How strategic knowledge management drives intellectual capital to superior innovation and market performance

The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderation effect of strategic knowledge management (SKM) on the relationship between three components of intellectual capital (IC) and firm innovation and market performance. The authors argue that specific combinations of IC components and SKM activities can lead to higher innovation and market performance. It is also trying to assist companies to capitalize on both their IC and SKM.

Survey data have been collected from 101 Serbian companies, and these have been analyzed by using structural equation modelling (SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) techniques.

The SEM results show that structural capital and relational capital have a direct effect on innovation performance. Although, there is no significant direct effect of human capital on innovation performance, the relationship becomes significant when moderated by SKM. The effects of human and structural capital on innovation performance are negatively moderated by SKM activities, while SKM positively moderates the effect of relational capital on innovation performance, but remained insignificant. Moreover, the insights from fsQCA show a clear pattern of equifinality, in that there are multiple combinations of static and dynamic conditions that can lead to higher innovation and market performance.

Two separate research fields of “static” IC and “dynamic” knowledge management have been combined in one integrated framework. From a methodological perspective, symmetric and asymmetric statistical tools have been combined to better understand contingency and interactions. This approach contributes to the literature and potentially offers a better understanding of how static intangible assets should be enabled by dynamic knowledge-based managerial activities to achieve high performance. The paper demonstrates that SKM capability matters with only a specific constellation of IC resources and therefore suggests a novel explanation for performance variances.