Knowledge management process capabilities for competitive Advantage: A comparison of it multinationals in India

The present era of new economy has overturned the existing explanations for gaining an edge in industry and has ushered in novel means for attaining organizational advantage. At the time of the current revamp, organizational precedence lies not merely in the possession of superior knowledge but in harnessing it to build superior knowledgebased competencies. The present study empirically analyzes not only the relationship between Knowledge Capabilities and Competitive Advantage but also compares the level of deployment of such capabilities in Indian-origin MNCs visa-vis the Foreign-origin MNCs operating in India. The study also analyzes the effect of company's country of origin on its competitiveness as well as the strength of such capabilities. The results show that Knowledge Capabilities significantly impact competitiveness of a firm, with Combination Capability having the maximum impact, followed by Acquisition Capability and Protection Capability respectively. This relationship was found to be true irrespective of the country of origin of MNC. Also, comparison of companies highlighted that Indian MNCs do largely differ from their counterparts as far as the deployment of Knowledge Capabilities and competitiveness is concerned. Furthermore, individual capabilities of the organizations under study are analyzed and strategies to enhance the competitiveness of each organization are suggested.