Estudio De Mercado

Integrating knowledge management
technologies in organizational business
processes: getting real time enterprises to
deliver real business performance
Yogesh Malhotra

Dr Yogesh Malhotra serves on the
Faculty of Management
Information Systems at the
Syracuse University and has
taught in the executive education
programs at Kellogg School of
Management and Carnegie
Mellon University.He is the
founding chairman of BRINT
Institute, LLC, the New York
based internationally recognized
research and advisory company.
His corporate and national
knowledge management advisory
engagements include
organizations such as Philips (The
Netherlands), United Nations
(New York City Headquarters),
Intel Corporation (USA), National
Science Foundation (USA), British
Telecom (UK),Conference Board
(USA), Maeil Business
Newspaper and TV Network
(South Korea), Ziff Davis,
Government of Mexico,
Government of The Netherlands,
and Federal Government of the
USA. He can be contacted at:
www.yogeshmalhotra.com

Constructive comments offered by
the special issue Editor Eric Tsui and
the two anonymous reviewers are
gratefully acknowledged.

DOI 10.1108/13673270510582938Abstract
Purpose – To provide executives and scholars with pragmatic understanding about integrating
knowledge management strategy and technologies in business processes for successful performance.
Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive review of theory, research, and practices on
knowledge management develops a framework that contrasts existing technology-push models with
proposedstrategy-pull models. The framework explains how the ‘‘critical gaps’’ between technology
inputs, related knowledge processes, and business performance outcomes can be bridged for the two
types of models. Illustrative case studies of real-time enterprise (RTE) business model designs for both
successful and unsuccessful companies are used to provide real world understanding of the proposedframework.
Findings – Suggests superiority of strategy-pull models made feasible by new ‘‘plug-and-play’’
information and communication technologies over the traditional technology-push models. Critical
importance of strategic execution in guiding the design of enterprise knowledge processes as well as
selection and implementation of related technologies is explained.
Researchlimitations/implications – Given the limited number of cases, the framework is based on
real world evidence about companies most popularized for real time technologies by some technology
analysts. This limited sample helps understand the caveats in analysts’ advice by highlighting the critical
importance of strategic execution over selection of specific technologies. However, the framework
needs to be tested withmultiple enterprises to determine the contingencies that may be relevant to its
application.
Originality/value – The first comprehensive analysis relating knowledge management and its
integration into enterprise business processes for achieving agility and adaptability often associated
with the ‘‘real time enterprise’’ business models. It constitutes critical knowledge for organizations thatmust depend on information and communication technologies for increasing strategic agility and
adaptability.
Keywords Knowledge management, Real time scheduling, Business performance,
Return on investment
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Technologists never evangelize without a disclaimer: ‘‘Technology is just an enabler.’’ True
enough – and the disclaimer discloses part of theproblem: enabling what? One flaw in
knowledge management is that it often neglects to ask what knowledge to manage and toward
what end. Knowledge management activities are all over the map: building databases,
measuring intellectual capital, establishing corporate libraries, building intranets, sharing best
practices, installing groupware, leading training programs, leading cultural change,...