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The Global Advanced Research Conference on Management and Business Studies (GARCOMBS) 2014

Knowledge Management, Industry Environment, Cooperative and Competitive Strategies in the

Performance of Coffee Processing Company in Indonesia:

A Literatur Review

1)

MUHAMMAD ADAM 1 )

Lecturer of Doctoral Program in Management Science , Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh,

Indonesia.

e-mail : [email protected]

2) HENDRA SYAHPUTRA

Ph.D Student of Management Science , Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to review some researches on knowledge management, industry

environment as well as cooperative and competitive strategies to enhance the performance of coffee

processing company in Indonesia. This review is expected to provide benefits for related researches in

the future. This study consists of systematic reviews of 34 empirical scientific papers in regard to

knowledge management, industry environment, and cooperative and competitive strategies to enhance

the performance of coffee processing company in Indonesia. Given the importance of the existence of

coffee processing company in Indonesia, the application of knowledge management has to be

prioritized by the concerned companies in order to accelerate their competitive advantages. This paper

provides a better understanding on how to develop good knowledge management application, industry

environment as well as strengthen the cooperative and competitive strategies specifically in enhancing

the performance of coffee processing company. This paper only reviewed concerned articles from

SpringerLink and Emerald. Result of this study is believed to give worth understanding about actual

situation in this field of research. It proposed some notions that will stimulate more intensive

researches in this field in the future. There are no systematic literatures in academic journal that cover

all the topics discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, coffee industry, industry environment, performance,

competitiveness acceleration

1. Introduction

Coffee ranks as the first most traded commodity in the the world, outperform oil, with total sales of

US $9 billion during 1999 and 2006. As a commodity coffee create new jobs for about 25 million

people, filling about 400 billion cups each year with about 40 percent of the world's population is

believed to consume coffee regularly (Kaplinsky, 2012)

About 25 million families who derive their main income from this commodity are settled in

developing countries (Potts, 2008). Coffee production and its trading have an important role in most of

families' life, even though the price had ever been drop in 1989 following the collapsed International

Coffee Agreement (ICA). The decline in price at that time is known as the biggest-ever coffee crisis in

this world.

Before the crisis, the price was managed by International Coffee Organization (ICO) through ICA

that ensuring the price stability for farmers. But lately, the burst of coffee crisis turn it into a financial

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mailto:[email protected]


and social crisis among them (Zeller, 2007).

A number of labeling schemes arose to fix the problems regarding the low price of coffee

commodity. Those schemes intended to correct the market failure of attribute value (consumer health,

environmental protection, and social welfare) that related to coffee production (Giovanucci, 2008).

Those schemes are depended on certification and verification of third party to ensure the integrity

of all supply chain. The first scheme is Fair Trade, Organic, Shade-grown, Rainforest Alliance, Bird

Friendly, and Utz Kapeh. The coffee which is grown under this scheme collectively is called as

“sustainable coffee” (Lewin et al., 2004).

According to Giovannucci (2008), the certified coffee of 4 percents of global exported green

coffee or more than 22.000 metric tons in 2006 represent the export value (FOB/free on board) of about

US $330 million. However, there are some inconsistencies in the estimated growth rate of certified

organic coffee. Moreover the number of countries that are in top ranks as the world's coffee producers

to begin more varied and competing to each other, as shown in the picture below.

Fig. 1 Map of the best coffee processing countries in the world

The map above show the countries with the best coffee processing countries in the world, where

Indonesia ranked as the third after Brazil and Vietnam. It means that Indonesia is the third-biggest

country that produce coffee in the world. In addition, Indonesia is the second-biggest country that

produce robusta coffee after Vietnam. Thus, coffee is one of commodities that has a significant

contribution for the national economy. Besides as a strategic commodity trading, coffee also has an

important role as the source of foreign exchange, employment provider and the source of farmers'

income or other economic actors whom are involved both on-farm or off-farm.

