Original scientific paper
The relevance of the knowledge-based school of thought on the sources of a firm's competitive advantage
Tomaž Čater
; University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics
Abstract
A basic characteristic of the knowledge-based school is that it follows the 'inside out' approach of explaining the sources of a firm's competitive advantage. This means the competitive advantage primarily arises from the firm and its knowledge. There are at least two important classifications of knowledge in the related literature. The first one divides knowledge into its explicit and tacit component, while the second one discusses human and structural capital. Besides knowledge, its adequate management is also necessary to ensure greater competitiveness and performance. Empirical research, based on the sample of 225 Slovenian firms, shows that the firms see the most relevant sources of their competitive advantage in structural capital, tacit knowledge and in the imperfect imitability of knowledge. The more relevant knowledge a firm possesses and the better its management is, the greater the firm performance and competitiveness is, which means our empirical support of the knowledge-based school is quite unequivocal. Among the studied sources of competitive advantage within the knowledge-based school performing the knowledge management tasks and the imperfect imitability of knowledge seem to be the most relevant factors of a firm's competitiveness and performance.
Keywords
strategic management; knowledge-based theory; competitive advantage
Hrčak ID:
184533
URI
Publication date:
13.7.2017.
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