Identifying and prioritizing the factors affecting the knowledge flow in high-tech industries

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study paper is to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the knowledge flow in high-tech industries. Design/methodology/approach This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of data collection method. This research has been done in a qualitative–quantitative method. In the qualitative part, due to the nature of the data in this study, expert interviews have been used. The sample studied in this research includes 35 managers and expert professors with experience in the field of knowledge management working in universities and high-tech industries who have been selected by the method of snowball. In the quantitative part, the questionnaire tool and DANP multivariate decision-making method have been used. Findings In this study, a multicriteria decision-making technique using a combination of DEMATEL and ANP (DANP) was used to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the knowledge flow in high-tech industries. In this study, the factors affecting the knowledge flow, including 8 main factors and 31 subfactors, were selected. Human resources, organizational structure, organizational culture, knowledge communication, knowledge management tools, knowledge characteristics, laws, policies and regulations and financial resources were effective in improving knowledge flow, respectively. Originality/value By studying the research, it was found that the study area is limited, and the previous work has remained at the level of documentation and little practical use has been done. In previous research, the discussion of knowledge flow has not been very open, and doing incomplete work causes limited experiences and increases cost and time wastage, and parallel work may also occur. Therefore, to complete the knowledge management circle and fully achieve the research objectives, as well as to make available and transfer the experiences of people working in this field and also to save time and reduce costs, the contents and factors of previous models have been counted. It is designed for high-tech industries, a model for the flow of knowledge.