Knowledge management and competitiveness in cooperatives with section of savings and credit

Abstract

The social nature of cooperatives does not mean that their processes should be inefficient; on the contrary, they should have policies that allow the establishment of competitive advantages. On the other hand, in the post-industrial economy, knowledge has become a relevant asset. Consequently, research aims to analyse the relationship between knowledge management and competitiveness in credit unions in Barranquilla. For this purpose, it is based on a critical rationalist approach, quantitative paradigm, correlational scope and non-experimental transversal design. For the technique, a survey was conducted through a questionnaire applied to managers of 30 credit unions, which were selected according to a simple random sampling and the data were analyzed using statistical tools. The results indicate the presence of alignments aimed at creating, identifying, acquiring, classifying, storing, applying, updating and transferring knowledge; however, there are no significant relationships between these processes and the development of strategies for determining the key success factors; for this reason, it is concluded that in the context of the institutions studied, there is no empirical evidence that supports the theoretical foundations related to the influence of intangible asset management. Finally, the foundations are built for carrying out studies that seek to strengthen solidarity organizations based on the visualization of systematic processes that, based on organizational learning skills, contribute to obtaining a competitive position in the market.