The "triangular" coherence between business and knowledge management strategy configurations in small firms

A firm’s knowledge management (KM) strategy must be strictly linked to its business strategy in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. This study aims to investigate the link between SFs’ business strategies and their knowledge acquisition, selection and generation strategies in order to identify whether they are effectively aligned and if so, how this alignment has come about. After conducting in-depth interviews and cluster analyses on a sample of 56 SFs, the firms were classified into different groups based on their competitive advantages and knowledge acquisition, methods of selection and the types of generation activity they carry out. The level of independence of all those groups was then tested by using a Chi-Square Test. Our findings allow us to conceptualize two typologies of ‘triangular’ coherence between business and KM strategy configurations in SFs. They reveal two different business strategy groups: resource-based oriented firms and market-based oriented firms), three different knowledge generation strategy groups (experiential formalizers, experiential trainers and rational planners) two different knowledge selection strategy groups (personalizers and codifiers) and finally two different knowledge acquisition strategy groups (i.e. focused acquired and relational research). The findings also reveal that resource-based oriented firms are more oriented to being experiential formalizers or trainers or personalizers and focused acquired, while market-based oriented firms are more oriented to being rational planners, codifiers and relational researchers. These findings contribute to the KM literature conceptualizing the fit or coherence between business and KM strategies.