ITI as enabler of knowledge management: empirical perspective from research organisations in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The information technology infrastructure (ITI) is said to play a significant role in knowledge management (KM) efforts. Yet, there is little research that focuses on how availability and use of IT infrastructure enable or constrain KM efforts. To explore this, we conducted an empirical study in six research organisations in sub-Saharan Africa. We compared the availability of IT infrastructure and its use in each of these organisations with their knowledge management efforts. Our results show that in four of the research institutes there is a clear relationship between KM efforts and ITI capabilities. However, in one organisation, a high level of IT infrastructure capability was not accompanied by high performance in KM efforts. Another organisation did well in KM at an instance of low IT infrastructure capability. In these two cases, closer inspection confirmed that IT infrastructure needs hot only to be available, but also understood, accepted, and in proper use before it can play its enabling role in KM efforts.