Relationship of External Knowledge Management and Performance of Chinese Manufacturing Firms: The Mediating Role of Talent Management

Abstract

For the competitive market, both talent management and knowledge management of employees are key primary resources in organizations. While it is well known that in today's emerging economy, intangible resources like knowledge and human capital seem as the soul of survival; few studies have examined the effect of external knowledge management and talent management strategies in Chinese manufacturing firms. This study tries to bridge this gap by examining the importance of external knowledge management and talent management, Moreover, how this consequence can affect in particular industry for the economic growth of China? Total 249 responses were collected through structured questionnaire from manufacturing organizations located in Shanghai and Suzhou, China. PLS-SEM techniques via Smart-PLS (3.2.4) software has been used to test and validate proposed model and the relationships among the hypothesized constructs. The findings of this study show that external knowledge management (E-KM) and talent management both contributes positively to the performance of manufacturing firms. Moreover, talent management as mechanism demonstrated strong mediation effects between E-KM and performance. In researchers' point of view and results revealed the evidence by linking E-KM with TM-OP and TM as a mechanism between E-KM and OP. Such insights may helpful for managers to target sustainable current and future growth of the organizations and also, to overcome the shortage of talented and qualified worker’s issues in fast-growing emerging economies.