A comprehensive investigation of the critical factors influencing knowledge management strategic alignment

Abstract

Despite the huge investment in Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives by many organizations, KM projects are facing a high failure rate. One of the main reasons is the lack of alignment between business and KM strategies. This study aims to identify and prioritize the factors affecting strategic alignment between business and KM strategies. A comprehensive literature review integrated with the focus group method was used to identify and classify effective factors of KM strategic alignment. Next, a survey method was conducted to evaluate and prioritize the extracted factors suggested by the experts. Further, the sign test was used to analyze the priorities of these factors using Shannon’s entropy method. The results reveal that the key factors affecting strategic alignment between business strategies and KM include knowledge-based culture, KM governance, and strategic approach to KM, communication between KM and business, top management support, human resource capabilities, environmental and competitive factors and IT management capabilities. The findings provide a comprehensive KM-business strategic framework.