Knowledge management as an effective tool to improve economic performance in micro and small enterprise

The purpose of this exploratory study through the use of narratives, is to understand and develop a conceptual framework for the use of knowledge as a generator of economic performance in the micro and small size enterprise development, and then study on the nature of this knowledge to entrepreneurs, and the characterization of this knowledge in order to establish how this contributes to economic performance of small size businesses. Knowledge as a generator of economic performance has been proposed by Romer's proposal on endogenous growth (Romer P 1986; Romer P 1994) and spread throughout Audrestch to the framework of small size businesses (Audretsh D & Thurik R 2001, Acs Z & Audrestch D 1990); however these investigations do not define the knowledge, nor investigate its use, only studying the resultant effect into new products or patents. The contribution of small size businesses to employment generation makes that studies on improving its economic performance will be an important area in the treatment of inequity. To obtain a detailed knowledge of what happens in this area of economy and the knowledge, it was used as methodology to "collect stories" and to establish theories based on the basis found in the analysis of these Stories (Czarniawska B 2004). The research is divided in two phases, for the first phase three stories were gathered, which are presented here and they serve us as a base to speculate a conceptual frame that allows us to study the relationship between knowledge and economic performance in the small size company settling down. For the Second phase, 40 stories were explored to establish a characterization of knowledge in small size business and mainly in its entrepreneurs. The Research contribution has enormous implications from practitioners point of view, to understand how using current entrepreneurs capabilities, organizations can support and help to Mise performance. For the Academy, to study knowledge management in terms of creation, distribution and use; considering its flow from institutions to personal entrepreneurs; doubtless represents an interesting research field.