ABSTRACT Drawing on the resource‐based view, the current study examines the association between knowledge management practices and competitive advantage in Pakistan's PHEIs, with multiple mediators of innovation capabilities such as product development capability, innovativeness, strategic capability, and technological capability. A hypothetico‐deductive research design with a time‐lag approach was employed to collect data from 266 respondents at PHEIs in Pakistan, conducted in three phases with a one‐month time interval. The development of underlying mechanisms comprising crucial multiple mediators in PHEIs in Pakistan leads to the attainment of CA. The study demonstrated that RBV can also be used in higher education settings to achieve competitive advantage (CA). The study further validates several underlying processes that contribute to the competitive advantage of Public Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) in Pakistan.
Akram et al. (Wed,) studied this question.