Knowledge Management as Source of sustainable competitive advantage(Comparative Assessment of Egerton University Farms and Private Commercial Farms

Abstract

Creation and sustenance of competitive advantage co ntinues to be the central agenda in strategic resea rch and practice. Farms strive to survive and succeed in co mpetition by pursuing strategies that enable them t o perform better than their competitors. Therefore, the study seeks to assess knowledge management as source of sustainable competitive advantage and its impact on the performance of Egerton University farms. Perfo rmance was analyzed in terms of productivity and profitabi lity. The productivity was assessed as mean yields per acre for crops such as wheat, barley and maize. The Dair y sector assessment looked at average milk producti vity per cow per day. Profitability was analyzed using Net F arm Income and Rate of Return on Assets (ROA). The farm business is a function of land, capital, labuor and management particularly that of knowledge. In addi tion, it is subject to variability of prices, costs, yields and seasons. This study was necessary because the farm businesses are currently operating under a lot of competition, and thus the expected outcomes of effective knowle dge management led to improved organizational effective ness, improved productivity, a way to capture best practices, improved decision making, a more innovat ive organization, source of competitiveness and imp roved performance. The objectives were achieved by use of both secondary data obtained from the farm account s and other productivity records while primary data was c ollected by the use of structured and semi-structur ed questionnaire from people who have had experience w ith or associated with the running of Egerton Unive rsity farms. The data collected was analyzed using descri ptive and inferential statistics with assistance of SPSS software. The hypotheses were tested using Mann-Whi tney U test and Chi-Square test. The study came ou t with the following major findings; first the study estab lished that the private farms were more profitable than Egerton University farms. Secondly, the study estab lished that private Farms were more productive in b oth crops and milk productivity. Third, the study found out that the private farms were more aware why the y acquired the information compared to Egerton Univer sity farms, a scenario which will make the private farms be more competitive than the university farms which were not clear on their reasons for acquiring info rmation. Fourth, the private farms acquired, stored and shar ed information for their competitive advantage from various sources compared to Egerton University farms, a sit uation which made the private farms be more competi tive than the university.