Knowledge Management in Organizations - A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends

Knowledge management became an important part of our economy far before than the actual term “knowledge management”. Many studies have been written about different aspects and viewpoints of knowledge management, however in this study we used a bibliometric mapping approach to determine the main research topics and the contexts in which they are employed. 10,599 information sources were retrieved from the Scopus bibliographical database using the search string “knowledge management” AND organization. Most information sources were published as conference papers or journal articles. The most productive period was from 2007 till 2011. United States, United Kingdom and China were the most productive countries. Four main research topics were identified: Education and healthcare, Techniques and systems, Knowledge management and Knowledge sharing. Chronologically, five periods emerged, namely: Infrastructural and organizational research, Technical issues and knowledge management systems in organizations, Enabling technologies, Practical applications of knowledge management in organizations, and Evaluation and validation of knowledge management practices.