Never the twain shall meet? Knowledge strategies for digitalization in healthcare

Abstract This paper explores the formation of knowledge strategies in digitalization of healthcare organizations. Adopting a case study design, we investigate how divergent professional groups including the management team, healthcare professionals and IT engineers in a Chinese hospital come together to develop coherent knowledge strategies during its digital transformation. The findings reveal four phases by which the interplays between the professional groups shaped the knowledge strategies. We systematically analyze the drivers, formation processes and outcomes of the knowledge strategies. Based on the findings, we propose four lessons that may help professional organizations at different stages of digitalization structure knowledge strategies that can stimulate knowledge creation, application, and synthesis. The study advances the understanding of knowledge strategy by emphasizing the interactions between diversified professional groups and the integration of different types of knowledge in achieving organizational goals. It also sheds light on the complexity and dynamics of knowledge strategy in the digitalization process of knowledge-intensive organizations.