The moderating effects of competitiveness and technological turbulence on the interaction between relational competence and knowledge generation

ABSTRACT

The paper purpose is to analyse the antecedents to the generation and dissemination of interorganisational knowledge through the analysis of firms’ relational competence (NetComp), including a moderation test for market environment. The empirical research consisted of a survey with 198 US firms and data were statistically tested using SEM. The results show that firms’ relational competence is more effective in highly competitive environments than in technologically turbulent ones. We also identify a stronger impact of relational competence on knowledge generation than in knowledge dissemination. Theoretical implications shows that market competitiveness and technological turbulence moderate the relationship between firms’ relational competence and generation of knowledge through interorganisational relations and its internal dissemination. For managerial implications, the managers should apply more effort to improve firms’ relational competence in order to access and generate knowledge from partners. Such competences are increasingly relevant since firms may be able to generate knowledge through multiple partnerships.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge generation
• relational competence
• interorganisational relations
• network competence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.