An innovation perspective of knowledge management in a multinational subsidiary

This paper seeks to explore the implementation of knowledge management in a telecommunication multinational subsidiary and to investigate factors that affect the performance as well as the impacts.

Innovation perspective informs the identification of the ways in which KM strategies are devised and put into action. Using in‐depth interviews and direct observation, the paper maps some problems associated with the strategy and implementation of KM.

The case shows that the lack of organisation‐wide integrated systems, which is typical across different organisations, does contribute to this problem. However, the main predicament lies with the fact that a KM‐enabling scheme is never explicitly prioritised in the organisation's information systems strategy.

KM implementation should take into account both technological innovation and organisational innovation. Neglecting one aspect poses apparent danger that the implementation is unlikely to bring about benefit to the organisation.

This paper presents the case of a multinational company subsidiary in a developing economy, i.e. Indonesia. It is expected that this case will help substantiate an instance of KM implementation in an emerging economy and latecomer development, which might impact the operation and working of a multinational subsidiary.