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Critical success factors, knowledge management, organizational learning, and financial performance in tourism SMEs

Alexander Pippi, Erose Sthapit Orcid Logo, Brian Garrod Orcid Logo, Jarno Suni, Juho Pesonen

Tourism and Hospitality Research

Swansea University Author: Brian Garrod Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/14673584261430770

Abstract

This study investigates which critical success factors enable knowledge management activities in tourism SMEs and how organizational learning mediates the knowledge management-financial performance relationship. Using an online survey of tourism SME managers (n=100, predominantly Finnish), we found...

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Published in: Tourism and Hospitality Research
ISSN: 1467-3584 1742-9692
Published: SAGE Publications 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71471
Abstract: This study investigates which critical success factors enable knowledge management activities in tourism SMEs and how organizational learning mediates the knowledge management-financial performance relationship. Using an online survey of tourism SME managers (n=100, predominantly Finnish), we found that organizational learning fully mediates the relationship between knowledge management activities and financial performance, with no direct effect observed. Human resource management emerged as the most influential critical success factor, followed by strategy, resources, and information technology, while management leadership, culture, and measurement showed no significant effects. These findings extend the knowledge-based view of the firm by establishing organizational learning as the essential mechanism through which knowledge management generates financial returns in tourism SMEs, revealing contextual specificity in critical success factors within the tourism SME context and demonstrating that simplified linear models assuming direct knowledge-performance linkages may not apply universally.
Keywords: knowledge management; critical success factors; organizational learning; financial performance; tourism; small- and medium-sized enterprises
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Funders: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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