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Tacit B2B customer relationship knowledge management in Finnish SMEs
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
Electronic archive copy is available via Aalto Thesis Database.
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en
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101
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Abstract
Tacit customer relationship management (CRM) knowledge—the subtle, experience-based insights into customer personalities, histories, and relationship dynamics—is a critical source of competitive advantage for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), yet its non-codifiable nature poses significant organizational challenges.
To address this issue, this qualitative study investigated the strategies employed by different Finnish SMEs to evaluate and facilitate the effective sharing of essential tacit B2B knowledge. This research is conceptually grounded in the core distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge (Polanyi, 1966) and utilizes Nonaka and Takeuchi's SECI model (1995) as its central theoretical framework to examine the processes of knowledge management within organizations. The empirical study utilized a thematic analysis of qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews with seven managers and employees across various Finnish SMEs, specifically examining organizational mechanisms, motivational factors, and the influence of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices on knowledge conversion and transfer.
The analysis revealed that knowledge sharing is primarily a high-trust, social activity driven by intrinsic motivation and a team-collectivist culture, rather than formal extrinsic rewards. The research also identifies an "organizational knowledge maturity spectrum," revealing that SMEs progress from ad-hoc, informal sharing to systematic, integrated cultures. The analysis indicates a systemic imbalance where organizations demonstrate strong capabilities in Socialization (tacit-to-tacit transfer) through mentoring and shadowing but exhibit significant weaknesses in Externalization (documentation) and Combination. Consequently, the findings suggest conventional CRM systems are not adequate for capturing rich relational context. These results offer actionable guidance for Finnish SMEs and highlight the need for theoretical adapta-tion of the SECI model to account for contextual constraints.