The inter-relationships between entrepreneurial culture, knowledge management and competitive advantage in a transitional economy

Abstract

To fill the gaps in the literature concerning the role of entrepreneurial culture in the development of knowledge management processes and competitive advantage of small and medium-sized enterprises, this study attempts to model empirically and uncover key aspects of the relationships between these components through analysis of surveys collected from 362 senior executives in Vietnam, a Southeast Asian transitional economy dominated by a Confucian culture. The results of a two-step structural equation modelling analysis demonstrate that knowledge management process capabilities significantly contribute to a firm's competitive advantage, among which knowledge application processes are the most important dimension. The findings also show that in a Confucian-socialist market economy, entrepreneurial culture is the critical element of knowledge management success, although it has no direct contribution to organisational competitiveness. The complexity of Vietnamese culture as it is affected by both Chinese Confucian philosophy and Western values such as French and American norms is also taken into consideration for analysing and interpreting how and why cultural factors are a key enabler of knowledge management process capabilities.