IMPACT OF PRACTITIONER INVOLVEMENT IN TERTIARY EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT IN SMES IN LATVIA

Year 2013, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 270 - 279, 01.12.2013

Suat Begeç Vita Zarına

Abstract

Knowledge management is one of the cornerstones for successful company
development. In Latvia, many of the new enterprise owners and managers enrol in
business administration studies to gain comprehensive knowledge and skills
necessary for knowledge management development, therefore the involvement of
practitioners (owners and managers of well-established enterprises) has become a
compulsory part of the program delivery providing both direct knowledge transfer
and insights in the market development trends, as well as creating eco-business
environment where both the well-established enterprises and the start-ups benefit
of the interaction.
The research presented in this article is based on the annual business
administration student survey on the study process quality at both bachelor and
master programs covering results for the last 10 years, as well as the semistructured
interviews carried out in 2010-2012 on the practitioner involvement in
the study process and its impact on the knowledge management development in
SMEs managed or owned by student-respondents. During the research both
quantitative and qualitative research methods were used, as well as objectivesbased
and content analysis.

Keywords

business administration, knowledge management, entrepreneurship and innovation

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