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Knowledge as a Strategic Weapon

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Emergent Knowledge Strategies

Part of the book series: Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning ((IAKM,volume 4))

Abstract

Knowledge has long been accepted as a strategic asset to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. The purpose of this chapter is to show how, in the literature, the connection between knowledge and strategy has been more or less clearly underlined. In the first part of this chapter, we will show why knowledge is increasingly considered one of the fundamental elements of value creation in business. Its strategic attribute became essential especially in the last decades, due to the turbulence of the business environment. Since the creation of economic value is the most important requirement for achieving success, this soon brings us to the idea of a strategy as a means of realizing it. In Sect. 3.2, a discussion about the notion of strategy will be provided, starting with the military original meanings of it. In Sect. 3.3 we will show how this notion has evolved over time as a result of a new equilibrium of forces between internal and external business environment. Finally, we will illustrate that knowledge has always been a central element in all the various perspectives on strategy and strategic thinking that can be found in the literature and managerial practice.

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Bolisani, E., Bratianu, C. (2018). Knowledge as a Strategic Weapon. In: Emergent Knowledge Strategies. Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60657-6_3

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