Knowledge-based Theory and Strategic Thinking of Chinese Firms

In the global economy, the national capability of economic growth is based on the competitive advantages of companies. According to the resource-based theory, knowledge advantage is becoming the most important sources for competitive advantage and sustained superior performance. In this paper, the author explores the reasons of why knowledge is so critical for companies to maintaining its competitiveness: the durable, complex and transferable character of knowledge resources made it difficult to be understood, to be copied or imitated by competitors. The paper also discusses the strategies of developed countries to upgrade their knowledge advantage and suggests that, since China joins WTO and more Chinese companies integrated with global market, Chinese firms should adopt the strategies of knowledge absorption, knowledge alliance, knowledge integration and knowledge innovation, in order to establish its own knowledge advantage.