Knowledge management, corporate entrepreneurship, motivation, organizational commitment and job performance of the local government managers

Local governments are in the frontline government position of public service delivery to individuals and organizations in the country. However, they constantly face widespread criticisms and are often viewed as inefficient and lacking accountability. Therefore the objective of this study was to examine the relationship between knowledge management, corporate entrepreneurship, and job performance among the middle level managers of local governments. The study also aimed to determine the mediating effect of public service motivation and the moderating effect of organizational commitment on these relationships. The quantitative survey method was adopted in the data collection. A total of 728 usable responses were gathered from the respondents of the local authorities in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modeling was employed to analyze the data. The results revealed the existence of significant relationships between knowledge management, corporate entrepreneurship and job performance. On the mediation relationship, public service motivation was found to mediate the relationship between knowledge management and job performance, but not the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and job performance. However, the study did not find any moderating role of organizational commitment on the relationship between knowledge management and job performance, and also on the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and job performance. This study not only provides evidence on the importance of knowledge management and corporate entrepreneurship to job performance in the public sector but also validates the research framework which is well established in the corporate sector. The study further contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the local governments where similar studies are generally scarce. Moreover, it specifies a strategy and sketches a road map on how to improve performance in the local government sector. Finally, study limitations and suggestions for future research are provided and discussed.