Knowledge-Based View of Strategy

Strategy is about future creation. Firms differ not just because they have different value chains and activity systems or different resources and competencies, but because they envision different futures. They differ because people in charge of formulating and implementing strategy have their own visions of the firm's future, which are different from those of other firms. This paper provides a preview of the current thinking on the knowledge-based view of strategy. This view recognizes that an essential feature of strategy is to interpret the particular situation at hand and continuously create the future within the social context. The knowledgebased view of strategy differs from other schools of thought in strategy in its singular focus on knowledge as the driver of strategy. This paper analyses how the knowledge-based view of strategy complements the traditional schools of strategy by injecting new thinking along this three dimensions: putting humans at the center of strategy, treating strategy as a dynamic process, and having a social agenda.