Knowledge alignment in small and medium enterprises: A novel FST method

This paper proposes a novel fuzzy logic method to evaluate the level of alignment between an enterprise's knowledge and knowledge management systems (KMSs). A given enterprise's knowledge is identified from the epistemological and ontological perspectives. KMSs are divided into two groups: knowledge management practices (KMPractices) and knowledge management tools (KM-Tools). The proposed method is implemented by means of a field analysis based on semi-structured face-To-face interviews involving a sample of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The paper highlights that the process of alignment goes beyond the dyadic convergence of the enterprise's knowledge and KMPractices or KM-Tools, being in fact a process of triadic alignment, where changes in one of the three components (the enterprise's knowledge, KM-Tools and KM-Practices) are reflected in the level of alignment with the other two components. The paper also highlights that even though on average there is a low level of alignment of an enterprise's knowledge with KM-Practices and KM-Tools, there is an ample variety of behaviours. On the one hand, there are enterprises that are completely misaligned, and then there are enterprises with a high level of alignment.