Information Technology and Knowledge Management Performance: A Resource-Based Investigation of the U.S. Technology Industry

Organizations have implemented information technology (IT) initiatives in the hope of achieving greater competitive edge, profitability, and growth despite researchers' lack of consensus on the business value of IT. The resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities perspective (DCP) stresses the leveraging of competitive strengths to achieve institutional profitability and success. RBV with IT capability supports DCP, considered essential for organizational efficiency. The implementation of DCP requires comprehensive institutional IT commitment and effective knowledge management (KM) initiatives. This triangulated investigation adds to the existing body of knowledge in the fields of KM, IT, and firm performance. The researcher gathered data from 223 randomly-selected firms from the total of 533 listed on the US stock exchanges. Additionally, the researcher retrieved and analyzed firm performance data for the years 2003--2009 for this study. Data collection also included online Likert scale surveys sent to managers in the targeted 533 firms. Correlation analyses of the performance variables and factor items in KM and IT support a positive statistical relationship between managers' KM practices, IT capability, and firm performance.