Knowledge Management in Amazon: A Critical Analysis (Business Report)

This report offers a critical analysis of knowledge management within Amazon, examining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats through a SWOT analysis. The report delves into the evaluation of four key areas of Knowledge Management Value Chain (KMVC) and their support systems, focusing on tacit knowledge and knowledge sharing mechanisms. It further explores the application of various knowledge management models, such as Nonaka’s model, within the Amazon context. The analysis highlights how Amazon leverages its knowledge management system to maintain a competitive edge in the e-commerce market, particularly during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing Amazon's knowledge management strategies, aimed at fostering innovation, improving customer service, and driving business growth.

A Critical Analysis of
Knowledge Management in
Amazon

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Profile of Amazon..................................................................................................................3
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................4
SWOT analysis of the Knowledge Management System specifically at Amazon................4
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................7
Evaluation of four areas of KMVC and their support system................................................7
Task 4.......................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
Recommendations....................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
In today's business environment, innovative and inventive solutions to satisfy diverse
consumer demands are vital for organisations. In fact, the rivalry is stronger in the market so
that the technology which is both extremely creative and advanced must be adopted. These
techniques serve to provide the organisation with competitive edge. Moreover COVID 19 has
altered its consumer purchasing behaviour, because customers now rather than physically
visiting stores choose to acquire items and services online. Customers are given importance
in the present business environment, as in the areas of controlling the company's production
activity and connect to all commercial operations of a company. Managers and executives of
a company have recognised the importance of customer focus in the management and
operational structure of the company (Andriani and et. al., 2019). Customer decision-making
is called the entire process by which a consumer develops an interest in consuming a certain
product or service, until a desired product or service is purchased at local shops. The concept
or desire in the mind of a customer is created, following which purchases are made from the
open market. A short introduction and different applications for research technique are
included in this study report. Other than this, the results and conclusions are included in this
study report, as well as the literature analysis and a research-based evaluation of numerous
recommendations. Amazon is one of the most successful e-commerce firms worldwide, and
many people believe. Amazon determined from the very beginning that the user may simply
and rapidly experience its consumers' ability to locate what they desire (Centobelli and et. al.,
2017). But that was not enough. But that was not enough. The technology will add even more
value to the experience if consumers can fulfil their goals intuitively and personally. Amazon
Prime and Amazon pay have started to do this. It is regarded as the retail market leader,
which enabled such a variety of items to be accessible on a single platform. Different
information management theories were covered in this study, which are useful for companies
to respond effectively to market demand. It includes the need of management of knowledge
in order to get suitable results for companies. In the following report there are theories such
as the multi-perspective theory, the model of policy making and more (Chu, 2016).
Task 1
Profile of Amazon
An organization's manager formulates a number of rules linked to employee
development and growth that help retain people and motivate the organisation more

effectively in its aim. This report is being conducted in the Amazon environment. It is an
American technological multinational corporation located in Seattle, Washington, D.C. It is
mostly concerned with e-commerce, cloud, digital streaming and artificial intelligence.
Amazon is one of the UK's five largest corporations. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, it
offered its services around the world. The product range also includes numerous types of
goods including Echo, Fire TV and Fire OS, as well as other services such as Amazon.com,
Alexa, and Amazon prime. Over 1,298,000 employees work with the firm effectively.
Amazon.com is a multi-million dollar company with many years of web-based services.
While it might be beyond the capability of most people, this does not mean that
individual should not take the model into account. Only consider how much more beneficial
web resources for business and learning may be if they just add a little Amazon brilliance to
the mix (Costa and Monteiro, 2016).
Mission and Vision of Amazon
Mission: "To give clients with the finest variety possible with cheaper price items,
making them more comfortable."
Vision: "To create a worldwide customer-centred firm in which customers may
discover everything they wish to buy online"
Task 2
SWOT analysis of the Knowledge Management System specifically at Amazon
Amazon is the largest online distributor worldwide and its success has prompted other
distributors of physicals, brick and mortar to go online. The online version of Wal-Mart is
frequently called because of its worldwide reach and impact and aggressive price methods. It
is a very important element. The management of knowledge may be complex. After all,
knowledge is an abstract entity that you cannot touch and that cannot be collected, recorded,
and organised rather difficult. It can thus be difficult to grasp how it might be breached and
converted into a beneficial resource (Giampaoli and et. al., 2017). However, new possibilities
will appear to increase efficiency, provide a better service and assist consumers effectively
grow their knowledge in a useful resource. In the contemporary business environment
consumers want to accomplish things fast without waiting for the aid of customer services,
which may make all the difference to this customer enhancement. This may make it
enormously helpful for your organisation to identify practical methods to make information
more accessible to clients (Hislop and et. al., 2018).

