{{B}}Knowledge as a Strategic Resource{{/B}}
While having unique access to valuable resources is one way to create competitive advantage, in some cases either this may not be possible or competitor?, may imitate or develop substitutes for those resources. Companies having superior knowledge, however, are able to coordinate and combine their traditional resources and capabilities in new and distinctive ways, providing more value for their customers than can their competitors. That is, by having superior intellectual resources, an organization can understand how to exploit and develop their traditional resources better than competitors, even if some or all of those traditional resources are not unique. Therefore, knowledge can be considered the most important strategic resource, and the ability to acquire, integrate, store, .share and apply it is the most important capability for building and sustaining competitive advantage. {{U}}(8) {{/U}}
What is it about knowledge that makes the advantage sustainable? {{U}}(9) {{/U}} Unlike many traditional resources, it is not easily purchased in the marketplace in a ready-to-use form. To acquire similar knowledge, competitors have to engage in similar experience. However, acquiring knowledge through experience takes time, and cempetitors are limited in how much they can accelerate their learning merely through greater investment.
{{U}} (10) {{/U}} Learning opportunities for an organization that already has a. knowledge advantage may be more valuable than for competitors having similar learning opportunities but starting off knowing less. For example, Big6 invested heavily in capturing and sharing knowledge about key engagements across the firm so that it could sustain its areas of advantage by always building on its latest knowledge, rather than "reinventing the wheel" while giving its competitors a chance to catch up.
Sustainability may also come from an organization already knowing something that uniquely complements newly acquired knowledge, which provides an opportunity for knowledge synergy not available to its competitors. {{U}}(11) {{/U}} Organizations should therefore seek areas of learning and experimentation that can potentially add value to their existing knowledge via synergistic combination.
Sustainability of a knowledge advantage, then, comes from knowing more about some things than competitor combined with the time constraints faced by competitors in acquiring similar knowledge, regardless of how much they invest to catch up. {{U}}(12) {{/U}} The mere it is used, the more valuable it becomes, creating a self-reinforcing cycle. If an organization can identify areas where its knowledge leads the competition, and if that unique knowledge can be applied profitably in the marketplace, it can represent a powerful and sustainable competitive advantage.
A New knowledge is integrated with existing knowledge to develop unique insights and create even more valuable knowledge.
B The broadest value proposition, then, for engaging in knowledge management is that it can enhance the organization's fundamental ability to compete.
C Unlike traditional physical goods that are consumed as they are used (providing decreasing returns over time), knowledge provides increasing returns as it is used.
D Knowledge-based competitive advantage is also sustainable because the more a firm already knows, the more it can learn.
E Companies having superior knowledge, however, are able to coordinate and combine their traditional resources and capabilities in new and distinctive ways, providing more value for their customers than can their competitors.
F As a competitive advantage, knowledge may generate more value for the company if it is appropriately used.
G Knowledge -- especially context-specific, tacit knowledge embedded in complex organizational routines and developed from experience-tends to be unique, and difficult to imitate.