Comparing Knowledge Management Application in Chile and Other OECD Countries

Abstract

There is not many studies regarding the use of Knowledge Management (KM) practices in Chile, and not a study that compares this usage with other countries. This research is aimed to find out the level of use of selected KM practices in Chile, the importance that has in the companies and if it is a formal part of the company strategy (level of institutionalization).The Center for Educational Research and Innovation of the OECD performed during the years 1999–2003 a series of studies based on a survey developed by a joint working group from Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden and representatives of research organizations in Australia, Denmark, Germany and Ireland. This study uses the methodology developed by these research centers to analyze motives and effects of using knowledge management practices in the Chilean industry, in the light of the recent addition of Chile as a full member of the OECD in 2010 and compare the levels of adoption with Germany and Canada. To achieve the stated objective a survey to 147 Chilean executives from various industries was conducted. The results indicate that the Chilean industry has an average of 8.6 practices in use of a total of 17 selected practices for this research, being the use of the Internet to capture external knowledge the most used and common practice. Both in this study as those in other countries, the results indicate a positive correlation between firm size and average utilization of practices. Along the same lines the KM correlates positively with innovation, where countries with greater use of KM, have in turn increased rates of innovation measure by the global innovation index. Both the use and efficiency reasons attributed to the KM by the Chileans are below the results obtained in studies by the OECD in Germany and Canada, denoting a low industrial use of KM practices in the country and correlated with a low innovation index.