Knowledge management mechanisms in e-commerce: A study of online retailing and auction sites

Knowledge management is vital to a company's success in this e-commerce era. Not only has the topic of knowledge management attracted much research attention lately, but the management of customer knowledge is also becoming increasingly important. Despite its significance, few research studies have systematically investigated knowledge management in the e-commerce context. None of the studies we reviewed looked at how knowledge management mechanisms were employed in e-commerce. This research presents a comprehensive analysis of the knowledge management mechanisms employed by 14 e-commerce sites that were rated as being the best by Gomez.com, an independent Internet quality measurement firm. Specifically, we analyzed the knowledge acquisition, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge sharing mechanisms employed by these leading e-commerce sites. As a pioneering research in this area, the findings have important implications for e-commerce companies seeking to enhance their knowledge management practices.