The theory and practice of knowledge management and transfer: The case of the Olympic Games

•We examine knowledge management/transfer theory and practice.•The setting is Olympic Games organizing committees and their stakeholders.•We develop a knowledge management and transfer model for the setting.•Information and knowledge concepts should be placed on a continuum not hierarchy.•Knowledge tailoring is an important activity for external knowledge transfer.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the theory and practice of knowledge management processes, using the Olympic Games as the empirical setting and the Olympic Games Organizing Committee and its stakeholders as participants. The case study of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games was inductively and deductively content analyzed, resulting in the development of a knowledge management and transfer process model for Olympic Games organizing committees and their stakeholders. Moreover, we found that the information and knowledge concepts should be placed on a continuum from explicit to tacit (with experience); practitioners do not distinguish between knowledge management activities as researchers do; socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization mechanisms can be found when tailoring knowledge for a stakeholder; and knowledge sources, reasons, organizational culture, and especially individuals are important when implementing knowledge management/transfer processes.