Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 5129: How do Knowledge Management Practices Affect Sustainable Balanced Performance? Mediating Role of Innovation Practices (Sustainability)

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating role of innovation practices (IP) amidst relations of knowledge management practices (KMP) and sustainable balanced performance (SBP). Furthermore, this research illustrates a comprehensive empirical study in the Iranian knowledge-based industrial companies that are the manufacturers of advanced machineries and equipment. First- and second-order exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was done to confirm constructs validity. Then, relations among variables were studied by applying the partial least squares (PLS) technique to collected data from 104 industrial knowledge-based companies. The results obtained from the analysis supported all the research hypotheses. KPM significantly and strongly affects IP and SBP. Also, IP mediates the relations between KPM and SBP in industrial knowledge-based firms.