Objectives of knowledge management

 Barrier 
 Management issues 
 How can barrier be overcome? 
1
Psychological 
2
Operational 
3
Organisational 
4
Product/market 
Source
: Barriers from Hamill and Gregory (1997) and Poon and Jevons (1997). 
Table 4.5 
Issues in SME resistance to exporting
More recent research suggests that SMEs have been relatively slow to adopt the Internet. 
Research by Arnott and Bridgewater (2002) tests the level of sophistication by which SMEs 
are using the Internet (see stage models in Chapter 5 ). They find that the majority of firms 
are using the Internet for information provision rather than interactive, relationship- building 
or transactional facilities. Smaller firms are using significantly fewer Internet tools than their 
larger counterparts. Quayle (2002) has assessed issues considered by SMEs to be strategically 
important. In the UK, 298 SMEs were surveyed. Issues of marketing, leadership and waste 
reduction were given highest priority, and supplier development, financial management, time 
to market and supply chain management were medium priority. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 
lowest priority was given to technology, research and development, e-commerce, customer 
management and purchasing – all closely related to e-business. In further research, Meckel
et 
al.
(2004) analysed e-business adoption by several hundred SMEs in the northwest of England 
and found that fewer than 15% had formal, documented e-business strategies. 
Political factors 
The political environment is shaped by the interplay of government agencies, public opinion, 
consumer pressure groups such as CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Email –
www.
cauce.org
) and industry- backed organisations such as TRUSTe ( 
www.truste.org 
) that pro-
mote best practice amongst companies. 
Political factors 
M04_CHAF6542_06_SE_C04.indd 162
7/23/14 12:18 PM

---

163
Chapter 4
E‑environment
Political action enacted through government agencies to control the adoption of the 
Internet can include:
● 
promoting the benefits of adopting the Internet for consumers and business to improve a 
country’s economic prosperity;
● 
enacting legislation to protect privacy or control taxation, as described in previous 
sections;
● 
providing organisations with guidelines and assistance for compliance with legislation;
● 
setting up international bodies to coordinate the Internet (see Chapter 3).
Political involvement in many of these activities is intended to improve the economic com-
petitiveness of countries or groups of countries. Quayle (2002) summarises six strands 
of the UK government strategy for e-commerce which are intended to increase industry 
competitiveness: