Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide organizations in the Chinese cultural context with a conceptual model for an integrated adoption of existing knowledge management (KM) methods and to improve the effectiveness of their KM activities. Design/methodology/approaches: A comparative analysis is conducted between China and the western world based on a comprehensive document analysis from key databases available. In total, four critical dimensions, which are identified through the review of the related literature including observation, methodology, systems and applications, are used in the analysis for addressing the questions of why, what, how, and where in KM. Findings: The paper rationalizes the need for this study in conformity with the emerging trend of an integrated use of diverse KM methods and approaches for effective KM in organizations. Further, a reference model for the integrated adoption of existing KM methods is developed with respect to the characteristics of the Chinese culture for improving the effectiveness of KM activities in the organizations. Such a model can adequately address the questions of why, what, how, and where in KM in Chinese organizations to the best of Chinese collective interest, which provides more comprehensive and unified KM views, activities, processes and technologies for collaborative innovation in Chinese organizations. Originality/value: This paper is the first of its kind to systematically review existing KM methods and approaches with respect to the perspectives of observations, methodologies, systems and applications for effective KM in Chinese organizations. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)