Special Issue "Knowledge Management in Organizations: New Trends and Challenges"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ana Maria Serrano-Bedia
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Business Administration, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
Interests: knowledge management; eco-innovation; operations and sustainable business development; family firms; management systems certification
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Marta Pérez-Pérez
E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Business Administration, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
Interests: knowledge management; manufacturing flexibility; circular economy; PLS-SEM; supply chain management; family firms

Special Issue Information

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

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • knowledge management
  • value creation
  • innovation
  • sustainable development
  • digitalization
  • circular economy
  • supply chain
  • family firms
  • SMEs
  • Covid-19

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Organizational Capabilities for Family Firm Sustainability: The Role of Knowledge Accumulation and Family Essence
Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5607; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105607 - 18 May 2021
Viewed by 428
Abstract
While prior studies recognize the importance of organizational capabilities for family firm sustainability, current research has still failed to empirically identify the role of different types of knowledge accumulation with regard to these organizational capabilities. Based on the dynamic capabilities theory, the main [...] Read more.
While prior studies recognize the importance of organizational capabilities for family firm sustainability, current research has still failed to empirically identify the role of different types of knowledge accumulation with regard to these organizational capabilities. Based on the dynamic capabilities theory, the main goal of this paper is to address this research gap and to explore the relationships between both internal and external knowledge accumulation, and ordinary organizational capabilities. This research also contributes to analyzing the complex effect of the family firm essence, influenced by both family involvement and generational involvement levels, as an antecedent of internal and external knowledge accumulation. Our analysis of 102 non-listed Spanish family firms shows that the family firm essence, which is influenced by the family involvement, strengthens only the internal knowledge accumulation but not the external one. Furthermore, our study also reveals that both internal and knowledge accumulation are positively related to ordinary capabilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Knowledge Management in Organizations: New Trends and Challenges)
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