Knowledge is increasingly substituting old (tangible) factors of production and becomes the most important (intangible) productive means and competitive weapon for the companies. Knowledge Management (KM) provides a particular opportunity to help the employees work more effectively and intelligently under these circumstances.

Since knowledge becomes more and more important within all kinds of industries the research is aimed to analyse, identify and clarify the parameters from a multinational corporation’s point of view which are influencing and facilitating the development of a company’s Human Capital (HC) most and therefore can be regarded as essential for long-term corporate success

Two parts – a theoretical and an empirical one – are the main components of this dissertation. The theoretical part covers important aspects related to knowledge and KM as well as globalisation. The empirical study was based on several hypotheses developed as a result of the theoretical discussion, identifying four key success factors of KM. In order to conduct a statistical analysis the necessary data has been obtained by using a questionnaire which was sent to companies in Sweden, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK.

As a result, three factors could be confirmed as being paramount whereas only one has been recognised as not being as important as expected.