The Moderating Effect of Knowledge Management Strategies on the Relationship between Intellectual Capital and Performance of Large Manufacturing Firms in Kenya

Knowledge management is concerned with the processes and ways for managing intellectual assets to realize competitive advantages. Although the knowledge management processes naturally exist within the firm, they vary across firms depending of specific contexts faced by organizations. This study sought to establish the moderating effect of knowledge management strategies on the relationship between intellectual capital and performance. This study was guided by positivism philosophy and used a deductive approach. The study adopted a descriptive survey. The population of interest comprised all the 124 large manufacturing firms in Kenya that are members of the Kenya Association of Manufacturer (KAM) as at December 2019. Data was gathered using a questionnaire. The questionnaire targeted CEO, director of human resources and finance. To test this hypothesis, the moderating variable, knowledge management strategies, was indicated by 4 sub-variables, including acquisition and creation, capturing strategies, transferability/sharing and integration and networking. The study findings indicated that knowledge management strategies have a significant moderating influence on the association between intellectual capital and performance significant. The extent to which firms' intellectual capital results in desirable performance is dependent on the knowledge management strategies employed thereof. The study recommends that large manufacturing firms in the country seeking to improve their performance improve their knowledge management strategies in order to enhance the extent to which intellectual capital thereof, yields desirable organizational performance. This can be achieved by tapping into the wealth of knowledge in the external environment to inform their production and human resource management processes and practices for innovation and performance improvements.