandia are often touted for the vast wealth of knowledge they purportedly possess, and the systems and processes they have established for capturing and growing this knowledge. However, little empirical evidence exists suggesting that knowledge management is a profitable enterprise. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature by empirically testing the linkage between firm performance and the knowledge management initiatives of a sample of Fortune 500 firms.