Knowledge Management Capability, Organizational Resilience, and the Growth of SMEs

Abstract

How small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) survive and grow is a matter of great concern not just to enterprises but also to governments. Although past studies have mainly focused on the driving forces of corporate growth, they have yet to investigate how SMEs can build resilience and then achieve growth through their own knowledge management within challenging environments. Therefore, this paper empirically examines the internal links among knowledge management capabilities (KMC), organizational resilience (ORE), and the growth of SMEs under the influence of environmental munificence (EM). After analyzing the sample data from Chinese SMEs, results show that KMC actively promotes the growth of SMEs from both size expansion and qualitative optimization and that it can significantly positively affect the construction of ORE. In turn, ORE plays an intermediary role in the relationship between KMC and qualitative optimization. In addition, EM has negative moderating effects both on the relationship between KMC and the quality optimization of SMEs and that between KMC and ORE.