Coffee processing companies also provide more jobs for more than 2 million families in Indonesia

and a decent income for them. Those companies are able to employ more than 16 people from

production, processing to marketing of the commodity.


Coffee is a leading export commodity for Indonesia and become one of main commodities of its

Trading Ministry besides palm oil, rubber, shrimp and textile. The spreading of coffee processing in

Indonesia shows a satisfactory figure (Kemendag, 2014). The majority of coffee plantations (more than

90%) in Indonesia are cultivated by smallholders (farmers) and are spread in almost part of Indonesia,

as shown by figure below.

Fig. 2 Coffee production center (province) in Indonesia

In relation to the development of the coffee processing companies, Knowledge Management

(hereinafter abbreviated as KM), is meaningful and strategic for an organization (Soo et al, 2002). KM

also play an important role as a dynamic dialectical element of various activities which are developed

and experienced by organization. KM also extends significant contributions as the capitals for all of

organization's members. The objective is to build organizational capacity through knowledge sharing

interactions among organization's members in order to create the same deals. Thus finally it will create

knowledge conversion from tacit to explicit, vice versa, fundamentally and sustainbly (Nonaka &

Takeuchi, 2010).

A competitive advantage is essentially derived from the value of a knowledge that is created for

their customer’s outweigh the costs they spent for creating that value (Porter, 1994). Furthermore, KM

is the essence of an innovation and competition. One indicator of the occurrence of excellence strategy

process in an organization is the knowledge and innovation those are generated in harmony by not rule

out a thriving business environment.

The business environment is strongly associated with a sustainable innovation. It takes serious

concern for an organization's future, anticipating market changes, technology, competition and the

presence of other products and services. Search results of some scientific reference studies on strategy

and organizational performance tend to be expressed in the form of internal resource base of KM as a

competitive advantage, which includes valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and hard to replace resources.

Based on that view, some experts assess that KM is the most strategic resource that is owned by

the company (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 2010; Tuomi 1999; Probst et al. 2000). Moreover, Sharkie (2003)

state that the ability to manage KM is a management function that enables organizations to explore and

develop sources of competitive advantage compared to its competitors, as well as creating a uniqueness

that contributed to its successful in the future.

The objects in this study are coffee processing companies in Indonesia, potential plantation

commodities that are exported to the world market. This export commodity needs a well-managed

SENTRA PENGHASIL KOPI DI INDONESIA

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JAMBI SUMSEL

LAMPUNG

ACEH TENGAH

JATENG JATIM

BALI NTB NTT

SULSEL

BENGKULU

JABAR

PAPUA


knowledge commodity since it is leading commodity that is compete in a tight competitive industry

environment. This is indicated by a decrease in the number of companies engaged in the manufacturing

of coffee, a decrease in the amount of coffee cooperatives in Indonesia and low growth in milk

production in the last ten years.

The productivity and land is still can be improved, considering that Indonesia is a tropical country

that is suitable for the coffee plantations. As a tropical country, Indonesia also has the potential for the

development of specialty coffee products in accordance with a distinctive flavor based on its

geographical indications such as Lampung coffee, Mandailing coffee(North Sumatra), Gayo Coffee

(Aceh), Java Coffee (Java), Java Preanger Coffee (West Java), Kintamani Coffee (Bali), Toraja Coffee

(South Sulawesi), Bajawa Coffee (NTT), Wamena Coffee (Papua) and Luwak Coffeee.

The concept of KM as a focus of knowledge has been developed and became the focus of many

organizations since 1995. Many organizations grapple with information overload. KM is becoming

increasingly inseparable from the business function for many organizations as they realize that the

competitiveness hinges is the effective management of intellectual resources (Grover and Davenport,

2001).

