TECHNOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC, HUMAN RESOURCE AND ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES INKNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMEs) IN A SELECTED CITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA

Year 2015, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 1 - 16, 01.12.2015

Wiza Munyeka

Abstract

In a knowledge economy, knowledge has become the basic form
of capital. Economic growth is driven by the accumulation of
knowledge. Knowledge is used in organisations to make money.
The current study seeks to explore the challenges that SMEs
experience when managing their knowledge in a developing
country, Zambia that is undergoing radical change. An
exploratory and descriptive type of study was conducted
because there is little research that has been done on the
availability and challenges of Knowledge Management in Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Zambia. Questionnaires
were administered to a sample of SMEs that were drawn
randomly across the selected city and those registered with the
relevant authorities that is, the Patents and Companies
Registration agency (PACRA) of Zambia. Interviews were
conducted with some of the supervisors of these SMEs to allow
for more probing and insight into the challenges being
experienced. It was found out that most SMEs experienced
challenges of competing in the global market more specifically,
economic, political and social challenges, human resource
challenges, organisational structure challenges and technological
challenges.

Keywords

Explicit Knowledge, Knowledge Management (KM), Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs), Patents and Companies Registration agency (PACRA)

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