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Chapter 61
A Knowledge Management
Approach to Marketing and
the Advent of Customer
Knowledge Management
Samiha Mjahed
University of Tunis, Tunisia
Abdelfattah Triki
University of Tunis, Tunisia
ABSTRACT
This chapter is intended to give an overview of knowledge management (KM), and to explore its extension
to the marketing discipline. It is basically aimed to set the stage for the conceptualisation of knowledge-
based complaint management rather than to provide a thorough and exhaustive literature review of the
KM theory per se. Therefore the contribution of the chapter in hand lies in the fact that it integrates the
concept of customer knowledge in the field of complaint management.
INTRODUCTION such a way that generally accepted concepts be
reconsidered and re-evaluated.
Knowledge is an important resource residing in- In order to succeed in the knowledge-based
side and outside the boundaries of the firm. Effort economy, business firms need to commit to con-
is needed to access such a resource and research tinuous learning and to adapt quickly to chang-
is warranted to challenge our core assumptions ing environments with the help of knowledge
and the way we view learning and adaptability in management (KM).
The objective of this chapter is therefore to
give an overview of the knowledge management
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1598-4.ch061 (KM) and to explore its extension to the marketing
Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

2. A Knowledge Management Approach to Marketing and the Advent of Customer Knowledge Management
discipline. This may help us unlock and mobilize comes information. Knowledge is created when
precious knowledge about KM that is imprisoned information is transformed into capabilities for
in local pockets scattered in different business effective action, in other words when informa-
areas, particularly in CRM. Complaint and service tion is used and disseminated between people in
failure recovery is one of context application. documented form or in interaction (Rollins and
Based on extant literature, the chapter in hand Halinen 2005).
looks at the knowledge management approach According to Spiegler (2003), the data-infor-
to business in general, and to marketing in par- mation-knowledge traditional hierarchy ascertains
ticular. Then, it focuses on the integration of KM that technology is a means, and knowledge the
in CRM thus leading to the advent of Customer result of the production process, while the re-
Knowledge Management per se (CKM). Finally, versed approach presents knowledge as feeding
complaint management processes are presented back information to become itself data and to
as illustrations of CKM. provide a renewed KM system. This means that
knowledge precedes data and determines the type
of data to collect.
CORE CONCEPTS OF KNOWLEDGE According to the same author knowledge pro-
duction is a continuous cycle that is based on the
Data, Information and Knowledge traditional data-information-knowledge hierarchy
and the new knowledge-information-data hier-
Understanding what knowledge means is impor- archy because the data-information-knowledge
tant in exploiting knowledge management in or- is perceived as a cycle where data is posited as
ganisations. In understanding what knowledge is, a starting point as and as a result of information
one needs to start with clarifying the more widely and where information is a starting point and the
confused terms: data, information and knowledge. end result of knowledge.
Knowledge is becoming more and more valu- The data-information-knowledge cyclical rela-
able for organisations and is now recognised as a tionship is presented hereafter as a loop whereby
resource that is useful to an organisation’s ability wisdom results from knowledge and reality is ac-
to innovate and compete. Knowledge constitutes cessed through data (Spiegler 2003; see Figure 1).
the anchor of the marketing concept. Marketing
intelligence, i.e. gathering data about market Tacit/Explicit Knowledge and Modes
including customers and competitors from vari- of Knowledge Conversion
ous sources and sharing it within an organisation
has long been the focus of the market orientation There seems to be a congruence of understand-
philosophy (Rollins and Halinen 2005). ing that Knowledge can be either explicit or tacit
Technological developments have fostered the and scholars often use the word knowledge to
discussion around the role of knowledge. Tech- mean both. Explicit knowledge, also known as
nology and knowledge are not substitute. While formal or codified knowledge, can be expressed
organisations are geared towards acquiring the by words and numbers and can be shared by
latest developments, knowledge is perceived a IT-systems, whereas tacit knowledge, known as
strategic advantage. KM is believed to go beyond implicit knowledge is unspoken and hidden. It
information systems, decision support systems, is knowledge that is held in workers’ minds and
and data management systems. embedded in the fulfilment of their job which is
Data presents observations and facts. When hard to formalise and communicate.
data is placed in some meaningful context it be-
1031

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