Knowledge management in the emerging strategic business process: information, complexity and imagination

Abstract

This article features a descriptive proposal that examines the different conceptual dimensions of knowledge (basically the epistemological, ontological, systemic and strategic dimensions) that are involved in the emerging strategic process of organizations. Included in this process are aspects of information, complexity and imagination that make up the spirals of knowledge. In this study we aim to shed light on knowledge management in strategy‐making so that the different categories of knowledge may emerge and develop their potential within an organization and interact among each other. The goal is to create sustainable competitive advantages or essential competencies that help a business to succeed. Considering a constructionist approach to knowledge – specifically, the theory of knowledge creation developed by Nonaka and Takeuchi – we conclude that the formation of the strategy is a double‐loop knowledge creating process. Finally, we outline some of the main practical implications of our position.