An Analysis of Knowledge Management Theories: An Approach Based on Scientific Mapping

The present study is to identify theories of knowledge management and determine the impact of each theorist on subsequent works.

This is an applied scientometrics research that was carried out using library methods and citation analysis. Bibliographics information related to 69 theories and categories of knowledge management along with their reference information was taken from the web of science database and then citation analysis and bibliographic coupling analysis were performed. HistCite, VOSViewer, Netdraw and Ucinet software were used for analysis and visualization.

The results showed that the peak of the emergence of knowledge management theories was in the nineties of the nineteenth century by management scientists. A few of the theories were proposed by scientists from the fields of knowledge and information science, computer scientists and a few other disciplines. Citation analysis showed that the theories mainly cited management sources; however, there were also citations to the sources of other fields especially to library and information science, Computer, Technology and innovation, psychology, philosophy, and knowledge management. Bibliographic coupling map showed that about four-fifths of the theories were linked to each other as a whole network.

Conclustion:

 Noaka is the most important theorist in the field of knowledge management. The theory of organizational knowledge creation and company theory have had the greatest impact on the effects of the past.  Historiography of the works showed that works by Nonaka, Grant, Prahalad, Hamel, and Spender has played an important role in linking older theories to more recent works.