They might be better recognised for their worldwide customer service, but since
Amazon took over e-commerce in the late 90's, it also excels in knowledge administration. In
catering to the requirements of its staff, the firm utilises several key knowledge management
and user experience concepts. One such idea is that a single display is needed to satisfy all the
consumers' demands. All articles are easy to index and locate, and Amazon has allowed it to
rise and expand beyond the sale of books to its own product ranges (Liebowitz and Frank
eds., 2016).
SWOT analysis of knowledge management system at Amazon
Strengths Weaknesses
 Prompt decision making: Many
decisions are decided on a regular
basis in business. In all decision-
making processes, information plays
an important part here. All people
who work in a firm have the chance
to access the information through
knowledge management that helps
them make better judgments. In
Amazon's setting, it is a retail
behemoth who has a big knowledge
management system where all the
information needed can be found,
such as the experience, staff ideas
and consumers.
 Promotes innovation and cultural
changes: For delivering new and
advanced items to the market,
innovation is crucial. Innovation
depends entirely on information and
knowledge. Knowledge management
has been said to be beneficial in
supporting and encouraging
innovation in companies. The
 Lack of resources: Due to storage of
required data and information of
company’s client in Amazon. It
requires lots of technical resources
for making it possible and in support
financial resources are also
demanded by operational department
of the company. Due to large
number of storage of data and
information sometimes it becomes
complex for operational department
to concentrate on other important
fields of working for the given
company.
 Internal disputes: Due to lack of
flexible policies of the company as a
result company has to suffer lots of
internal disputes and conflicts
between employees working in the
company. This adds to weaknesses
for the knowledge management
system for the company as managers
can’t perform up to the mark

knowledge management system
gives employees access to the most
recent information that supports
them further in innovating and
changing cultures. These
adjustments are essential to address
contemporary company needs and
needs. In the Amazon context it is
regarded as an extremely innovative
firm that offers a single platform
assortment of items. Knowledge
management supports organisational
personnel to make use of the
information they have accessible to
make the essential innovations. In
order to further expand business,
companies will be able to bring
about higher innovation and cultural
changes.
standards.
Opportunities Threats
 Competitive edge: With the
knowledge management teams
acquire all the information they need
on one platform to help them make
quick and correct choices. It enables
companies to obtain the appropriate
information at the right moment.
This allows employees to pursue
innovation & creativity that is
important to competitiveness.
 Market trends: Knowledge
management enables companies to
identify market trends and to satisfy
 Knowledge management system has
to go through high threat of
cybercrime activities. Due to
exploration at technical level of data
as well as information storage it
becomes dangerous for Amazon to
protect restricted data of the
company away from any cybercrime
activities.
 Shortage of resources: Due to
shortage of resources whether being
technical or financial. Managers of
the firm have a huge threat to pursue

consumer requests in a manner that
gives companies more competitive
edge. Thus, Amazon is able to
sustain a set level of development
and success in epidemic times by use
of an advanced knowledge
management system. Due to this, the
economic crisis is not affected and
consumer satisfaction during the
epidemic is managed in a same
manner. They efficiently cut
customers off during the epidemic,
using their powerful information
management system that will
provide them an edge on the market.
company’s goals as well as
objectives through this system of
managing data.
Task 3
Evaluation of four areas of KMVC and their support system
Tacit knowledge means knowledge that cannot be transferred from person to person.
This information is quietly hard to articulate and visualise. This information is linked to the
human being's own experience, talents and capabilities which cannot be transferred to
another. It is connected to the experience of an individual who has grown additional time and
cannot be easily spoken or viewed. It is sometimes referred to as implicit knowledge. In
1958, Michael Polanyi initially employed the term tacit. This approach has a major influence
on science, training and knowledge management philosophy. It may be characterised in terms
of abilities, experiences, abilities, which in an individual are there but cannot express and
express themselves. People with tacit knowledge are generally unaware of this and its worth
to others. Knowledge is often employed in the idea of product and service in which firms
produce items to fulfil consumer expectations (Liebowitz, 2016). Companies are often told
that they utilise more technological advances, various techniques for the production of certain
products and services. Managers employ their talents, skills not transferable from one person
to the next, to that end. Every person inside the firm is examined for having its own method
of dealing with client requests that cannot be imitated by others. If new staff are unable to

