Research on knowledge integration and its impact on business value

Knowledge integration is one of the most important approaches of knowledge applications to achieve sustainable competitive advantages and business value. While it appears from literature analysis, there is not direct link between knowledge integration and business value but rather a complex and indirect relationship. Many companies frequently embark on knowledge integration without a explicit cognition of what business benefits they could expect. This article focuses on the current research status of knowledge integration and its impact on business value by means of an empirical survey study on 144 companies in China. To investigate the particular causality, exploratory factor analysis is used to test the classification of knowledge integration and business value. Moreover, canonical correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis are deployed to scrutinize the impact of knowledge integration on business value and its measures. The results from statistical analyses show that knowledge integration has significant impact on business value. Finally, managerial signification is discussed.