Knowledge Management and Sustainable Competitive Advantage in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) has become one of the most exciting topics in today's fast-paced and changing business world. More and more business organizations see KM as a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) source. This paper looks at how business organizations in the Kingdom of Bahrain use KM and SCA together. The paper adopts a cross-sectional survey design. The KM initiatives are categorized into knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application. Employees' attitudes towards workplace knowledge resources are derived from their perceptions of their importance, usefulness, and ease of use. Organizations sustain competitiveness by improving product or service quality, performing efficiently, or innovating. Data is collected via an electronic questionnaire developed using Google Forms. Purposive sampling used a list of 122 subjects from randomly selected business organizations. Ninety responses were received and taken into consideration for data analysis. Spearman correlation analysis and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed a positive association between KM adoption and SCA. The study reflected a positive association between employees' attitudes toward knowledge resources and sustaining organizations' competitive advantages. The study recommends the effective launch and adoption of KM to achieve SCA. Also, the study suggests organizations and academics explore the factors that improve employees' attitudes towards knowledge resources at their workplace to realize the potential gains on firms' SCA.