Purpose

This paper focuses on the meanings attributed to the measurement of return on investment (ROI) in knowledge management (KM) initiatives in knowledge-intensive organizations. At the heart of this exploratory research is the introduction of a unique coherent perspective of discipline experts regarding the ROI metric, as part of their perception of assessing effectiveness in this field.

Design/methodology/approach

The research begins with in-depth semi-structured personal interviews and continues with focus groups, as part of a qualitative research paradigm. The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis method, based on the grounded theory approach.

Findings

The findings provide empirical evidence regarding the significant challenges associated with the objective assessment of KM performance, which is deeply rooted in numerical-financial values. Despite the high status of ROI in the business environment, the authors find that decision-makers surprisingly avoid evaluating ROI for the most important resource of the organization, notwithstanding the immeasurable hopes that depend on this performance measure and the expectation of establishing the profitability of investment in organizational KM.

Originality/value

The uniqueness of this research is the adoption of the skeptical-critical research approach. For the first time, the authors interrogate the suitability and relevance of the general model of the ROI metric as a means of proving the value and contribution of well-managed knowledge to organizations. The authors call for adoption of a new integrative perspective for evaluating effectiveness, which will reflect the holistic set of KM in organizations.

中文翻译：

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可以衡量组织中知识管理计划的投资回报吗？

目的

本文重点介绍了在知识密集型组织的知识管理 (KM) 计划中衡量投资回报 (ROI) 的意义。这项探索性研究的核心是引入学科专家对投资回报率指标的独特连贯观点，作为他们对评估该领域有效性的看法的一部分。

设计/方法/方法

该研究从深入的半结构化个人访谈开始，然后是焦点小组，作为定性研究范式的一部分。基于扎根理论方法，使用主题分析方法对数据进行分析。

发现

研究结果提供了经验证据，证明了与知识管理绩效的客观评估相关的重大挑战，这深深植根于数值财务价值。尽管投资回报率在商业环境中的地位很高，但作者发现决策者出人意料地避免评估组织最重要资源的投资回报率，尽管依赖于这种绩效衡量标准的无限希望和建立投资盈利能力的期望在组织知识管理中。

原创性/价值

本研究的独特之处在于采用了怀疑批判的研究方法。作为证明管理良好的知识对组织的价值和贡献的一种手段，作者第一次询问了 ROI 度量的一般模型的适用性和相关性。作者呼吁采用一种新的综合视角来评估有效性，这将反映组织中知识管理的整体集。