Similarly, firms were clustered by a K-means non-hierarchical technique. The result was similar to that of Ward's, except for the number of cases and group sequence. Both cluster analyses resulted in proof of reliability and validity. Either Ward's or the K-means method could be used. In this study, the result of Ward's technique was adopted.
Firms were categorized as high or low based on the degree of explicit-oriented strategy. Similarly, firms were categorized as high or low level of tacit-oriented, internal-oriented, and external-oriented degree by the use of Ward's hierarchical technique. Finally, firms were categorized along with high or low level of combination of KM focus and KM source (tacit-internal oriented and explicit-external oriented) degree that are widely adopted in previous research [6] and [2]. Table 7 summarizes the result of the cluster analysis by using Ward's hierarchical technique.