Title: Prioritising critical successful factors of knowledge management in insurance companies

Authors: Amir Karbassi Yazdi; Masoud Haddadi

Addresses: Department of Industrial Management, School of Management and Accounting, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shariaty Street, P.O. Box: 1947943513, Tehran, Iran ' School of Management, Tehran University, No. 1 – 2nd west Golha Ave, Shahran, P.O. Box 14749-17964, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: This article attempts to investigate the 'road map' of critical successful factors (CSFs) of knowledge management in Iranian insurance companies. In this study, we aim to identify the CSFs of knowledge management (KM) used in Iranian insurance companies and rank them to allocate limited available resources, such as time, budget and human resources, in an attempt to implement improvement programs. The Rembrandt method, being the optimised form of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), was used to determine which critical successful factors were suitable for the implementation of knowledge management in organisations. In each organisation, there are many vital issues - some more important than others - that must be considered. No organisation can implement knowledge management improvement programs (KMIPs). In this research, we attempt to use the most important factors of each issue and, then, rank them for the sake of KM. Administrative, organisational, IT infrastructure, process perspective and human resource issues were the most important ones dealt with in this study. The road map provided in this article will help Iranian insurance managers better prioritise and allocate their limited resources to CSFs.

Keywords: knowledge management; Rembrandt method; critical successful factors; CSFs; knowledge management improvement programs; KMIPs; insurance companies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2018.089732

International Journal of Operational Research, 2018 Vol.31 No.3, pp.281 - 299

Received: 11 Nov 2014
Accepted: 22 Feb 2015
Published online: 09 Feb 2018 *

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