KNOWLEDGE TYPES IN NON-PROFIT COLLABORATIONS: EXAMPLE OF MEXICAN FOOD BANK NETWORK

Major problem of food waste provoked a community response in a form of creation of food banks. Food banks are non-profit organizations that mainly collect food surplus in commercial sector and transfer it to food aid sector. Therefore, increase in their efficiency could have a substantial positive impact on society, while allowing food banks to serve more needy people. Introduction of knowledge management practices can help achieving the constant improvement that food banks aim. Moreover, existing research shows that knowledge exchange is beneficial not only within, but also across organizations. Knowledge becomes a critical strategic resource in inter-organizational collaborations, which needs to be managed in a structured manner. However, in order to manage it, all relevant knowledge has to be first identified and organized.
As a research unit was chosen the Mexican food bank network, which is one of the oldest and most developed food bank networks in the world. Data were collected through prolonged semi-structured interviews both at the network level (national service office) and member level (food banks) and reinforced with data from documentation. The identified knowledge was assigned to ten most relevant knowledge categories that unite fifty-three sub-categories of knowledge. Developed knowledge types are suggested as a basis for knowledge structure not only in food bank networks, but also in non-profit collaborations in general. It could be applied for organization of network knowledge during knowledge audit and further development of digital knowledge platform.