Knowledge Management Strategy of the Marketing Function in Medium and Large European Companies

Diplomarbeit von Christian Schaub

Abstract:

An alarming fact was revealed in 1994. Although companies possess large amounts of knowledge, only forty per cent of it is actually used.' Especially in the last decade more and more companies realised, that their most valuable asset lies in what they know. Knowledge is not „just another resource alongside the traditional factors of production - labour, capital, and land - but the only meaningful resource today“2. Not only globalisation but also advances in information technology lead to shorter product life cycles and, therefore, put pressure an companies to keep up with innovation. Changing market environments and the increasing demands of customers require quick actions. In this context, knowledge management is of outstanding importance. It supports companies in their strategy of gaining a position of sustained competitive advantage.

It is the objective of this paper to establish, whether knowledge management is recognised in companies today and to what extent activities are already planned or put into practice. Hence, a theoretical model of knowledge management is presented and tested. For this purpose, the emphasis is put an medium and large European companies of the electronics industry. Although the paper focuses an the marketing function of the organisation, the implications for management practice are not limited to this department. lt is important to see marketing as part of the whole organisation and not to disregard the interactions with all the other business areas.

The opinions about knowledge management reach from just seeing it as a management fad to attitudes, that stress its importance as underlying model of future organisational prosperity. A variety of different approaches to knowledge management have appeared in recent years. Despite similar ways of approaching the subject, uncertainties and inconsistencies in the definitions and procedures remain. That is why this paper, first of all, creates a common ground by defining key terms, that are used in connection with knowledge management. This is followed by a presentation of different concepts of managing the knowledge assets of the corporation. Subsequently, an integrated model an the basis of the cornerstones of knowledge management is developed.

The relationship between international marketing and knowledge management is introduced after examining the barriers to successfully managing knowledge. There are two alternatives of answering the research question of the paper. Firstly, secondary data can be utilised for further exploration. Secondly, a study, that investigates the application of the theoretical model in company practice, can be carried out. As the available material with secondary Information turns out not to be sufficient enough to draw conclusions, that meet the set objective, the Knowledge Management Survey 2001 was conducted. The methodology and design of the study, which solely relies an internet technology, is subject of the following sections.

According to the theoretical framework developed beforehand, the results of the survey are analysed and interpreted. After that, major findings, such as the implications of corporate strategy an knowledge management, are emphasised. Variations in the responses from different country backgrounds and different company sizes represent further areas of interest. An outlook into the future of knowledge management concludes the work.

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