Development of An Empirical Model of Knowledge Management in Organized Retail Sector Using path Analysis

The relevance of knowledge management is bi-fold. It has both academic and industrial relevance. For the researcher to explore knowledge management in organized retail sector it was essential to identify critical success factors of knowledge management and knowledge management dimensions. A thorough review of literature was conducted to identify these underlying factors and a model of knowledge management in organized retail sector was proposed.

The purpose of the study was to empirically test the factors stated in the knowledge management model. Eight dimensions of knowledge management and five critical success factors were identified. The objective of the study was multifold. The research examined the impact of critical success factors on knowledge management dimensions using path analysis. To actualize this aim following hypothesis were formulated: Ho1: There is no significant relationship between critical success factors and knowledge management dimensions.

A knowledge management scale was developed which was pretested on a sample size of 75. The reliability of the scale through Cronbach's Alpha was calculated as 0.92 that is highly significant. The final sample size for the study was 479, which was collected using multistage sampling technique. Multiple regression and path analysis was used for data analysis. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS v.21.0

The null hypothesis was rejected. Thus, the model successfully predicted the critical success factors, knowledge management dimensions and their correlational relationship. There was a significant relationship between critical success factors and knowledge management dimensions. The study also proposed an improved model of knowledge management in organized retail sector that will be further developed in subsequent research.