Abstract
The firm is a repository for knowledge—the knowledge being embedded in business routines and processes. Distinctive processes undergird firm-specific assets and competences (defined as integrated clusters of firm-specific assets). The firm’s knowledge base includes its technological competences as well as its knowledge of customer needs and supplier capabilities. These competences reflect both individual skills and experiences as well as distinctive ways of doing things inside firms. The essence of the firm is its ability to create, transfer, assemble, integrate, and exploit knowledge assets. Knowledge assets underpin competences, and competences in turn underpin the firm’s product and service offerings to the market. Competitive advantage can be attributed not only to the ownership of knowledge assets and other assets complementary to them, but also to the ability to combine knowledge assets with other assets needed to create value.
Copyright © 1998, by The Regents of the University of California. Reprinted from the California Management Review, Vol. 40, No. 3, By permission of the Regents.
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Teece, D.J. (2004). Knowledge and Competence as Strategic Assets. In: Holsapple, C.W. (eds) Handbook on Knowledge Management 1. International Handbooks on Information Systems, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24746-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24746-3_7
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