Knowledge management competences, exporting and productivity: uncovering African paradoxes

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the importance of relational and conditional knowledge by assessing how service and signaling competences affect manufacturing firms’ productivity. These relationships are explored in the context of Africa, where, paradoxically, firms selling abroad must satisfy different market demands than firms that serve only domestic markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on the World Bank Enterprise Survey to perform a cross-sectional analysis of 4,683 manufacturing firms. These surveys cover the period 2009-2017 and 35 different African countries. The authors define service competence development as co-location with knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firms, measured through KIBS density at city level. Signaling is measured through outward-looking competences. Findings This paper shows that African exporters differ significantly from their non-exporting counterparts in terms of productivity and competences. External service competence generates productivity gains for exporters but has the opposite effect for non-exporters. Results consistent with previous research also show that signaling competences generate productivity gains, but the effect for firms serving domestic markets is stronger than the effect for exporting firms. The authors use paradoxes of learning to interpret these results. Research limitations/implications This study detects nuances of the African context that increase the understanding of knowledge management in emerging markets. The findings would benefit from confirmation in a longitudinal and causal setting. Practical implications African exporting firms should establish mechanisms to develop joint knowledge with external partners (know-with) to enhance their competitiveness, whereas African non-exporters should prioritize building knowledge credibility. Originality/value The study develops a novel empirical approach to analyzing firm competences in Africa. It also shows that contextualization of existing knowledge management theories matters, opening a research avenue to test further existing theories in emerging economies.

Does distance really matters? Assessing the role of KIBS proximity in firm´'s servitization capacity: evidence from the Basque Country

“…Although the results obtained cannot be generalized due to the methodological limitations of case studies, these results highlight the importance of geographical interconnectivity for territorial and organizational competitiveness (Growe, 2019;Lafuente et al, 2017;Vendrell-Herrero and Wilson, 2017;Vendrell-Herrero et al, 2019).This article shows the importance of geographical proximity in establishing strategic relationships aimed at strengthening service deployment in manufacturing companies (Bustinza et al, 2019a;Vendrell-Herrero and Wilson, 2017).…”

“…At the same time, this result suggests a new emerging relationship, as it shows a positive connection between the servitization capacity, the perceived impact of the KIBS company, and partner's (i.e., KIBS firm's) proximity. Based on these results, it can be concluded that there was a positive relationship that 0 1 2 3 4 demonstrates the importance of geographical proximity for firms pursuing collaboration strategies with a KIBS partner aimed at integrating complementary services as a new competitive source of value (Lafuente et al, 2017;Growe, 2019;Vendrell-Herrero et al, 2019).…”

“…Accordingly, recent studies have introduced the spatial proximity of KIBS into the servitization debate. The literature on KIBS has considered spatial proximity as one key factor influencing the relationship between manufacturers and KIBS firms (Castellon-Orozco et al, 2019;Growe, 2019;Vendrell-Herrero et al, 2019), but further research is still needed on the effect of KIBS firms' geographic proximity on organization's servitization capacity and the factors that might positively or negatively influence this effect.…”

Exploring the relationship between KIBS co-location and the innovativeness of the manufacturing firms in Latin America

“…More generally, we believe that innovation varies both in the continuous space and in different territories (Doloreux & Shearmur, 2012). In any case, traditional theories that apply to Western economies may not apply to less developed countries (Hsieh et al, 2015;Vendrell-Herrero et al, 2019). The present research examines these relationships in the developing economies of Latin America; the finding of somewhat similar results to those of advanced economies being an important contribution.…”

“…The dependent variable, KIBS co-location, is the share of firms in technological services (T-KIBS) as the total service firms in a city where a manufacturing firm is located and is measured at the countrycity level using the method first described in Vendrell-Herrero et al (2019). In deriving our measurement of KIBS, we differentiate between service firms in the IT sector and service firms in other service industries, including the retail sector.…”