KM information systems have been aware of the existence of knowledge creation, knowledge

acquisition and knowledge sharing, but have not yet focused their attention to protect and secure the

knowledge. The protection of knowledge has received little attention in the literature (Liebeskind,

1996; Bloodgood and Salisbury, 2001). Asllani and Luthans (2003) conducted a survey to 307

knowledge managers about their job roles and find evidence that there is little or no security issues in

their work, their main role is focused on communication within the organization. King et al. (2002)

conducted a survey to 2,073 practitioners in KM using a three-stage Delphi study approach and find

that the security problems associated with knowledge only ranked tenth among the respondents.

If the knowledge is a power and a source of competitive advantage (Salisbury, 2003), it is

necessary to put special attention on it to ensure the sustainability and the repository of knowledge in

the company to secure its core assets.

Managing data, information and knowledge within the organization and use it to gain a

competitive advantage in an organization has evolved in the field of KM. KM basically consists of

processes and tools to capture and share data as well as using the knowledge of individuals within an

organization effectively. The last decade has witnessed an explosion of information generated in the

company because of the increased use of technology. The utilization of information and knowledge

which is stored in the data warehouse is one of the methods to achieve the advanced industrial

performance (Matusik and Hill, 1998). Companies that develop and utilize knowledge resources

achieve greater success than companies that depend more on intangible resources (Autio et al., 2000).

Since 2001, Reid and McAdam, said that KM is created and developed in large organizations to be

applied in other types of community-based businesses, such as small and medium enterprises. But the

question is, whether KM received full attention from other actors in small and medium enterprises?.

Moved from that question, this paper would like to see more if it also takes place in a different business

unit. Therefore, the unit of analysis in this paper is a coffee processing company in Indonesia.

In some literatures which are reviewed by authors, a variety of different approaches of KM are

continue to grow, as research conducted by Wong and Aspinwall, 2004; Egbu et al., 2005; Hutchinson

and Quintas, 2008. Nevertheless, it is true as asserted by Beesley and Cooper (2008) that a uniform

definition of KM building is poor. Studies of KM has tended to focus on the processes and structures

within the organization, such as transfer of knowledge from tacit to explicit, culture and organizational

learning, and technologies for the storage and sharing of knowledge in order to improve productivity

and sales, reduce costs, or improve innovation and quality (Kluge et al., 2001; Quintas, 2002; O'Dell et

al., 2003; Edvardsson, 2009; Jashapara, 2011).


To explore existing literatures, this paper defines KM as a process and structure that is available in

coffee processing company in Indonesia to support a wide range of knowledge from different

processes, such as transfer, storage and creation.

Knowledge has become the most important strategic factor in the operations of cooperation

(Spender, 1996) as it relates to the ability of the company to achieve competitive advantage (Teece,

2001). However, this does not mean that the appropriate approach to address issues of KM is not

significant for the success of the coffee processing companies in Indonesia. It may be just emphasized

that an appropriate treatment for knowledge is a very important factor that determines whether a

business will survive or not.

The objective of this paper is to review researches on KM in coffee processing company in

Indonesia to identify the gaps in the field and asses the future research activities and clarify other

research areas which are no need to be studied in the future. According to the objective, some research

questions are formulated as follows:

The paper is arranged as follows: in section two, the literature related to the research objectives are

discussed. The third section describes the methods used to address the research problems. The next

section presents the results of research, and at the end, presents the conclusions and implications of the

study.

2. Knowledge management in coffee processing company in Indonesia

Many small enterprises encountering the limitation of resources (Jarillo, 1989), and consequently

the existing resources have to be used carefully, because wrong decision will cause serious

complications compared to larger enterprises (Amelingmeyer and Amelingmeyer, 2005). For

instances, small enterprises have a flat and straight structure, free-floating management style that

encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. They tend to be informal, no bureaucracy and have only

some rules. Control tends to be based on personal judgment of the owner and there is no formal policy

(Daft, 2007).

