2 Theoretical Background
2.1 Knowledge Management Strategies
The empirical study of Bierly and Chakrabarti (1996) identifies clusters of knowledge
management strategies with different implications on firm performance (explorer,
exploiters, loners and innovators). The authors consider some dimensions such as
internal versus external learning, radical versus incremental learning, fast versus low
learning speed and narrow or broad knowledge base. Other studies analyzes KMS
(Hansen, Nhoria and Tierney, 1999; Schulz and Jobe, 2001) but only consider the way
in which knowledge is stored and transmitted (codification or personalization). The
problem with all of these studies is that they only analyze KMS on the basis of some
dimensions, meaning that they are incomplete.
Although knowledge strategy has many dimensions, for the purposes of this study we
choose to focus on the following domains: a) strategic conception; b) objectives; c)
development over time and the extension of the implementation process; d)
introduction mechanisms and practice and e) support systems for implementation.
Dependent variables have been used to cluster the firms into knowledge groups (Table
1).