Today’s Knowledge Economy and Firm Growth: A Study of Small to Medium Enterprises in the Manufacturing Sector of Zimbabwe

Abstract

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Zimbabwe are characterized by high failure rates. This failure rate has been attributed to poor leadership, poor funding and lack of technology. The contribution of knowledge management to SMEs growth has received very little attention from researchers in Zimbabwe. Hence this study makes an effort to investigate the relationship between knowledge management models and SMEs growth. Data were collected from 32 SMEs owners in the Makonde District of Zimbabwe. Pearson’s product moment was used as a tool for data analysis. The independent variables are knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge storage and knowledge dissemination. The dependent variable is SMEs growth. The findings show that knowledge management positively correlates to SMEs growth. To that end the study recommends that effective models of knowledge management must be used to boost the growth of SMEs in Zimbabwe.