Based on previous research, the weakest point of the coffee processing industry in Indonesia is the

management within the company. In this case the coffee processing industry in Indonesia requires

effort, given the intensity of global competition and domestic levels increased sharply in the current era

of knowledge economy. The employers of coffee processing industry have to be able to create industry

(organization) that is able to generate superior performance, providing services (coffee processing

product-related information) satisfactory to the customer or buyer and in the same time they also have

to be able to meet the expectations of international trade.

Based on the background and the phenomenon discussed earlier, there are some problems exist in

the performance of coffee processing industry. The existing problem on the performance of coffee

processing industry is indicated by problems with the indicators used to measure the performance of

the enterprises. The indicator, among other, is the lack of knowledge that impact on the inhibition of

sales capacity and quality of coffee as a major source of income for coffee processing communities and

industry actors. Another problem is the lack of market share of coffee processing industry which is less

than 10%, while Indonesia is known as one of the largest coffee producing country in the world. Also

the lower selling price from farmers/coffee processing industry to the buyer compared to the selling

price from buyer to the exporter. The cheapness allegedly influenced by the level of business efficiency

which is still low.

Another factor that causes the low performance of the coffee processing industry in Indonesia is

the lack of KM practices applied by the industries. Local governments are not able to take advantages

and opportunities to engage with world coffee associations and the Association of Coffee Exporters

from other coffee producing countries to acquire the right knowledge and cooperation.


Their inability to gain competitive advantages in a sustainable manner as well as the

implementation of knowledge management in the tight intensity of competition, indicating that the

coffee processing industry has not yet had a KM system and business environment. In other words they

do not have proficiencies in implementing the company's activities which is the central of a

competitive advantage strategy and a superior business performance achievement.

The existing KM in the coffee processing industry yet has elements that can ensure a long-term

sustainability of competencies. The elements are valuable, rare (means not possessed by many

competitors), difficult to imitated (means difficult and costly to imitated), substitution (means difficult

to find a replacement) and trade-able means (difficult to be traded or transferred to another party).

Besides, the business environment variables also need attention. Coffee processing company is still

less responsive and adaptive to the changing of business environment, particularly to the market

information that makes some sales scheme through local sellers relatively lower.

There are some company characteristics that impact on the survival of a company, i.e.: the lack of

resource, the company flexibility, the company smallness, the company less formal, and the lower

turnover rate. These characteristics are in line with the KM processes that also influence the survival of

a company, i.e.: knowledge identification, knowledge creation, knowledge storage/retention,

knowledge transfer, and knowledge utilization.

Figure 2. Company characteristics and KM process factors that will enhance

the performance of coffee processing unit

Knowledge transfer includes ways related to knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing (Egbu et

al., 2005). The difference between tacit and explicit knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) is useful

in this KM process, due to the nature of the two types of knowledge that may affect the ease of the

transfer process. Lack of absorption capacity and poor quality of relationships between individuals

concerned represent other possible obstacles in the transfer of knowledge (Szulanski, 1996) that need to

Company Characteristic

Lack of resources

Flexibility

Smallness

Less formal

Lower turnover rate

KM Processes

Knowledge identification

Knowledge creation

Knowledge storage/retention

Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge utilization

survival


be considered. In the end, the benefits or the application of knowledge (use of knowledge) should

follow it, because it is the only way to create value in the company (Europe'en Comite de

Normalisation, 2004).

This study uses a foundation of Management Strategy Science and limited to the study of core

skills (Knowledge Management) and Business Environment as an independent variable and its

intervening variable is Competitive and Cooperative Strategies. While the dependent variable is a

coffee processing company's performance in Indonesia. The unit of analysis in this study is the top

management, middle management, and operational management of coffee processing company in

Indonesia.

3. Literature Review Methodology

In the review process, the authors adopted the principles of systematic review recommended by

Jesson et. al., (2011), i.e.:

Area mapping through coverage review

Comprehensive research

Quality assessment

Data Extraction

Synthesis

Writing

First, a research plan is built which includes researches questions about interests in research,

keywords, a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The purpose of this paper is to determine the

research status in KM areas within coffee processing company in Indonesia today. The research

questions formulated are:

Which KM topics are well-researched and which are not?

