Proceedings of Annual Paris Economics, Finance and Business Conference
7 - 8 April 2016, Espace Vocation Haussmann, Paris, France
ISBN: 978-1-925488-04-3
Managing the Knowledge Value Chain in UAE Family
Businesses: A Multiple Case-Study Approach
Omar Belkhodja
Despite a growing interest for family firms, very few studies have explored the specificities of family firms’
knowledge management process and strategies. Moreover, we know very little about how to climb the
knowledge ladder in family businesses. Based on a multiple case-study approach, the paper will explore the
cause-and-effects chains activated by different knowledge management resources in family businesses and
the determinants of success and failure of family businesses for climbing the knowledge ladder.
The move from the resource-based view to the knowledge-based view made companies realize that
knowledge is the main source of sustainable competitive advantage (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). Effective
management of knowledge resources became a prerequisite for the development of effective organizational
capabilitiesthat are leveraged into products and services to enhance the firm’s capacity to compete in the
marketplace. Knowledge management resources included the strategies and process for identifying,
capturing, sharing, and leveraging explicit and tacit knowledge. The process of knowledge management
included activities such as knowledge acquisition, knowledge integration, knowledge dissemination, and
knowledge utilization.
Conceptually, Michael Porter's value chain addressed the physical supply chain and the value-building
process in the context of a logistical materials flow. From a knowledge-based view, the knowledge value
chain reflected the company’s ability to generate cause-and-effect chains activated by the different
knowledge management resources (Carlucci et al., 2004). Value creation is maximized when all knowledge
related activities are successfully undertaken.The interaction between the components of the knowledge
value chain results in knowledge performance and in value creation. In fact, firm capabilities and subsequent
competitive advantage depend on how the firm organizes and performs the different building block activities
of the knowledge value-chain. Often, organizations fail to implement the right knowledge management
strategies or to deliver expected results from their knowledge value chain. The causes of failure include a
breakdown in the implementation of knowledge management strategies;the lack of a knowledge strategic
vision and internal synergies; the lack of internal processes or their lack of efficiency; and an unbalance
between the stocks of explicit and tacit knowledge due to over-codification, to name but a few.
Family business as a field of inquiry has significantly advanced in volume and variety of perspectives,
theories and methods. The field has come a long way since rationalist and normative principles dominated
and advocated the need to isolate family from business issues to ensure effectiveness. The adoption of
wider theoretical perspectives from resource-based analyses (Chrisman et al., 2003); field theory (Riordan
and Riordan, 1993), agency theory (Schulze et al, 2003), stewardship theory (Zahra, 2003), family business
systems (Zody et al, 2006) and family-embeddedness (Aldrich and Cliff, 2003), to name a few, have helped
to broaden the theoretical landscape of this sphere of study and provided critical explanations from
sociology, administrative sciences, and many others. All these positive developments established family
firms as a significant empirical phenomenon and as a prominent organizational form.
Despite a growing interest for family firms, very few studies have explored the specificities of family firms’
knowledge management process and strategies (e.g. Carlucci et al., 2004). Moreover, we know very little
about how to climb the knowledge ladder in family businesses. The process of knowledge value creation
remains widely unexplored in the family business research field. As a matter of fact, researchers in
operations management investigated the logistical value chain in family businesses whereas studies in
strategic management applied the resource-based view to investigate performance related issues in family
businesses. In the knowledge management field, studies looked at the knowledge value chain as a chain of
______________________________________________________________________
Dr. Omar Belkhodja, Associate Professor of Management, American University of Sharjah, United Arab
Emirates, Email: obelkhodja@aus.ed
Proceedings of Annual Paris Economics, Finance and Business Conference
7 - 8 April 2016, Espace Vocation Haussmann, Paris, France
ISBN: 978-1-925488-04-3
normativecause-and-effect knowledge-based activities that generate capabilities and a competitive
advantage. The specificities of the firm’s knowledge management process and strategies have been ignored
in the conceptualization of the knowledge value chain. Moreover, a positivist approach of “the more-the
better” has been widely adopted in the knowledge management field claiming that companies have to invest
heavily in knowledge management tools (mainly in information systems and technology) to create
valueregardless of firm’s specificities or knowledge intensity.
The objectives of this research are:
1- To provide an integrative knowledge value chain conceptualization that builds on the advances and
perspectives adopted in the literatures in strategic management, operations management, family
business, and knowledge management.
2- To highlight the specificities of family businesses in terms of knowledge management process and
strategies; and knowledge value chain activities.
3- To explore the determinants of success and failure for climbing the knowledge ladder in a family
business context.
4- Due to the exploratory nature of the study; to provide propositions as to how to succeed in managing
the activities of the knowledge value chain and the chain as a whole. A framework will be designed in
future research.
5- To explore how family businesses in knowledge intensive and in less knowledge intensive industries
in the United Arab Emirates manage their knowledge value chain activities and the extent to which
they are successful in climbing the knowledge ladder. By adopting a multiple-case study approach,
intra case analyses and cross case analyses will be conducted.
6- To provide recommendations for practitioners and managers to improve their knowledge
management process and strategies, and increase