The Knowledge Strategy Orientation Scale: Individual Perceptions of Firm-level Phenomena

• Published in: Journal of managerial issues 2007-10, Vol.19 (3), p.414-435
• Main Authors: Miller, Brian K., Bierly, Paul E., Daly, Paula S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Business innovation; Business structures; Corporate strategies; Covariance matrices; Exploitation; Factor analysis; Human resources; Innovations; Knowledge; Knowledge management; Perceptions; Perceptual orientation; R&D; Research & development; Research Methodology; Researchers; Strategic management; Strategic planning (Business); Studies; Subsidiary companies; Technological innovation
• ISSN: 1045-3695; 2328-7470

We developed the Knowledge Strategy Orientation Scale (KSOS) to overcome some of the methodological problems inherent in strategic management research: an over-reliance on archival data, the use of single-item measures, and the wildly varying use of proxy measures for focal constructs. This article presents a psychometric evaluation of survey items based upon theoretical insights provided by Holmqvist (2004), March (1991), Levinthal and March (1993), Bierly and Chakrabarti (1996), and Zack (1999) regarding firms' knowledge strategies. In a pre-test, principal axis factor analysis on one sample of respondents from 98 different firms indicates that two factors explain a majority of the variance in the eight items and that each item intended to measure Exploration and Exploitation loaded on the appropriate factor. This factor structure is cross-validated on a second sample from the 98 firms using confirmatory factor analysis. The factor structure is reconfirmed in a third sample of respondents from the 98 firms. Regarding the strength of the relationship between exploration, exploitation, distinctive competencies associated with radical innovation, and distinctive competencies associated with incremental innovation, we find full support for one of our hypotheses and partial support for the other. Our results suggest that persons holding different positions in a firm (from CEO to Production Worker) are likely to validly respond to our scale items, that respondents reliably envision the two constructs that we measure as separate entities, and that these separate entities related mostly as hypothesized to various distinctive competencies.