Formal Versus Informal Training & Tacit Versus Explicit Knowledge Sharing: What Matters More for the Entrepreneurially Oriented Firms?

The beneficial outcome of a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (E.O) has been widely researched, but literature and empirical studies about factors that stimulate E.O remain scarce.  Previous research has showed that employee training is a crucial mechanism to foster E.O others has exhibited that a higher level of knowledge sharing is related to a stronger E.O. Although, previous researches do not distinguish neither between different type of training, with the most important distinction being between formal and informal nor between different form of knowledge sharing, with the very popular being between tacit and explicit. In view of the difference for each pair contrasts of one over the other, they are widely considered to have different impact on the E.O’s dimensions namely innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking in SMEs.  Our research model is tested with survey data collected from 186 Tunisian small and medium-sized textile & clothing firms. Findings reveal that the level of each dimension of E.O- Innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking differs based on the form of knowledge sharing either tacit or explicit and the type of training either formal or informal

Customer Knowledge Management: Improving Performance in Tunisian Hotels Through Customer Value

We investigate the effects of customer knowledge management (CKM) on customer value (CV) and performance using a questionnaire survey of the Tunisian hotel industry. Tunisia offers an exemplary case, exhibiting a serious requirement to reattract tourists and critical need to improve hotel profitability. The industry suffered dramatic reductions in tourist numbers as a result of terrorist attacks. The study develops a conceptual account of knowledge as an asset and how it is used. We employ two contrasting samples; hotel managers (n= 121) and hotel customers (n= 597).Our review of the literature enabled us to build hypotheses which we tested with a logit model. We found robust evidence that good knowledge management is related to perceptions of value. In turn, this enhances performance. Nonetheless, CKM directly enhances financial performance rather than non-financial performance. However, the indirect effects of CKM on both financial and non-financial performance were significant. We conclude that good knowledge management offers a very useful approach to enhancing perceptions of value and hotel performance