Building Competitive Advantage for Vietnamese Firms: The Roles of Knowledge Sharing and Innovation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of knowledge sharing (KS) and two specific types of innovation on competitive advantage in Vietnamese firms. Based on using structural equation modeling (SEM) and survey data collected from 225 participants, the findings reveal that KS directly and indirectly affects firm’s competitive advantage through the mediating role of innovation speed and innovation quality. The findings stress the important role of building a positive climate to stimulate employees for sharing knowledge aimed at improving firm’s innovation capability, and sustaining competitive advantage. Future research needs to explore the relationship between three components of knowledge management namely knowledge acquisition, KS, and knowledge application, innovation, and specific aspects of competitive advantage (such as low cost advantage, differentiation advantage, and time advantage) to provide deeper the mechanism of how specifics aspects of knowledge management connected with firm’s certain types of competitive advantage through innovation.