The critical success factors for Knowledge Management (KM) within project-based organizations have been rarely explored through a multi-case study research. A majority of the studies have emphasized on the success factors of a single company and not considered all the factors in an integrated way through several cases from various industries. The aim of this paper is to study the critical success factors through a multi-case approach. The grounded theory approach was chosen to segment and analyze the data accordingly. The extracted results gave the critical success factors for KM in project-based organizations. The overall project output represented the appropriateness of the proposed critical success factors which provide guidelines to organizations adopting KM from different perspectives. Several concepts were extracted from the findings and a conceptual framework was formed to show how to adopt and manage KM in project organizations in order to benefit from its advantages. The execution of KM inside project organization requires a detailed and precise alignment of strategies and operational procedures. Therefore, the current study is among the few multiple case studies in KM of project-based organizations which helps the executives to construct comprehensive and efficient plans for yielding better results at lower costs.

Knowledge and know-how cannot simply and freely be flowed and shared among colleagues in organizations (Ragsdell et al., 2013). Currently, knowledge plays a critical competitive advantage worldwide and numerous organizations have been profoundly interested in Knowledge Management (KM) systems. In project organizations which are regarded as temporary corporations, no appropriate mechanism is recognized in order to gain, store and propagate knowledge to enhance the level of organizational learning (Linder et al., 2011). At the same time, more companies are now managing their businesses by adopting projects.

KM can be defined as the course of production, distribution and implementation of knowledge in such a way so as to obtain organizational objectives (Saremi et al., 2011). KM in temporary organizations is an increasingly important factor. There are two fields, which follow this subject—KM and project management.

Knowledge Management Journal, Knowledge Management (KM), Critical Success Factors, Project-Based Organizations, A Multi-Case Analysis, Grounded Theory (GT), Information Technology (IT), Knowledge Management System (KMS), Project Knowledge Management (PKM).