One of the methods proposed for the improvement of competitive position is outsourcing. Most
of the problems are predictable in the organization's internal activities. These problems can
reduce by separation of inefficient internal activities from the knowledge management process.
A solution is outsourcing a part of the knowledge management process to a third party outside
of the organization. One of the critical activities for outsourcing is the selection of outsourcing
providers. So, in this research, at first, the previous researches are reviewed, and the evaluation
of the criteria and dimensions of the outsourcing provider of knowledge management are
recognized, and the final list of the evaluation criteria of the outsourcing provider is determined
and is validated by the experts of industry and university. In this way, a framework including 9
factors and 35 features are determined for selection of outsourcing providers of knowledge
management, evaluated by the experts, and validated by the Fuzzy Delphi method. Then using
the Fuzzy network analysis and Dematel techniques, by applying the relationships between the
criteria and sub-criteria, data is analyzed to present a comprehensive analysis for the selection
of more proper outsourcing providers of the knowledge management process.
Based on the results, the "quality" criterion is the most effective criterion on the system and
takes the least effect of the other factors. It means that these are the driving factors that by
optimization of them, can expect optimization of the other factors. Moreover, the "specialized
organizational features" factor is strongly affected by other factors, and it is optimized by other
factors optimization. Then based on the results of the Fuzzy network analysis process,
"experience" with the weight of 0.30773 and "organizational culture" with the weight of
0.02716 is the most and least important criteria, respectively. And economic and financial
considerations, specialized organizational features, services, technology, quality, operational
capacity, general organizational features, and organizational culture are the other criteria in
order of their weight. Then the results of Fuzzy Delphi and Dematel are used and studied for the
considered case study of two companies of knowledge management providers. And according
to the performed ranking, the Nodak engineering consulting company has achieved a higher
rank