Objectives of knowledge management

digital business strategy
fit? Figure 5.1 does not show at which level digital 
business strategy should be defined, since for different organisations this must be discussed and 
agreed. We can observe that there is a tendency for digital business strategy to be incorporated 
within the functional strategies, for example within a marketing plan or logistics plan, or as part 
of information systems (IS) strategy. A danger with this approach is that digital business strat-
egy may not be recognised at a higher level within organisational planning. A distinguishing 
feature of organisations that are leaders in digital business, such as Cisco, Dell, HSBC, easyJet 
and General Electric, is that digital business is an element of corporate strategy development 
and that transformation to apply digital platforms and media is prioritised and resourced.
There is limited research on how businesses have integrated digital business strategy into 
existing strategy, although authors such as Doherty and McAulay (2002) and Hughes (2001) 
have suggested it is important that e-commerce investments be driven by corporate strate-
gies. We return to approaches of alignment later in the chapter.