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A growing belief has emerged that effectively managing knowledge can enhance performance. To date, however, there is limited empirical evidence. We draw on the resource-based and knowledge-based views of the firm as well as research on strategic sensemaking in order to introduce the concept of 'knowledge management orientation', and to examine the relationships among knowledge management orientation, market orientation, and firm performance. Using data from 213 United Kingdom firms, we found that organizational memory, knowledge sharing, knowledge absorption, and knowledge receptivity serve as first-order indicators of the higher-order construct we label knowledge management orientation, which, in turn, has a positive link with market orientation. Importantly, we found that market orientation mediates the relationship between knowledge management orientation on one hand and subjective and objective firm performance on the other. Our results suggest that knowledge management orientation can enhance performance, but a market orientation is needed in order to realize such benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the concept of knowledge management orientation (KMO), focusing on the degree to which a firm demonstrates behaviors of organized and systematic knowledge management implementation. Information gathered in the study offer strong support for the unidimentionality, reliability, discriminant validity, and convergent validity of the KMO construct. It explores the effect of KMO on business performance and investigate a significant, positive relationship, providing support for the predictive validity of the KMO set-up.