An industry-level knowledge management model—a study of information-related industry in Taiwan

Most knowledge management (KM) literature investigates related issues from the perspectives of organizational and national layer. While observing KM practices, especially in less developed countries (LDCs), many KM activities are happened in industrial layer. Hence, the primary purpose of this study is to explore the content of industry-layer knowledge management (i.e., ILKM) and how ILKM activities are practiced. This study, first, classifies ILKM as four modes, named knowledge clustering, knowledge enlarging, knowledge exchanging, and knowledge initiating. Following KM-related literature and practices, this study constructs the ILKM model, and defines and lists content and activities of the four ILKM modes, by which a four sub-construct, 20-item ILKM scale is constructed. A 123-respondents empirical survey, selecting Taiwan's information equipment industry as the sample, confirms the reliability and validity of ILKM scale. This study also provides suggestions and directions toward ILKM practices and researches for the future.