Title: Knowledge management practices of manufacturing firms: a study from the Turkish Aegean Free Zone

Authors: Ege Oz; Andrea Appolloni; Muge Mavisu; Emir Ozeren

Addresses: Graduate School of Social Sciences, Ege University Campus 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey ' Department of Business Government Philosophy Studies, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Columbia 2, 00133 Rome, Italy ' Department of Business Government Philosophy Studies, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Columbia 2, 00133 Rome, Italy ' Department of Business Government Philosophy Studies, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via Columbia 2, 00133 Rome, Italy

Abstract: Today, knowledge is one of the main resources of organisations and effective management of knowledge is one of the major concerns that organisations face. Given this fact, the main purpose of this article is to examine the knowledge management (KM) practices of manufacturing industry organisations of the Aegean Free Zone in İzmir, Turkey by adopting a survey method. The findings show that there is an association between the practices in use, reasons for using these practices and lastly the benefits that the participant organisations gain. Organisational performance and competitiveness could be increased by using KM practices effectively. Although an organisation's size is not an obvious factor in KM usage, it was observed that the advantages of using KM practices in large sized organisations are either equal to or greater than those of small sized organisations.

Keywords: knowledge management; KM practices; manufacturing industry; Turkey; Aegean Free Zone; benefits; value creation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIE.2014.066677

International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise, 2014 Vol.2 No.2/3, pp.169 - 195

Received: 06 Jan 2014
Accepted: 16 Sep 2014
Published online: 14 Jan 2015 *

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