Knowledge Management, Sustainable Business Performance and Empowering Leadership

TLDR

Knowledge management is increasingly vital as firms shift beyond profit toward socially and environmentally responsible practices, with empowering leadership gaining prominence for fostering employee autonomy. This study examines how knowledge acquisition, dissemination, and responsiveness influence sustainable business performance and how empowering leadership moderates these relationships. Using data from Indian manufacturing firms, the authors test hypotheses on the three dimensions of knowledge management and the moderating effect of empowering leadership. Results show that each knowledge management dimension positively relates to sustainable performance, with empowering leadership strengthening these effects.

Abstract

Managing knowledge has become a critical aspect of the contemporary business landscape. In addition, business no longer has profit as the sole purpose of their existence. Therefore, there has been growing impetus for socially and environmentally conscious business actions. The present article takes a dimensional view of the process of knowledge management. The authors disaggregate the process along three dimensions- knowledge acquisition, knowledge dissemination and responsiveness to knowledge and investigate their impact on sustainable business performance. In addition, this article assesses the moderating role of empowering leadership in the relationship between knowledge management components. Among various leadership behaviors, empowering leadership has assumed critical significance owing to growing chorus on providing autonomy and empowerment to employees. This article tests the hypotheses on data collected from manufacturing firms in India. The results demonstrate a positive relationship between dimensions of knowledge management, as well as positive moderation by empowering leadership. Further, the authors discuss implications.