Chapter One

Introduction
1.1 Introduction

The first section of this chapter outlines the background, the problem of
the research, its purpose, the research questions, the research hypotheses
and objectives. The next section describes the justification of the study,
its significance and scope. Finally, the last section includes the
methodology which describes the population and the sampling method
used and how data is collected.

1.2 Background

Knowledge has turn out to be the fundamental economic resource next to

labor, land and capital and perhaps even the only source of competitive
(1)
advantage . Today we live in a knowledge intensive society where
knowledge plays a key role to success and thus the organizations needs
(2)
to consider how they manage knowledge within their organization .
Intellectual capital is considered to be the most valuable intangible asset
for the organization, through which it has the exclusive unique capability
that cannot be imitated by other competitors. Even though some forms of
intellectual capital are transferable, internal knowledge is not easily
copied. This means that the knowledge secured in employees minds can
get lost if they decide to leave the organization. Therefore, the key
objective of management is to improve the processes of acquisition,
integration and usage of knowledge, which is exactly what knowledge
management, is all about (3).

Prior the technological development, organizations had three alternative

generic strategies to gain a competitive advantage, which are overall cost
(4)
leadership, differentiation, and focus . Nowadays, with a global,
intangible, and integrated perspective of business, organizations are faced
with new challenges. Moreover global competition and new challenges
facing business and industry are creating substantial pressures on all
organizations (5).

In particular, the globalization of business activity coupled with the

increasingly rapid development and diffusion of technology gradually led
to an erosion of traditional sources of competitive advantage, requiring
firms to clearly understand the changing nature of competition and adopt
complementary and/or supplementary strategic approaches. One popular
approach used to understand competitive dynamics is the resource-based
view of the firm. According to this view, only those resources that are
valuable, rare, hard to imitate, and cannot be substituted provide a
sustainable competitive advantage intangible resources are likely to
produce a competitive advantage, among which human capital is usually
the most important because it is the most difficult to imitate. Moreover, in
todays dynamic environment with its rapid and unpredictable changes,
tangible assets have become easily accessible, imitable, and substitutable.
As such, the foundations of organizational competitiveness have been
shifting to an emphasis on knowledge (6), and managing knowledge-based
resources has become the key for sustaining competitive advantage and
superior performance (7).

1.3 Research Problem

Knowledge management plays an increasingly important role in

organizations. In a knowledge based society, organizations usually face
obstacles as they pursue to manage knowledge. Knowledge assets are not
appropriately identified, acquired, stored, and used in a successful and
efficient manner. This problem tends to produce substantial risk since
critical organizational knowledge assets may be lost, not accessible or
only recovered at a high cost.

According to Gartner, Knowledge management is seen as a holistic,

business-driven commitment to managing information as a valuable asset
to achieve better knowledge governance and share-ability, and a
programmatic framework.

Several organizations have now come to realize that without

programmatic framework, their knowledge management projects will
continue to create silos of knowledge, increase costs of storage, and limit
knowledge reusability, pattern discovery and transparency.

Key success factors are a commitment to manage knowledge as an asset

and a programmatic framework to implement it. Many organizations
believe they are doing knowledge management while in reality they are
not.

1.4 Research objectives

1.4.1 General objective
To assess the capability of knowledge management as a mean to gain
competitive advantage to identify the possible existing gaps in the
knowledge management systems and suggesting the possible ways to fill
this gap in Sumasu medical and educational service Co.
1.4.2 Specific objectives
To investigate the social knowledge management capability of the
company of Sumasu medical and educational service Co.
1.
To investigate the technical knowledge management capability of the
company of Sumasu medical and educational service Co.
 2. To investigate the knowledge management process capability of
Sumasu medical and educational service Co. .
3. To assess the maturity level in which Sumasu medical and
educational service Co. . is in.
4. To investigate the impact of knowledge management on the
competitive advantage of Sumasu medical and educational service
Co. .

1.5 Hypotheses
H1: technical and social knowledge management infrastructure
capabilities are positively correlated.
H2: technical knowledge management infrastructure capability is
positively related to knowledge management process capability.
H3: social knowledge management infrastructure capability is
positively related to knowledge management process capability.
H4: knowledge management capability has a positive impact on
competitive advantage.

1.6 Justification of the study

Knowledge management is an essential function in each and every
organization, because activities will not be implemented, and resources
will not to be utilized unless the know-how is there, in the mind of the
employees, as well as in the organizational memory.
It is most likely that Sudanese organizations are not aware of this critical
resource, this research is conducted to examine to which extent
knowledge management can be used to gain a competitive advantage in
Sumasu medical and educational service Co. .

1.7 Methodology
1.7.1 Study design
According to current state of knowledge, a cross-sectional survey is the
most appropriate study design to answer the research questions. This type
of design is the standard methodology used to investigate knowledge
management.

1.7.2 Study area

Sumasu medical and educational service Co. Located in Khartoum
North, Khartoum stateSudan. This study area was chosen because it is
a private company that is easily accessible to the research team.

1.7.3 Population
Study unit: a graduate employee of Sumasu medical and
educational service Co. .
Target population: all graduate employees in Sumasu medical and
educational service Co. . who are aware about knowledge
management.

1.7.4 Sampling
Sampling technique: simple random sampling technique was
used.
Sample size: a list of Sumasu medical and educational service
Co. . employees were provided by human resource department, a
random selection of 50 members from the list was conducted.

1.7.5 Data collection tools and techniques:

A self-administered interviewing technique was used to collect the
data as per objectives and variables.

1.7.6 Data management and statistical analysis:

Data will be analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS software version 20). Descriptive statistical
methods were used where appropriate. Alpha level will be set at
0.05.