Influence of Knowledge Management on the Relationship Between Innovation Strategy and Competitiveness of Mobile Telecommunication Firms in Kenya

Abstract

The present day market condition is characterized by intense level of completion, a condition that is forcing organizations to seek innovative strategies that will enhance their performance. Increasing the performance of a firm requires that multiple features be already entrenched in a firm one of these being an efficient knowledge management. The objective of the study was to determine the influence of knowledge management on the relationship between innovation strategy and firm competitiveness of telecommunication firms in Kenya. Towards the realization of the research objective, the study adopted a cross-sectional survey design whereby all the four telecommunication firms formed the population of the study. The research employed a semi-structured questionnaire as the main data collection instrument while for analysis descriptive measures of mean and standard deviation was employed. The study results show organizational knowledge management takes different forms with an aim to facilitating effective innovation process and consequently improvement firm competitiveness. Further, the study reveals that the telecommunication firms recognize customers as important source of innovation knowledge, based on the high results that show that the managers agreed to customers being a critical source of innovation knowledge. Similarly, the innovation capacity resulting from firm knowledge management capabilities was manifested through actions such as the ability of the telecommunication firms to design products that match specific competitive needs available in the market and introduction of products and services that cannot easily be imitated. The research concluded that effective KM has a significant impact on innovative capabilities of a firm to bring about competitive advantage. The study recommends that the telecommunication firms invest in unique knowledge and capacities of its organizations that cannot be easily transferable because the uniqueness of a resource is likely to result in increased level of competitive advantage.