What is the finding of the studies?

In relation to certain challenges faced by coffee processing company in Indonesia as the

consequence of its limited resources, an addition question is formulated:

How these studies deal with certain challenges faced by small enterprises related to KM?

As the keywords, this paper decided to use the abbreviation of Knowledge Management, KM.

To help answer the research questions, the inclusion and exclusion criteria is determined. Inclusion

criteria includes: publications from 2001-2014, empirical research paper, peer reviewed, English, KM

focus on industry/coffee processing company in Indonesia. This paper focus on KM in general and the

KM process as well as SpringerLink and Emerald database. Whilst exclusion criteria includes: papers

published before 2001, papers related to cooperation and cluster (regional), literatures, report and non-

academic researches as well as other database besides SpringerLink and Emerald. In addition, an excel

data is generated which includes key aspects that related to the research objective, among others:

author's name, publication year, research objective, framework, method, main finding, and journal's

name.

Second, when all problems have already determined, the authors access SpringerLink and

Emerald to search for appropriate articles. Initial search using keywords knowledge management

yielded unsatisfactory results in terms of the number of publications. Therefore, the authors decided to

change the keyword from “knowledge management” to “KM” which is combined with “coffee

processing company” and resulted 508 findings. In order to ensure that this review cover all related

papers, KM journals with higher ranks, according to Serenko and Bontis (2009), also included, among

others Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of Intelectual Capital and Knowledge Management

Research and Practice. There are also three international journal on small businees which are reviewed,


i.e. International Small Business Journal, Journal of Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship

Theory and Practice. This adds the finding into 600 papers.

Pillania (2008), who examined the strategic components of KM within companies, and several

other authors (i.e. McAdam and Reid, 2001; Saloja et al. 2005) used mix methodologies. The sources

of information were professionals, technical staffs, owner and managers of the organizations.

3.1. The presentation of findings

3.1.1. What is KM perception?

KM perception represents KM topic about higher interest; the summary of literatures in this

area can be found in Table 1. It is not surprising because KM perception will influence each

implemented activities. The existing material data indicates that KM is a topic about relevancy to all

types of company. However, because of the limitation of resources in coffee processing company in

Indonesia, the actual design of KM among them to be very different compared to the bigger company

that has more resources.

After McAdam and Reid (2001), there is no other one until some researches about KM

perception appear. From 2005, there seems an increasing interest to this topic, but this interesting to

ended in 2008. Probably the experts in this area have realized that there is no adequate chance to

position this research in the high rank journals. Given this publication pressure, some researchers have

to deal with the fact that they have to change their interest to others promising researches.

There are many literatures talked about KM perception within company, those are: McAdam

and Reid (2001) and Nunes, Annansinghm Eaglestone and Wakefield (2006) compare the KM

perceptions among organizations, Egbu, Harl and Renukappa (2005) examined the importance of

knowledge among key staffs, knowledge within organization, the roles of capital and costumer

knowledge, and the impact of these issues to the competitive advantages of the company, Keogh,

Mulvie and Cooper (2005) examined companies that related to software, Salojarvi, Furu, and Sveiby

(2005) examined the relationship between sales growth and KM activities, Bozbura (2007) examine the

senior manager perception about to what extent the KM components contribute to the successful of a

company, Jafari, Fathiah, Akhavan dan Hosnavi (2007) explore KM learning and features in company.

3.1.2. What is KM implementation?

The implementation subject of KM is other topics which are relatively wider studied. These

findings indicated that most company used different manners to handle the KM implementation

aspects. This led to heterogeneity problems (Curran and Blacburn, 2001) that have to take into

consideration while researching and discussing the topics.

Year 2005 seems to be the starting point for a more intensive research on the implementation of

KM, the emphasis is on the structure as a clear method; with the exception of Shelton (2001) whom

based his study on the action research approach. Moreover, the main source of information stem from

managers and experts, only one Shelton (2001) based his study on the contribution of their employees.