give consumers with the right answer to the issue of goods & services, then experienced staff
manage the situation. They can manage the problem in an efficient way because of their
experience. But it is not possible to codify or convey this experience to others. Tacit expertise
is therefore essential for companies that play an important role in guaranteeing corporate
success and growth. Furthermore, the information is included into the idea of products and
services which is useful to deal effectively with diverse scenarios. In the Amazon
environment, they have expertise and competence to enable them to give suitable ideas for
addressing the many difficulties associated with products and services (Mizintseva and
Gerbina, 2018).
Systematic approach in sharing as well as exchanging knowledge base of an organisation
Knowledge management is a method by which organisations efficiently store,
distribute and manage information inside companies. Under this, a systematic platform is
employed for information exchange and sharing to take successful corporate growth
decisions. In this respect, several business models are used and described as:
Nonaka’s model:
This is one of the famous information management methods which is usually used for
knowledge production and conversion. According to this paradigm, there are tacit and
explicit two kinds of knowledge. Tacit knowledge refers to knowledge and information
connected to individual experience, qualifications and capabilities. This is subjective and not
conveyed visually and in words. This knowledge also includes cognitive skills, including
attitudes, images, insights, technical knowledge and more. On the other hand, explicit
information may be utilised by others in writing. In this approach, knowledge conversion is
represented in several forms, tacit and explicit. In the respective model there are four distinct
ways of transforming knowledge (Muthuveloo and et. al., 2021). The four dimensions of the
model are stated as follows in the context of Amazon:
Socialization: It is seen as a process in which tacit knowledge through socialising is
transformed into the same. For example, training sessions where personal interaction shares
information and experiences.
Outsourcing: tacit knowledge is here transformed into explicit knowledge wherein
unwritten knowledge is transformed into written knowledge. For example, a person would
like to share experiences with others and to write a book (Wang and et. al., 2021).

Combination: In this explicit knowledge other explicit information is transformed.
The combination of explicit data from diverse sources and the completion of a whole new
kind of explicit knowledge is considered to be the process (Obeidat, Al-Suradi, 2017).
Internationalisation. Conversion of explicit information into implied knowledge.
Internationalization: In this way, the knowledge present in writing spreads and becomes tacit
information over the span of time. For example, organisational norms and regulations that are
stated in the early days, but spread through time across all employees of the firm and become
implied knowledge (M. and Tarhini, 2016).
Choose Sense making model:
This approach was established in 1998 and is based on three components that make
sense, create knowledge and make choice. All three aspects are interconnected and play a key
role in creating beneficial results through the production of knowledge inside a company. For
Amazon, the following are three features of this model:
Sense making: As a result, a company may continue to carry out prospecting
operations and understand the information needed in a dynamic environment for a longer
period. This information will assist us understand the trends, demands and needs of clients
and stakeholders in the present market. In this respect, Amazon's management carry out
market research needed to understand the company's development and expansion.
Creation of knowledge: it enables an organisation to gather, organise and process the
information available to create new knowledge through organisational learning. This new
information will allow companies to develop new and existing goods and services to enhance
their outcomes. By employing advanced knowledge management strategy, each firm may
develop attractive products and services and also make changes in products available for
future use.
Decisions: It is claimed that several decisions are done on a daily basis in company to
ensure greater corporate growth. In this context, the company must choose the greatest option
from all possibilities accessible to assist drive positive results inside the company. It is said
that Amazon management examine each choice in an important manner before picking an
appropriate firm option (Sousa and Rocha, 2019).
Many models related to knowledge management are therefore established, which are
beneficial in systematically sharing and transferring information. These approaches employ a

