Knowledge management performance measurement based on World-Class Competitive Advantages to develop strategic-oriented projects: Case of Iranian oil industry

Abstract Knowledge Management (KM) is one of the main sources for achieving World-Class Competitive Advantages (WCCAs), and is also an incentive for the development of strategic-oriented projects. Because subsidiaries of the oil industry are always looking for WCCAs to implement their strategic-oriented projects, it is important to measure WCCAs-based KM performance. We offered a WCCAs-based Knowledge Management Performance Measurement (KMPM) instrument to develop strategic-oriented projects and validated it in the Iranian oil industry. Based on an in-depth review of previous studies, the indicators of KMPM that could lead to WCCAs were extracted. Then, an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis were used to identify and confirm the criteria of the proposed instrument. Based on the proposed instrument, the KM performance of the subsidiaries of the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum (MoP) was assessed, and finally, strategic-oriented projects were suggested. Our proposed instrument includes four main criteria, namely “knowledge quality”, “knowledge utility”, “knowledge innovation”, and “business results”, all of which are valid in the Iranian oil industry. Our findings also present 17 strategic-oriented projects. The policymakers and the top managers of the surveyed companies could obtain more knowledge regarding measuring the WCCAs-based KM performance, and utilize it to develop their strategic-oriented projects. The present research is one of the first studies of its kind that provides a WCCAs-based KMPM instrument and expands the literature on KMPM and WCCAs.