Knowledge Management Practices in Supply Chains: A Literature Survey

Nowadays, competition is more among supply chains (SCs) than between individual firms. So, knowledge is a critical resource that has to be managed properly not only in single companies but also across SCs. Managing knowledge within a SC can help companies to promote better use of resources and achieve better value for customers. From a knowledge management (KM) perspective, this implies a shift of focus, from traditional intra-organizational KM practices to inter-organizational KM. However, on this issue, the current KM literature is very varied, and studies have taken completely different directions. There is a lack even of basic definitions and classifications, as is the case of the notion of KM practice and its application to the case of SCs. The existing literature surveys (for example, Bhosale and Kant, 2016, Perez-Salazar et al., 2019, Cerchione and Esposito, 2016) provide fragmented views, and a unified vision or perspective on this topic has not emerged so far. This study proposes a systematic approach to the KM literature on supply chains. A systematic literature review was performed, and a descriptive analysis of the selected papers was presented to show the most importantly covered or uncovered topics in KM-SC aspect. More than 800 papers indexed in international citational databases (i.e. Scopus and WoS) published in the last 20 years were selected and analyzed, and their content classified. Some of the points that emerged are particularly important: a) the definitions and classifications of KM practices that are or can be adopted in SCs, which proves to be a problematic issue in the literature; b) the main processes that are detected for KM in SCs, and those that, although important in principle, are still understudied; and c) the importance and trend of researches in the inter-organizational KM practices in SCs.