IMPACT OF PRACTITIONER INVOLVEMENT IN TERTIARY EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT IN SMES IN LATVIA

Knowledge management is one of the cornerstones for successful company development. In Latvia, many of the new enterprise owners and managers enrol in business administration studies to gain comprehensive knowledge and skills necessary for knowledge management development, therefore the involvement of practitioners (owners and managers of well-established enterprises) has become a compulsory part of the program delivery providing both direct knowledge transfer and insights in the market development trends, as well as creating eco-business environment where both the well-established enterprises and the start-ups benefit of the interaction. The research presented in this article is based on the annual business administration student survey on the study process quality at both bachelor and master programs covering results for the last 10 years, as well as the semistructured interviews carried out in 2010-2012 on the practitioner involvement in the study process and its impact on the knowledge management development in SMEs managed or owned by student-respondents. During the research both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used, as well as objectivesbased and content analysis.

Keywords:

business administration knowledge management, entrepreneurship and innovation,

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