¹School of Business and Industry, Florida A&M University, Suite 425-East Wing, One SBI Plaza, Tallahassee, FL, U.S.A.

Correspondence: Nikhil Mehta, School of Business and Industry, Florida A&M University, Suite 425-East Wing, One SBI Plaza, Tallahassee, FL 32307, U.S.A. Tel: +1 850 599 8353; Fax: +1 850 599 3533; E-mail: nikhil.mehta@famu.edu

Received 29 May 2006; Accepted 8 January 2007.

Abstract

Researchers have emphasized on the need for advances in knowledge management (KM) research to better understand how organizations accrue benefits from their knowledge resources. Thus, an integrated approach, rooted in the theoretical streams of knowledge-based view, KM and institutional theory, is proposed to explain how a successful KM program creates value. The approach discusses four organizational capabilities that firms need to develop simultaneously to create KM-enabled value, and identifies possible organizational actions to develop these capabilities. Various feedback and feed-forward processes, originating inside as well as outside the firm, integrate these capabilities into a KM-enabled value creation cycle (VCC). Key propositions were developed, and were examined with the help of three case studies.