Research On The Genres Of Knowledge Management Based On Author Co-citation And Meta Analysis

In the late 1980s, knowledge management (KM) as a new management paradigm is concerned by scholars and practitioners. As a new emerging discipline, more and more researchers from different fields start to research it. With the in-depth comprehensive study and exploration, KM as a discipline becomes more complex, then, a deeper understanding of KM complexity is required. Recently, many researchers have tried to study the theoretical framework and genres of KM, but, the conclusions are all subjective, incomprehensive and limited, therefore, using an empirical method to research KM is necessary.Based on the bibliometric methodology of author co-citation analysis, word frequency analysis and meta-analysis, the author tries to reveal the intellectual structure, knowledge map, genres of KM and each characteristic. Final the author concludes the knowledge management connotation and research framework.The top 77 most cited authors are examined from the cited literature between 1990 and 2006 through author co-citation analysis. Then, applying the factor analysis, cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis, the author draws the knowledge map and recognizes the five genres of KM, there are: KM strategic, organization change, KM process, KM application, and KM technology. Combined with the method of Meta analysis, each genre's research characteristic is described in the perspectives of research topics, reference disciplines, research methods, and units of analysis and the diversity on KM research between China and abroad is also discussed. Final, this paper draws on word frequency analysis to examine intellectual structure of KM, which proves the conclusion of author co-citation analysis again. In addition, from the new keywords, the author explores KM future developing trend, which is important to research KM discipline.This paper first time combines the author co-citation analysis with Meta analysis and word frequency analysis method to study the KM characteristic of genres, research situation and developing trend. Then, the author summarizes the KM connotation and establishes research framework. According to this study, the researchers can have an overall understanding to KM, and promote the development and maturity of knowledge management discipline.