KNOWLEDGE AS A KEY FACTOR OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES AND PROMOTION OF INNOVATION

Abstract

Each level of the technical - technological development requires a certain level of qualifications of the workforce. Namely, the changes in the level of development have imposed the changes in required knowledge of employees. At the lower stages of development, the production base and competitiveness of enterprises were the skills of workers and its physical strength. At a higher level of development, the machine replaces a physical power of the workers and the significant features of its operations. Labor-intensive production replaces the production that is capital intensive, so labor and capital, either in its natural or financial term, are becoming the basis for competitiveness of enterprises. The contemporary level of development is characterized by further transfer from human work to machines which take almost all the features of human work except his own mind. In the production process, one moves from the very process to the sphere of management and decision-making which are in his interest. In fact, at the modern stage of development, when information technologies take over significant operations from people and leave them only option to use their own mind, the education, continuous and quick learning, becomes essential. Nowadays, the modern level of development focuses on the knowledge of employees, so the possession of more knowledge and its efficient usage form the basis of competition advantage of enterprises.