Abstract:

Externalisation of knowledge plays a vital role in improving the overall performance of the organisation. Externalisation of knowledge is one vital dimensions of knowledge creation that is shared among people to form the basis of new knowledge. It enables managers to make creative decision that enhances the degree to which the knowledge, skills learned and services offered improve the overall performance of the organisation but still, organisations are faced with challenges how externalisation can be used to improve and differentiate their service(s) from others in a competitive business environment. Therefore, this study examined the effect of externalisation of knowledge on process differentiation of the selected IT firms in Nigeria. This study was descriptive and also adopted a sequential explanatory approach to elicit information from staff of IT firms. The use of quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (structured interview) were adopted. The quantitative data were analyzed using measurement and structural modeling. The findings indicated that the selected IT firms encouraged their staff during group discussion, to understand others’ opinions, thoughts and information and consistently encourage others to express and actively share their experiences. Based on the above, the sampled IT firms should ensure they continually transcribe some unorganised thoughts into concrete ideas most of the time in order to keep up with changes within the organization or from an outside environment.