The mediating role of organizational innovativeness on the relationship between knowledge management practices and organization performance

The variations in the business environment and the upsurge in competition have led organizations to emphasis critically on refining their organizational performance in order to achieve a maintainable competitive advantage by relying on keeping stride with these changes and developing their innovation competence to meet their customers' desires. The research study aimed to examine the relationship between knowledge management, organizational innovativeness, and organizational performance. The study also suggests that organizations should emphasis on developing innovative strategies to improve their performance. The study employs a descriptive research design. The target population for the current study was comprise the owners, middle managers, and senior managers of the 100 micro, small, and medium-sized businesses in Puntland, Somalia as at October,2023. The study employed primary data. Primary data collected using structured questionnaire. The study proposes a model that examines the mediating role of organizational innovativeness in the relationship between knowledge management and organizational performance. A descriptive statistic was conducted to explain the population characteristics for easy understanding and interpretations. Data was analyzed using a SPSS by calculating the mean and the variance. Besides, the study employed Andrew F. Haye's regression analysis to establish the strength and direction of the relationship between independent variables, dependent variable, and the mediating role the mediator variable. The study findings showed a positive and significant impact of organizational innovativeness on the relationship between knowledge management and organizational performance. The study concludes that knowledge management practices are important in determining organizational performance and organizational innovativeness is statistically important in influencing the performance of organizations. Key words: knowledge management practices, organizational innovativeness, organizational performance