Knowledge-based Management Particularities in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the North-Eastern Region of Romania
Knowledge-based Management Particularities in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the North-Eastern Region of Romania

Author(s): Andreea Feraru, Costel Ceocea, Ovidiu Leonard Turcu, Nicoleta Popovici
Subject(s): Management and complex organizations
Published by: Trivent Publishing
Keywords: knowledge-based management; SMEs; knowledge; intellectual capital; competitive advantage; sustainability; convergence; competition; entropic model
Summary/Abstract: In Romania, small and medium-sized enterprises play an essential role in economic life; they have special features that make the adaptation to the knowledge-based economy easier. If the managers of some successful companies in Romania were asked about the value, structure, management, effects, etc. of the company’s intellectual capital, most of their answers would probably be limited to assessments of their patents, product trademarks and IT programs held. At the same time, in an intuitive manner, the answers would also refer to the level and form of training and the talent and experience gained by the employees. The present paper identifies the particularities of knowledge-based management and focuses on the importance of intellectual capital and the benefits it generates in general and in particular for the SMEs in the North-Eastern Region of Romania, also exploring the role of the entire process to provide a valuable human resource as a support for performance increase. The results of the present research, assisted by certain concepts from the specialized literature regarding the role and importance of knowledge, define the competitive advantages of knowledge-based management. Knowledge, as an intangible asset, has proven to be a strategic resource, and the creation of knowledge is a basic competence of present-day organizations. Knowledge is no longer seen as an objective, scientific entity, but as an integration of the subjective and the objective, able to reflect a part of the economic reality. The research highlights the wish to implement diligent recruitment strategies, which are devised in close connection with the reputation that large competitors have, to motivate the opportunities of working in small and medium enterprises that are dynamic and innovative, to clearly define in the recruitment process the requirements that valuable employees should meet from the organization’s point of view, to ensure communication with employees, to offer the guarantee of advantages if they choose to work in that particular enterprise to the detriment of large competitors, to have as objectives the devising of an employee-centred image (“employer brand”) with stress being laid on communication and visibility, including through the website of the organization, social media, promotion of the organization’s message, promotion of models created in the organization and of its performances, to promote the results of the so-called advantages which are too good to refuse (“additional employee benefits”). The small- and medium-sized enterprises in the North Eastern part of Romania that have understood the importance of intellectual capital use knowledge-based management as an instrument to adapt to the ever-changing environment, by way of the timely identification of opportunities and risk avoidance, a behaviour that overlaps with the strategic orientation of the company, understood as its ability to position itself in such a way as to generate and maintain its competitive advance in the long run.

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