Assessing the Business Value of Knowledge Retention Projects: Results of Four Case Studies

Although the business value of Knowledge Management continues to be debated, it is evident that organizations need to manage their valuable corporate knowledge from a practical standpoint. Many researchers and practitioners agree that Knowledge Management (KM) must be defined in terms of business objectives. Organizational resistance to KM efforts is attributed to the lack of evidence that KM implementations are effective and can be measured, resulting in a positive impact to the bottom-line. The difficult question, however, remains of how to measure this valuable resource. Case studies are reported to show how one firm determined bottom-line value.