systemic technique of organising, processing and managing information appropriately.
Through trading and information sharing inside organisations, the management of knowledge
is useful in taking better judgments. In Amazon, the firm uses several advance tools to handle
knowledge. This tool has an important function to play in the optimal exchange and
management of information (Turulja and Bajgoric, 2018).
Importance of knowledge in Amazon standard operating procedure
The standard operating procedure refers to a step-by-step method that the firm
prepares to help its personnel in their daily activities. SOP's major objective is to improve
company efficiency by removing errors arising from misunderstanding and interpretation. It
guarantees that all necessary activities are carried out by the firm according to required laws
and regulations. In Amazon, they employ an effective SOP system to meet consumer
demands on time. This guarantees that companies consistently fulfil market demand by
delivering the goods and services required on time. The report says that Amazon is an e-
commerce business that plays an essential role in efficient knowledge management to meet
market demand. To this end, the company employs advanced knowledge management
strategies to properly obtain, organise, process and manage information acquired from
customers and workers. This knowledge will be made available to staff and other relevant
parties who are able to use this information to successfully manage the SOP corporate
system. This allows companies to maintain the standard operating procedure in a way that is
acceptable for the timely achievement of business goals (Wang and Meng, 2019).
Outcomes achieved by Amazon with the use of knowledge management
The analysis shows that Amazon is able to sustain company efficiency at a better level
with the usage of knowledge management. This enables the company to keep, exchange and
process information in such a way that the workforce inside the business remains
collaborative. In addition, management of knowledge also enables successful organisational
decision making by enabling access to all Members to information essential for timely
decision-making. With knowledge management, organisation may make optimal use of
efficiency of people for producing great results for firm (Mladenova and et. al., 2021). The
main purpose of knowledge management is to provide improved service delivery for
customers. The analysis shows that Amazon uses knowledge management to disseminate
correct information at the appropriate time to the right individuals. These details assist to
develop adequate tactics to improve the overall level of customer satisfaction. Thus, the

business becomes more aware of the demands and needs of its consumers, which will further
improve the current sales and profit margin. It has therefore been claimed that knowledge
management has shown to be beneficial for Amazon as it has produced many positive results
for the company (Webb, 2017).
Areas of improvement which can be improved by Amazon for meeting future challenges
Amazon is a large-scale retail powerhouse, but several business sectors need to be
improved to tackle future difficulties in an effective way. Amazon is evaluated for loss of
consumer confidence because of controversy. In the following years, it might generate
enormous problems for the company. Customers are key business and it is essential to retain
a better degree of customer confidence in this competitive marketplace. In order to keep the
confidence of customers within the brand, Amazon has to implement loyalty programmes.
Increased competition also poses a major danger to the company. Now many other firms such
as EBay, Alibaba and many more are active in the market and have similar activities. They
must thus enhance methods to effectively face competition. This requires managers to
conduct extensive market research and design goods accordingly (Hassel, 2020). It will
contribute to keeping clients long. Furthermore, they must also use greater levels of consumer
data protection security procedures. Customers are now facing a larger privacy and security
danger, therefore companies need to take adequate efforts to address issues related to privacy.
They also need to assess current technological gaps, such as the knowledge and IM system, in
order to make any improvements necessary. The present outbreak also has been studied to
disturb the organisational logistics management system. Because of this, it was difficult for
customers to ship purchases promptly. So, by improved the present system, they need to
remain prepared for such circumstances (Asenso and et. al., 2021).
Task 4
Conclusion
From the above report document regarding knowledge management is concluded as a
method by which information is efficiently stored, organised, processed and managed. The
main purpose of knowledge and information management is to increase company efficiency
in order to achieve corporate goals and aims. Amazon is a well-known ecommerce firm that
employs knowledge management techniques to efficiently utilise information from multiple
sources. This knowledge management document is concluded as a way to capture organise,
process and manage information efficiently. The fundamental objective of the management of

knowledge and information is to enhance the efficiency of companies to accomplish company
objectives and goals. Amazon is a well-known e-commerce company that uses knowledge
management to use information from many sources efficiently (Wu and Hu, 2018).
Recommendations
For Amazon, even during a pandemic, it may gain considerable profit. The major
reason for success is because the company's effective knowledge management system can
efficiently satisfy client expectations. They utilise, however, excellent knowledge
management methods, but nevertheless use contemporary knowledge management concepts
such as the learning process. It helps the firm to gather knowledge and make sense of it. It
will assist to utilise the information before, during and after the management of knowledge.
This architecture allows the company to store, process and handle enough overtime data. In
order to improve the firm further, the organisation might utilise the information and expertise
of its workers. Amazon therefore has several advantages in using such a knowledge
management framework which may bring great results for the company to efficiently run its
operations.

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