Fuzzy AHP Analysis of Firm-Level Knowledge Accumulation

Knowledge is considered to be a useful tool for a firm’s competitiveness and sustainability. There is considerable evidence confirming that firm-level knowledge (FLK) accumulation provides a competitive advantage for firms, through innovation. Therefore, most knowledge-intensive firms accumulate FLK via exploitative practices to prevent deterioration of their innovation performance. This study adopts methods including expert interviews, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy set theory to analyse the FLK accumulation in firms. This study proposes that three influential factors for FLK accumulation are knowledge integration (KI), knowledge absorption (KA) and knowledge sharing (KS). This study reveals that KI is the most influential factor of a firm’s FLK accumulation, and the sub-factor of “Integration Ability” plays the most critical role of KI in FLK accumulation.