Does knowledge management “fit” matter to business performance?

Drawing on the concept of fit, this paper aims to propose a knowledge management (KM) fit model within which KM strategy, IT strategy, and HRM strategy are coaligned and to empirically test this model with empirical data.

Data for hypotheses testing are collected from top‐ranked companies in Taiwan; yielding 161 valid samples. Performance implications of fit are examined using multiple perspectives with covariation and matching approaches.

The findings show that the holistic perspective of fit as covariation supports the fit relationships on business performance. In addition, with the reductionistic perspective of fit as matching, the findings also show their bivariate relationships have significant impacts on business performance.

A successful KM project must take various attributes into account, to ensure a positive outcome. In such a context, organization, process, human resources, and IT are thought to be the key elements and enablers for best KM practices. Thus, cogitating and integrating various factors related to the KM area are considered by researchers to be the most important tasks. However, fit mechanism is a dynamic process. The authors suggest that future research should adopt a longitudinal view to deal with the dynamic changes that may occur in fit operations.

There has been little attempt to explore KM issues by using multiple perspectives to examine the performance implications of fit on business performance. Thus, the authors posit that performance measuring in growth and profitability are affected by fit among these three KM‐related strategies.