The relationship between knowledge management and the level of entrepreneurship of managers of private clubs in Tehran

Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences

Dissertation for Master's Degree in Physical Education and Sports Sciences

Sports Management Orientation

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between knowledge management and the level of entrepreneurship in managers of private clubs in Tehran. The current research is quantitative in nature, applied in purpose, and descriptive-correlation in method. The statistical population of the research was made up of all the managers of private clubs in Tehran, and 214 managers were selected from among the existing clubs using the cluster sampling method.

To collect information from the samples, Sharon Lawson's Knowledge Management Questionnaire and Scarborov's and Zimore's Entrepreneurship Questionnaire were used. In order to analyze the results, descriptive statistics methods including mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics methods including Pearson correlation tests, regression, independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance test using spss software were used. The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between knowledge management and the level of entrepreneurship in private club managers (r=0.79). Also, there is a relationship between the components of knowledge management (creation, sharing and application of knowledge) with the level of entrepreneurship, and among these three components, the application of knowledge had the highest correlation.

-1- Introduction

In the current era, the acceleration of changes in advanced sciences and technologies has increased so much that many thinkers believe that the acceleration in the innovation of products produced with high-level technology and the creation of knowledge and its development has exceeded the speed of human learning. So, even if the responsible organization spends all its strategies, time and human capital on learning, it may still not be able to cope (Nove and Chan[1], 2007).

Nowadays, organizations cannot rely solely on their tangible assets such as technology, especially in technical sectors. Tangible assets are typically available but do not potentially provide a competitive advantage, in other words, they are a prerequisite for doing business. Knowledge is a vital resource and success factor in such environments. Knowledge has long been considered as a key resource for organizations, and its effective management is essential (Mladkova[2], 2012).

Today's world is the world of changing information and knowledge. For this reason, it is essential that organizations have the necessary capabilities to operate in these conditions. Knowledge management is a process that helps the organization to find, select, organize and disseminate important and useful information. Also, knowledge management is necessary to perform activities such as problem solving, dynamic learning and decision making. Knowledge management can improve organizational performance by enabling the organization to perform more intelligently (Vaazi and Muslimi, 2018). Knowledge management is a planned and structured perspective to share and store knowledge as an organizational asset to improve the organization's empowerment, speed and effectiveness in providing products or services to customers in line with the business strategy (Plessis[3], 2008).

Organizations that have established knowledge management in their core capabilities are significantly different from other organizations, including these changes in the speed of processes, identifying and adapting to changes, maintaining and growing. Intellectual assets and sustainable competitive advantage through continuous creativity. Undoubtedly, knowledge is the most important resource of the organization. It is obvious that such a resource should be protected, improved and managed, and every technique and method that provides its better growth should be used (Darwish, 2008).

On the other hand, today, due to the day-to-day developments of society and the constant demands for a better life, entrepreneurship and innovation in every field seem necessary. Organizations have understood the need for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking has permeated administrative structures, because the growth, dynamism and even survival of today's organizations depends on the use of entrepreneurship. This need is in response to the complex and dynamic environmental conditions governing today's organizations, the most important of which are: the rapid increase in the number of competitors, the increasing development of new technologies, and the increase in customer expectations. (Kuratko and Hodgets [4], translated by Mehrabi, 2013).

Knowledge is a necessary and stable resource in the field of technology and entrepreneurship (Nonaka [5], 1991). It should be noted that today's world requires quick response.Real-time adaptability, quick conclusions and above all the need for personal growth are influenced by the changes that the current world requires of knowledge and creativity. Many experts and researchers refer to today's world as "the era of discontinuity". The era of discontinuity means that the past experiences and solutions are no longer useful for the current and future problems of the organization, and one should think of other ways and look for new organizational solutions with new structures (Khaneh Karaberanan, 2015).

Entrepreneurship refers to a process in which an entrepreneur, by identifying and exploiting opportunities, is a resource for creating and introducing new products, new ways of organizing and managing business structures, new ways of marketing and Identification has a new origin from primary sources (Yadollahi Farsi et al., 2013).

1-2-Statement of the problem

Nowadays, dynamism and complexity, uncertainty are organizational characteristics. In such an environment, organizations need proper management of their knowledge for business development and customer satisfaction. Many organizations have found that in order to achieve success in such an environment full of competitive challenges, they need an integrated and systematic approach to knowledge within their organization (Jamshidian and Haddadian, 2016). The current and future success in the competition between organizations will be based to a small extent on the allocation of physical and financial resources and to a large extent based on knowledge management. Therefore, the task of leading an organization is to create an environment for knowledge management. To put it more clearly, in the present era, the challenge facing managers is to prepare the right environment for the growth and cultivation of the human mind in a knowledge-oriented organization (Askari Masuleh, 2013).

Nowadays, knowledge and information have become a determining factor in the success and competitiveness of organizations, and knowledge management has been raised as one of the latest organizational topics in management science. The world around us is progressing rapidly and unimaginably, and in this progressive world, nations and societies are the ones who must control the speed of their understanding and interaction with the world around them and adapt their science and knowledge to today's knowledge. If the society can keep pace with today's world, it will definitely benefit from this development, and if it cannot increase its speed, it will be separated from other societies and will live in isolation. Most large organizations have realized that they will be successful because of the skills and experiences of their human resources and not because of physical and mechanical systems, and if they cannot raise the scientific and specialized level of human resources in the organization, they will definitely be left out of the global market (Adli, 2014). In such a situation, organizations are considered successful and efficient that, in addition to coordinating with the changes in today's society, can also predict the path of changes in the future and are able to guide these changes in the direction of creating desirable changes to build a better future (Ikhwan and Abu Ali, 2009). In fact, today's organizations need innovation to survive and avoid death and stagnation and adapt to the unstable and changing environment outside. "The slogan of destruction awaits you unless you are innovative" is in front of the managers of all organizations (Waazi et al., 2009).

The emergence of innovation in knowledge not only enables the organization to gain a competitive advantage over competitors, but also provides a useful tool to improve performance. Knowledge as a major source for entrepreneurship and organizational productivity is extremely important. The main goal of knowledge management is to create an environment organization in which people develop their knowledge, exchange it with each other and combine it with the knowledge of others, and finally use it (Khaqani et al., 2013). 1385). In this, the role of entrepreneurship and the existence of entrepreneurs is decisive. Entrepreneurship can provide job opportunities based on expansion for all sections of society through the discovery and expansion (Bal[6], 2005).

Achieving this goal and enjoying its benefits requires everyone's determination in the form of thoughtful and principled design.