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.

Keywords:
Knowledge management; Information technology; Small and medium sized service enterprises; Recife urban region