The impact of knowledge management factors in organizational sustainable competitive advantage
| Date | 12 March 2018 |
| Published date | 12 March 2018 |
| Pages | 453-472 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-12-2016-0143 |
| Author | Ana Isabel Torres,Silvana Santos Ferraz,Helena Santos-Rodrigues |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,HR & organizational behaviour,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting & Finance,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting |
The impact of knowledge
management factors in
organizational sustainable
competitive advantage
Ana Isabel Torres
Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal and
INESC TEC, LIAAD, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Silvana Santos Ferraz
Faculty of Science, Economics and Business,
Lusíada University, Porto, Portugal, and
Helena Santos-Rodrigues
IPVC, Viana do Castelo, Portugal
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the relations among different knowledge
management (KM) factors, such as human capital (HC), processes and information systems (IS) on
organizational sustainable competitive advantage (CA), within the SMEs context.
Design/methodology/approach –Structured questionna ires were distributed to CEOs and managers of
Portuguese organiza tions through an electro nic survey. Partial le ast squares software wa s utilized to
analyze the data.
Findings –The measurement model results identify and validate the dimensions of HC, processes and IS
representing the KM construct. The structural model results demonstrate that HC and processes have a direct
and significant impact on organizational CA, on the customer and financial dimensions, respectively.
IS indirectly and significantly influence organizational CA, mediated by HC and processes.
Research limitations/implications –The sample size includes mostly service business and SMEs. Other
organizations sectors, such as industry, should be analyzed in order to develop a comparativecross-sectorial study.
Practical implications –This study establishes suggestions for managers to make legitimate decisions
concerning investments on knowledge assets and organizational capabilities that can foster business growth
and sustainable CA within a SMEs context.
Originality/value –The authors propose a mediation mechanism showing that the relationship between IS
and sustainable CA is not direct, but it is mediated by HC and processes. This mechanism points out some
critical issues for the strategic knowledge and intellectual capital assets, as a source of organizational CA.
Keywords Information systems, Knowledge management, Intellectual capital, Human capital, Processes,
Organizational sustainable competitive advantage
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the knowledge era that we are living in, the management of intangible assets, namely the
management of knowledge assets, has become crucial to organizational sustainable
competitive advantage (CA). A sustainable CA derives implementation of a strategy that
adds value (Barney, 1991), and depends on a strategic advantage which can offer favorable
terms or block their ability to achieve superior results (Besanko et al., 2000).
Knowledge in the new economic landscape is a critical ingredient to reach the sustainable
CA (Kane et al., 2005). In this sense, the identification of knowledge assets determinants to
the organizational sustainable CA is of pivotal importance. In such a competitive time, there Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 19 No. 2, 2018
pp. 453-472
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-12-2016-0143
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1469-1930.htm
The authors would like to thank to the organizations for their cooperation in this study that helped in
the data gathering process.
453
Organizational
sustainable CA
are evident signs that information and knowledge are actual competitive “weapons”
for organizations, which have the best information and dominate it more efficiently.
Knowledge is a resource located in the organization core and people and knowledge
management (KM) is very important as the source of prosperous for organization,
addressing the critical issue of organizational adaptation, survival and competitiveness in
the face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change (Malhotra, 2002).
Extant literature suggests that intellectual capital (IC), which represents the sum of
knowledge of all organizational actors, is assumed as a factor of competitiveness, much
more valuable than the financial and material resources (Bontis et al., 2000; Ahangar, 2011;
Yaseen et al., 2016) in both large and small companies (Alegre et al., 2011; European
Commission, 2006; González-Loureiro and Figueroa, 2012; Kamukama et al., 2011).
The CA will arise when the management of knowledge and IC exists in an organization.
It is no doubt that organization’s performance capacity relies on these assets, knowledge
and IC. The knowledge of organization and IC may facilitate their activities and generate
income by using their critical resources, which is knowledge of its people, in order to sustain
their performances, thus effectively increasing the organization knowledge assets
(Kianto et al., 2014). Thus, sustainable CA can flow from unique, rare, inimitable
knowledge resources, so that companies can benefit from better managing its knowledge
assets (Choi and Lee, 2003; Nonaka, 1994).
This paper has two objectives. First, it intends to identify the relevant knowledge and IC
dimensions which represent KM construct. In the second stage, this paper analyses the
relations among the components of the following knowledge assets: human capital (HC),
process and information systems (IS), with the construct representing the sustainable CA,
analyzed in the context of the Portuguese companies included in this study.
To the best of our knowledge, this perspective and its relation within a sustainable CA
have not been studied, and it goes in line with Kamukama et al.’s (2011) suggestion that
emphasize the importance of introducing sustainable CA issue, in the analysis of the effect
of IC assets on performance.
Besides, the analysis of IC influence on a sustainable CA framework, other knowledge
assets dimensions, such as organizational capabilities and resources should be incorporated.
Therefore, this analysis allows studying the relationships among different knowledge assets
dimensions,such as IC components –HC,processes and IS –on organizationalsustainable CA.
This frameworkhelps to pinpoint elementsthat compose each dimension of knowledgeassets
and to establish causal relations among business sustainable CA.
This paper is organized in four major sections: presentation of the conceptual framework
used and research hypothesis; description of the methodology and empirical analysis conducted;
presentation and discussion of the study results and, finally, conclusions and implications for
strategic decision makers and suggestions for further investigation are presented.
2. Theoretical foundations and conceptual model
2.1 IC and KM components
Organizational performance is a knowledge-re lated issue. The two key academic
discussions addressing knowledge in organizations are the literatures of IC and KM.
Several authors have discussed the two key concepts of IC and KM. While the first
focuses on intangible resources that contribute to value creation (e.g. Edvinsson and
Malone, 1997; Sullivan, 1998; Spender et al., 2013), typically in terms of human, structural
and relational capital assets governed by an organization (Bontis, 2001; Guthrie, 2001), the
latter concentrates on the knowledge-related processes and management activities in firms
(Choi and Lee, 2003; Kianto et al., 2014). In other words, the IC literature examines the kind of
intangible resources there are in firms, while the KM literature addresses the mechanisms
by which these resources can be controlled and managed.
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