Abstract
EFFECT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE LEVELS ON COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF SMEs: THE ORGANIZED INDUSTRIAL ZONE CASE IN MALATYA PROVINCE
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are very important for the country's economy in terms of their assets. "Knowledge" has become an ideal factor in enabling SMEs to survive in a highly competitive environment coexisted with globalization. Today, SMEs, who have knowledge and benefit from knowledge management practices for the success of the business, are more successful than their competitors,
In this study, the contribution of knowledge management practices in SMEs to the competitiveness of the business will be demonstrated. Within the scope of the research, it has tried to find answers to the questions such as what is knowledge management, and has competition superiority been achieved with knowledge management practice in SMEs.
The investigation group of the study consisted of 157 enterprises accessible from 265 SMEs operating in Malatya province center. In the study, a questionnaire consisting of closed-ended and 5-point Likert scale questionnaires were used as data collection method. The hypotheses used to test whether the level of knowledge management practice is a tool for the competitive advantage of SMEs are subjected to correlation and regression analysis. As the conclusion of the study; the results showing knowledge management practices contribute to the competitiveness of SMEs were obtained.
Keywords
Knowledge, Knowledge Management, SME, Competitiveness.
