Knowledge management in Indian SMEs: tool for sustainability

The importance and contribution of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector to the economic growth and prosperity of India is well established. Their role in terms of employment creation, upholding the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation has been crucial in fostering competitiveness in the economy. The SMEs focus on running the business on a day-to-day basis and find no time to manage the knowledge which is perceived as an 'overhead'. SMEs experience a rapid rate of change as they move through their organisational life cycles. This paper attempts to understand how SMEs in India are managing knowledge for organisational sustainability and propose a KM model focusing on sustainability with reference to SMEs in India. The findings of the study show that SMEs had functional departments similar to any professionally managed organisations but did not have specific support functions like information technology or knowledge management as knowledge generated is immediately put into practice, rather than being stored in an electronic repository.