Direct and configurational paths of knowledge-oriented leadership, entrepreneurial orientation, and knowledge management processes to project success

Date21 December 2020
Published date21 December 2020
Pages149-170
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-09-2019-0228
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Knowledge management,HR & organizational behaviour,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting & Finance,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting
AuthorKhawaja Fawad Latif,Omar Afzal,Adeel Saqib,Umar Farooq Sahibzada,Waqar Alam
Direct and configurational paths of
knowledge-oriented leadership,
entrepreneurial orientation, and
knowledge management processes
to project success
Khawaja Fawad Latif, Omar Afzal and Adeel Saqib
COMSATS University Islamabad, Attock Campus, Attock, Pakistan
Umar Farooq Sahibzada
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian, China, and
Waqar Alam
Abasyn University, Peshawar, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose Drawing on the knowledge-based view, the study aims to investigate the impact of knowledge
management enablers (entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge-oriented leadership) on knowledge
management processes and project success. The study further ascertains the specific combinations of
knowledge management enablers and knowledge management processes that can lead to project success.
Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from 222 project workers in information
technology projects, and the proposed relationships were assessed through partial least squares structural
equation modeling while configuration paths were assessed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.
Findings The study found a significant impact of entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge-oriented
leadership on knowledge management processes and project success. The analysis also revealed that
knowledge management processes did not significantly impact project success. Moreover, the insights from
fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis show a clear pattern of equifinality, in that there are multiple
combinations of knowledge management enablers and knowledge management processes that can lead to a
successful project.
Originality/value The current study is one of the earlier studies to provide insights to knowledge-based
view by demonstrating the inter-relationship of entrepreneurialorientation and knowledge-oriented leadership
with knowledge management processes and project success. To the best of authorsknowledge, this is the first
study to assess the impact of knowledge-oriented leadership on project success. With limited studies on impact
of entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge-oriented leadership on knowledge management processes, the
study enriches the literature on linkage of entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge-oriented leadership with
knowledge management processes. Methodological contributions include use of fuzzy-set qualitative
comparative analysis to reveal multiple pathways to project success.
Keywords Entrepreneurial orientation, Knowledge-oriented leadership, Knowledge management processes,
Project success, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
To achieve competitive advantage, firms need to combine and deploy several firm-level
resources and capabilities (Ferraris et al., 2019). Knowledge has been identified as one of the
key resources that can help improve the human capital for different types of organizations
(Bontis and Nikitopoulos, 2001). Knowledge management (KM) is seen as the management
processes and activities that an organization practices to improve the effectiveness of
generating, creating and sustaining organizational intellectual assets (Ramadan et al., 2017).
KM enablers and KM processes are described as KM capability (Iqbal et al., 2019). KM
enablers include factors like culture, leadership and intellectual capital that enable KM
Knowledge
management
149
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1469-1930.htm
Received 25 September 2019
Revised 20 December 2019
Accepted 20 January 2020
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 22 No. 1, 2021
pp. 149-170
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-09-2019-0228
processes (Iqbal et al., 2019;Obeidat et al., 2017). On the other hand, KM processes include
practices pertinent to knowledge acquisition, creation, sharing and utilization that foster
sustainable competitive advantage (Torres et al., 2018). KM is inevitable for project-based
organizations. Handzic et al. (2016) have noted that project-based organizations are facing
the challenge of identifying the project-related knowledge assets that what they possess.
They also confront challenges to identify how they can improve the Project Success (PS).
With much of the existing literature focused on the role of KM in improving organization
performance, there is little focus on the role of KM in PS (Gasik, 2015). An important
theme in the project management research literature are success factors that impact PS
(Jitpaiboon et al., 2019). Research has asked for identification of different factors that can be
critical in success of a project (Aga et al., 2016). Existing literature has identified several
gaps pertinent to the role of KM enablers (entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and
knowledge-oriented leadership (KoL)), KM processes and PS that shall be addressed.
First, much attention in the entrepreneurship literature has been on organizational
performance (Engelen et al., 2015;Al-Dhaafri et al., 2016). However, very few studies assess
the relationship between entrepreneurship and PS (Kuura et al., 2014). Martes et al. (2015)
assessed the impact of EO on project management maturity and found a positive relationship.
More recently, Martens et al. (2018) in the first attempt to ascertain the direct impact of EO on
PS found a significant relationship.
Second, to the best of authorsknowledge and with search on the Web of Science, there is
only one research that included the variables knowledge leadership and PS in a single study
(see Yang et al., 2014). The study by Yang et al. (2014) did not assess the impact of KoL on
project performance, rather assessed the impact of KoL on customer KM. Hence, our study is
among the first to consider knowledge leadership as an important antecedent of PS.
Third, KM processes, in particular, knowledge sharing has captured a greater part of
scholarly attention (Masadeh et al., 2017). The role EO has been assessed as a predictor of a
limited number of KM processes such as knowledge utilization (Wach et al., 2018), knowledge
sharing (Hormiga et al., 2017) and knowledge creation (Jiang et al., 2019). Additionally, EO
literature linkage to knowledge-related activities in the organization has attracted much less
scholarship (Jiang et al., 2019). Hence, the present study has taken into consideration a total of
seven KM processes that include knowledge identification (KI), knowledge creation (KC),
knowledge collection (KL), knowledge organizing (KO), knowledge storage (KS), knowledge
sharing (KD) and knowledge application (KA).
Fourth, the research on KoL is still in its infancy (Shamim et al., 2019). Donate and de Pablo
(2015) assessed the impact of KoL on four KM processes and have stressed the necessity to
carry out additional research on the role of KoL in improving KM processes. Additionally,
there is significantly limited research on the impact of leadership on knowledge-related
practices (Bavik et al., 2018). Furthermore, existing research has evaluated the impact of
limited number of KM processes on PS (see Yang et al., 2012;Fedor et al., 2003).
PS can be affected by a number of different factors (Aga et al., 2016), and a combination of
different factors could enhance the chances of PS. However, prior research has relied
primarily on symmetrical correlational methods to provide general information about the
factors that affect PS, producing a single dominant net effectsmodel. Little research has
focused on the combinations of causally relevant factors (Li, 2019). Fuzzy-set qualitative
comparative analysis (fsQCA) is an inductive, iterative method that reveals patterns in the
data that tend to be obscured by symmetric methods (Ragin and Fiss, 2008). While fsQCA is
becoming increasingly common in organization and management science for analyzing an
intermediate number of cases from a set-theoretic perspective, fsQCA is quite novel to the
research on project management (Verweij, 2015). This method allows examining
configurations of conditions in relation to a particular outcome, in a way that is not
possible by means of a linear additive approach. In the instances where the interplay between
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