Knowledge management, information technology, small and medium sized service enterprises: a multiple case study at Recife urban region

ABSTRACT The intangible resource managementrequires a new comprehension and struggle to relate organizational key factors likestructure, strategy, process, people and technology. That is something small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) ought to pay attention to.The present research has the mainpurpose to check what are the key organizational factors that turned to be obstacles to theuse of IT for knowledge management in small and medium sized service enterprises at Recife urban region. Therefore a qualitative research method hasbeen chosen and data has been collected by a five extensive semi-structured interview script. Data has been analyzed in an interpretative way, using content analysis. In the small and mediumsized service enterprises´ reality it was possible to notice that knowledge management is a futureproject, a goal that may be achieved by a better comprehension and conception ofinformation management practices. Also the IT use is still mainlyoperational and has a central function in organizing efficiently activities and in this sense isstill quite distant from knowledge management.

摘要：无形资源管理亟需形成全新认知，并需着力关联组织结构、战略、流程、人员与技术等组织核心要素。这正是中小企业（Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, SMEs）应当重点关注的议题。本研究的核心目的在于，厘清巴西累西腓城区中小型服务企业中，哪些组织核心要素成为了信息技术（Information Technology, IT）应用于知识管理的阻碍因素。为此，本研究采用质性研究方法，通过五份详尽的半结构化访谈提纲收集数据，并采用内容分析法开展阐释性数据分析。研究发现，在中小型服务企业的现实场景中，知识管理仍属远期规划目标，唯有更深入地理解并构建信息管理实践体系，方能达成该目标。此外，当前信息技术的应用仍以运营层面为主，其核心功能仅在于高效统筹业务活动，因此距离支撑知识管理的目标仍有显著差距。