3.1.3. What is knowledge identification?

In relation to this topic there is only one paper identified. It is surprising, in contrast with the

background that there are one thing to be understand in managing the company’s knowledge that is

what knowledge is available and the relevance of each of them to the company. To fully change this

argument, the lack of resource will appear as the indication that KM should be limited to specific

knowledge.

A paper written by Durst and Wilhelm (2011) is based on a research design that involves only on


company. Therefore, their findings only limited in terms of their transfer ability. However, the paper

discusses the relevance issues of the establishment of a differentiator between particular knowledge

which is difficult to imitate (rare) and other knowledge which is easy to access or produce. The

involved informants are management board members or second level management.

Whereas, some other researchers talked in a wider context that related to knowledge identification,

such as identify methods and tools for KM strategy and its practice in a company (Sparrow, 2005; Desouza and Awazu, 2006; Merono-Cerdan, et.al., 2007; Massa & Testa, 2009; Fink & Plodder,

2009a). While Wong and Aspinwall (2005) examine the critical success factors of adopting KM to

company and Shelton (2001) discuss about an owner manager from a small company introduce KM

ideas into his/her company.

3.1.4. What is knowledge creation/acquisition?

The topic on the knowledge creation and/or acquisition refers to the ways, which focuses on the

formation of new knowledge. This knowledge can be generated internally or obtained from outside the

company. Due to the limitations of their resources, the company peculiarly forces the use of external

sources of knowledge creation (Egbu et al., 2005). Such findings underscore the significance of

learning in this process. However, Cegarra-Navarro and Dewhurst (2006) pays special attention on the

ability of the company to abandon the old ways (unlearning) as a critical pre-condition of new

knowledge. This topic seemed to be attracting many experts. With regard to the method, the

questionnaire appears apparently as the most appropriate.

Other identified articles include the process of knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and

knowledge utilization (Pillania, 2008b; Ambrossini & Bowman, 2008). In the context of the

implementation of an e-business system, the authors emphasize that the three processes need to be

addressed holistically rather than separately (Soon & Zainol, 2011).

3.1.5. What is knowledge storage/retention?

The topic on knowledge storage/retention seems to be ignored in KM field that in line with the

Hislop’s (2009) finding that associated with KM in general. The literature search yielded only one

article related to the topic. Although the article written by Durst Gueldenberg (2010) does not have a

primary focus on KM and storage/retention of knowledge, but each of study underscores the special

significance of their knowledge retention in terms of keeping highly skilled individuals in the case of

managerial replacement, which further highlighting the dangers of reduction (attrition) knowledge

caused by these events. This study is based on mix method approach which allows authors to use

different perspectives.

3.1.6. What is knowledge transfer?

Compared to the previous topic, the aspect of knowledge transfer has attracted some attention from

experts. Such findings underscore the decisive relevance of the KM process in terms of the company's

business operations and competitiveness.

By taking into account the nature of knowledge transfer, the research methods used show a much

stronger emphasis on qualitative approaches. The topic attracted great interest from experts. Most of

those experts focus on the need of knowledge transfer to encourage innovation and ability of an

organization (Chen et al., 2006 Harris, 2008, Fletcher and Prahsantham, 2011). While others focus on

the role of IT and KM tools in supporting the knowledge transfers for the survival of a company (Levi

et al., 2003; Perez-Araos et al., 2007; Chirico, 2008).

3.1.7. What is knowledge utilization?

Research on the knowledge utilization seems to be ignored. This has to be considered as

unsatisfactory because this process only generates value in the company. The unused knowledge is the


lost knowledge. Both articles confirm the role of knowledge that drive innovations, improve customer

satisfaction and increase profits and productivity. These studies are based on a survey approach.

4. Discussion

Based on the above explanation, it can be concluded that an initial understanding of KM in the

company has been developed. The evidences given above, however, also suggest that this

understanding is rather fragmented.

