Knowledge Management Practices in Supply Chains: Identification and categorization of barriers

These days, business competition is more among supply chains (SCs) than between individual firms. So, knowledge is a critical resource that must be managed properly not only in single companies but also across SCs. Indeed, managing knowledge within a SC can help companies to promote better use of resources and gain value for customers. From a knowledge management (KM) perspective, this implies a shift of focus, from traditional intra-organizational KM practices to inter-organizational KM. Despite the increasing importance of KM in SCs, its implementation can still encounter several barriers, which must be investigated. This can help both research and practice on this topic. However, the current KM literature is very varied, and in the available studies, there is a lack even of basic definitions and classifications. In line with this, barriers affecting the implementation of KM practices in SCs are not presented in a comprehensive and consistent way, and not systematically categorized in line with KM practices in a way where firms can manage them easily. This study aims to highlight the contribution of previous related studies and investigate and re-categorize the potential barriers affecting the introduction and development of KM practices in SCs. An in-depth and up to date systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out as a means of evaluating and interpreting all available research relevant to the research topic. A total of 831 papers indexed in international citational databases (Scopus and WoS) were undergone evaluation process, and the content of a selection of papers was classified and analysed. This study makes a first attempt to provide a comprehensive list of 51 KM barriers re-classified into three categories namely, barriers related to the use of KM methods, barriers related to the KM application of IT tools, and barriers related to the KM-enabling supportive management measures. Theoretically, this study proposes a fresh contribution to explore the KM literature in SCs, specifically barriers to KM implementation. The main points that emerged which are particularly important include: i) summary of existing studies on barriers; ii) identification and re-classification of potential barriers which are the key factors affecting the adoption of successful inter-organizational KM. This will also help managers to systematically manage hindering factors and use properly the potential practices in their KM programs collaboratively with their SC partners.