Knowledge Management in Organizations: New Trends and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

At the present time, the advent of the “new knowledge economy” has led to consider knowledge as one of the most important organizational and strategic resources to develop sustainable competitive advantages and obtain superior organizational performance and economic growth. Knowledge management (KM) can be broadly defined as the process of creating, using, sharing, storing, and managing knowledge and information within and between organizations to achieve their objectives, thus facilitating decision-making.

Nowadays, KM has gained momentum in the business world as a vital element in designing strategies, developing new products and services, and managing operational processes. Effective KM, usually supported by information and communication technologies (ICTs), enables organizations to become more innovative and productive. However, KM may be conditioned by specific firm characteristics, justifying the need of exploring singular contexts (i.e., small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or family firms (FF), among others). Moreover, KM enables supply chain management in information-intensive and multi-cultured enterprise environments, facilitates firms' sustainable development (SD) through green innovation-oriented activities, as well as ensures effective transition into a circular economy by developing alternative business models to the conventional linear economic model. Thus, in general, KM supports the development of organizational and individual capabilities to address current and future business challenges and survival. In this context, the ongoing pandemic derived from COVID-19 has put in evidence that little is known about how companies are currently approaching digital transformation and KM to mitigate the pandemic’s socio-economic effects for firms’ survival.

For this Special Issue of Sustainability, we invite submissions focused on new trends and challenges about the role of KM in organizations. Potential contributions may include, but should not be limited to, theoretical papers and/or quantitative studies. Papers that provide new empirical evidence from case studies are also welcome. With this in mind, we look for theoretical and empirical research able to investigate a variety of lines of inquiry, including:

• New trends of knowledge management
• Enablers, barriers, and outcomes of knowledge management implementation
• Digitalization and knowledge management
• The impact of Covid-19 on knowledge management: firms’ survival in a time of crisis
• Knowledge management and value creation through innovation
• Knowledge management in the new circular economy paradigm
• Knowledge management and sustainable development
• Knowledge management in singular contexts: family firms, SMEs
• Knowledge management and supply chains

Prof. Dr. Ana Maria Serrano-Bedia
Dr. Marta Pérez-Pérez
Guest Editors

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