Knowledge Management and the Leading IS Journals: An Analysis of Trends and Gaps in Published Research

Knowledge management (KM) is maturing as a research topic, although there is still debate among researchers over what constructs form its basis. Because the topic has received increasing attention in academic journals, it is important for researchers to be aware of the research streams associated with KM. Accordingly, this paper reviews the knowledge management literature published in top-tier journals from 2000 to 2003. These articles are then classified into five constructs from two knowledge management frameworks. The results indicate that the majority of knowledge management research has examined the construct of knowledge transfer and approximately one third of the research is empirical in nature. Trends of published KM research, gaps, and inconsistencies in the examined literature, and areas of potential research are presented.