DYNAMIC KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY FOR THE SMALL TOURISM FIRM

Gannon, Catherine and Lynch, Patrick and Harrington, Denis (2009) DYNAMIC KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY FOR THE SMALL TOURISM FIRM. In: IAM Conference (September 2009), 02nd - 4th September 2009, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology.

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Abstract

Strategic management theory has largely and traditionally focused on the external environment in which a firm can achieve competitive advantage (Bounfour, 2003). Increasingly literature has redirected their focus towards the more controllable internal resources within the firm (Barney, 1991). An increasing amount of literature has recognised that the potential for competitive advantage arises from Intellectual Capital (IC) in the form of human, social and structural resources (Teece, 1998). Previous IC literature has tended to focus mostly on the measurement of individual components of IC and IC components collectively (Mayo, 2000; Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998; Stewart, 1997). Essentially IC amalgamates to a firm’s knowledge assets. Although it makes sense to redirect IC theory towards Knowledge Management (KM) thinking, it has traditionally remained as two distinct areas (Bounfour, 2003). The scant literature that does link KM with IC has been produced purely on a theoretical basis (Moustaghfir, 2008) and the tendency has been to focus on larger firms with case studies and little research has taken place in the tourism industry (Engstrom et al, 2003; Roos and Roos, 1997b) or SME sector. Key authors in the area are calling for the integration of academics and management practitioners to form a practice based model (Grant, 1997). This article therefore seeks to create this link between IC and KM in the Irish tourism sector, by identifying the IC resources of importance, and leveraging these resources through knowledge management capability. Further this paper identifies and distinguishes between the cognitive based aspects of knowledge management and the action based area of organisational learning that will enhance the tourism firm’s competitive advantage.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Departments or Groups: RIKON (Research in Inovation, Knowledge & Organisational Networks)
Divisions: School of Business
Date Deposited: 21 Sep 2009 15:27
Last Modified: 22 Aug 2016 10:26
URI: https://repository.wit.ie/id/eprint/1382

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