Green knowledge management: Scale development and validation

Abstract

Considering a sharp decline in the quality and quantity of natural resources, many organizations are claiming to adopt eco-friendly practices. This study develops and validates the green knowledge management (GKM) scale to understand how effectively firms adhere to GKM practices in their operations. The authors followed a mixed-method approach where interviews with industry experts and an extensive literature review helped researchers develop items for GKM's constructs. It was then followed by empirical validation of the proposed scale by collecting data from the manufacturing and services firms. Twenty-seven items were classified in five dimensions of GKM: green knowledge acquisition, green knowledge sharing, green knowledge storage, green knowledge application, and green knowledge creation. The findings were supported by reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, unidimensionality, and related tests. This research can be considered as the pioneer in the GKM domain that has developed and validated its constructs. It can help researchers get a head start in the GKM field, and research in the green knowledge domain will be aided by this instrument, providing a framework for future research.

Keywords: Green knowledge management, Instrument development, Green knowledge acquisition, Green knowledge application, Green knowledge sharing, Green knowledge storage, Green knowledge creation