American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR)
2018
American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR) e-ISSN : 2378-703X Volume-02, Issue-04, pp-01-07 www.ajhssr.com
Research Paper
Open Access
Knowledge Management and Competitive Advantages: The new Challenge for African Firms? A Review of Empirical Literature. Joe Muzurura 2440 Mainway Meadows Hatfield Harare, Zimbabwe ABSTRACT: Faced with such increasing complexity, market volatility and accelerated responsiveness requiring new knowledge, many African firms are less adequate and prepared to make tough business decisions required for sustainable competitive advantage. Today’s business challenges in many firms demand a new kind of learning experience, one that goes beyond problem solving and instead should focus on imagining possibilities, opportunities and creating innovative ways of looking at the dynamically turbulent world. Competing for the future requires leveraging knowledge management (KM) in order to gain competitive advantages. Competing successfully for the future in a globalised world requires that African firms either align their strategies to what they know or they learn to manage knowledge by building capabilities needed to support desired strategies. Knowledge management in Africa must cater to the critical issues of firm adaptation, survival and competence in the face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. The paper critically surveys empirical literature on knowledge management, a catalyst for human capital development, technological diffusion and economic growth. The paper recommends that in order to remain aligned with the dynamically changing needs of the global business environment, African firms must increasing gather and leverage technological knowledge assets better than foreign multinational firms. Keywords: Information technology, Knowledge management, Competitive advantages, African firms
I.
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
In the landscape of modern business environment characterised by macroeconomic instability, uncertainties, chaos and turbulence, African firms are persistently endeavouring to create mechanisms for differentiating themselves from global competitors within given markets. In order to increase productivity through technological progress, markets in many African countries are inundated with numerous firms striving towards like core competencies. Therefore, most firms are being coerced to dichotomise their business processes, adapt to newer technological innovations in order to achieve inimitable sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Prompted by the rapid and pervasive spreading of the knowledge economy, business management researchers are just beginning to think of KM as economic goods in their own right and not simply as an enhancement of other kinds of assets (Jackson, 2001). According to Barney, (1991, 1997) the imperatives of knowledge management are transformation of organisational knowledge in order to add value to the processes and operations of the business, leverage knowledge strategic to business in order to accelerate growth and technological innovation and to use tacit and explicit knowledge to provide a competitive advantage for the firm. Before the advent of globalisation, business environments in many African countries were to a large extent characterised by predictability and constancy. This enabled decision makers to easily make rationally planned decisions over long horizon. However, economic mismanagement by some corrupt leaders brought about challenges of abject poverty, high business risks, weak foreign direct investment, low industrial productivity, high unemployment and lethargic economic growth. This meant that traditional strategic management theories became redundant and mismatched to counter the effects of the macroeconomic instability characterised by business turbulence and volatility. Globalisation ushered in advancements in the field of information and communication technologies. Globalisation also accelerated knowledge growth, facilitated knowledge discovery and sharing and permitted movement of information at high speeds and efficiencies. Highly skilled knowledge workers in services sector are replacing industrial and agricultural workers as the dominant labour group in most African countries.
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