Customer Knowledge Acquisition in Omani Organizations

Introduction

The objective of this study is to investigate the value of customer knowledge acquisition on businesses performance. Customer knowledge (CK) is becoming crucial for organizations, especially service-based organizations. Customers are becoming more powerful, and customer-focused strategy is becoming the main strategy that enables competitive advantage. Knowledge is the only meaningful economic resource (Drucker, 1996), and specifically, CK is the most indispensable asset when pursuing a competitive advantage, according to some surveys (Bennet and Gabriel, 1999). The long-term survival of an organization depends on its ability to generate new knowledge and continuously learn from the external environment, such as customers and competitors (Hoe, 2008).

According to the literature, CK is categorized into three main categories: (1) knowledge for customers, (2) knowledge about customers, and (3) knowledge from customers (Gebert et al., 2003). Zanjani et al. (2008) provided a more detailed classification of each category. However, acquiring knowledge from external sources, such as customers, may be more challenging than from internal sources, such as employees. Consequently, the implementation of technologies for customer knowledge management (CKM) may not be easy. In addition, organizations find the implementation of information technology (IT) tools, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, is difficult, and most organizations fail to implement them properly (Wu, 2010). Thus, many organizations may feel resistant to establish mechanisms and technologies to acquire CK. Utilizing customer knowledge to enhance organizational performance is a major challenge, and several human, organizational, and technological enablers can impact CKM (Khosrav & Nilashi, 2018). Top management support is a major challenge in CKM, along with corporate culture, chief knowledge officer roles, and talented humans (Liew, 2008). Supporting CKM can be costly, but it adds value to organizations, as CK is the most valuable knowledge for customer-knowledge focused organizations (Gebert et al., 2003). Customer knowledge management is critical for generating products and facilities and enhancing customer cooperation (Chen & Su, 2006; Ziemba et al., 2016). Recognizing the benefits of CK acquisition will enable organizations to gain the support of top management. Very limited empirical studies have examined the specific impact of acquiring each CK type. Some studies, such as Stefanou et al. (2003), Shi and Yip (2007), Lin and Hong (2008), Kim and Kim (2009), Chung et al. (2016), Krishna and Ravi (2016), Tome (2016), and Khosravi and Hussin (2018), have reported benefits of customer knowledge acquisition in the use of technologies for customer knowledge.

Consequently, this study aims to provide an integrative perspective and empirically assess the benefits of acquiring each type of CK. Specifically, this study assesses the impact of each CK type (knowledge for customers, knowledge about customers, and knowledge from customers) on business processes, employees, products, customers, financial performance, and market performance of the organizations. Even though organizations and researchers have recognized the value of knowledge management, they have not generally considered external knowledge such as CK (Tseng, 2009; Al-Busaidi, 2012). Thus, this investigation aims to illustrate the importance of each CK type for organizations. Classifying CK into distinct categories is important because it “can help businesses identify different aspects of CK, and thus be able to manage them better accordingly” (Zanjani et al., 2008, p. 303) and manage customer relationships (Gebert et al., 2003). Assessing the value, success, and performance measurements of knowledge-based solutions is critical to justify implementation cost (Jennex et al., 2019).