Alignment between business and knowledge management strategies: The key to a sustainable competitive advantage

In the era of knowledge economy, the necessity of recognizing knowledge as a key and intangible asset makes the effective management of knowledge a priority. Business strategy is the most important context for guiding effective knowledge management. And, knowledge management (KM) is also a dimension of business competitive strategy. Based on Miles and Snow's (1978) business strategy typology, as well as KM strategy types proposed by Hansen, Nohria and Tierney (1999), this study examines the impact of alignment on perceived sustainable competitive advantage between business strategy and KM strategy. The results indicate that the alignment of business strategy and KM strategy helps to promote a sustainable competitive advantage. But for different business strategy, alignment seems to influence competitive advantage only in Analyzers. The research findings confirm the importance of the alignment between business strategy and KM strategy. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.