4.1. KM perception and implementation

Both topics have been researched by many experts, compared to other issues. But what seems to be

missing is the difference between various types of different companies, called micro company. So far,

these two issues have been discussed from the perspective of the entire company. This approach,

however, is risky given the heterogeneity found among these firms (Curran and Blacburn, 2001).

Therefore, future research will better incorporate this aspect. Moreover, what stand out are the lack of

cross-country studies and the prevalence of single-state approach instead. However, because of

different country approaches to KM (Takeuchi, 2001) it may be beneficial to provide a better

understanding on how the companies from different countries around the world overcome the KM

challenges.

4.2. Knowledge identification

Knowing what kind of knowledge is available in the company and what kind of knowledge needed

to deal with the current and future business challenges is important. Thus, the lack of research activities

in this area is surprising. Therefore, identification of areas of knowledge offers various research

avenues for experts. For example, what action should be taken in the company to identify the existing

knowledge? How do they determine the knowledge needed to maintain their competitiveness? The

process that is used to distinguish between relevant knowledge and less relevant might be another

promising area of research.

4.3. The knowledge creation

The knowledge creation/acquisition process is closely related to learning. To learn something new

in an organization, for example, the members should an unlearning ability. The method which is used

by companies to encourage the release of the old ways may be useful in identifying areas of external

knowledge sources needed by the company. How does the company continue this context? How do

companies identify appropriate external knowledge resources? In relation to the method, a qualitative

approach should be used in prospective studies, because the focus is on understanding.

4.4. Knowledge storage/retention

Although the issues of knowledge creation and/or gaining knowledge as well as maintaining

knowledge is important, but this review found that the research on KM in the company is not

addressing the issue of knowledge retention. With the exception of a study conducted by Durst and

Gueldenberg (2010), the authors did not identify any study which examines factors that affect the

retention of knowledge in a small company. The same thing that is true is about knowledge storage

problem in company. What encourages the managers in a company in relation to the issues of

knowledge storage/retention? What fosters or otherwise inhibit the activities associated with the

knowledge retention?

Regarding the important role of knowledge in relation to the competitiveness of companies, more

researches that emphasizes on the development and implementation of knowledge retention

measurements in companies are needed.


4.5. Knowledge transfer

In connection with the knowledge transfer there is a need for more researches that discusses both

sides of the process: the sender and the receiver. So far, there is more one-sided discussion available.

To better understand the important process of KM, future research should incorporate both perspectives

stronger. This fits with the qualitative research approach.

4.6. Knowledge utilization

New knowledge either developed internally or obtained from outside the company, have to be

utilized. The result could be a new product, higher productivity, or more innovative activities

(Edvardsson, 2009). Therefore, this process is a central aspect of all KM activities. So far, the

researches in this area look abandoned, deemed unsatisfactory, particularly those related to specific

aspects of relevance. Consequently, there is a need to do more intensive research in this area. How can

knowledge be used in the companies? Is there a difference in terms of the country of origin? What is

that blocking/fostering the utilization of new knowledge?

5. Conclusions

This paper has reviewed existing empirical papers on KM issues in companies in order to enlighten

the coffee processing actors regarding the need of KM in their companies. In the knowledge-based

economy, effective information management is one of the major challenges faced by corporate actors.

Previous research in the field of KM has tended to put pressure on the big companies, rather than small

and middle company, such as coffee processing unit. This is because big companies are the driving

force for most countries in the world, but this is not a satisfying situation. The conducted review

indicates that the body of knowledge related to KM in the small and middle companies is limited. The

analysis show that three areas of KM are relatively appears to be examined in such companies, i.e. the

implementation of KM, KM perceptions and knowledge transfer. These finding are expected will

benefitted for those related company in enhancing their performance to compete with other companies

from other coffee producing countries. This paper is also expected to attract other researcher to

examine further about the KM issues in a more specific scope that is coffee processing company.

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