Critical Issues of Knowledge Management for Sustainable Organizations

Dear Colleagues,

Knowledge management (KM) is a discipline that focuses in the manner that knowledge, which is widely recognized as a primary source of competitive advantage and a core competency, is created, acquired, shared, stored, and applied in and between organizations (Alavi and Leidner, 2001; Guadamillas and Donate, 2011). KM research has steadily grown over the last three decades, with contributions coming from different academic ambits, such as knowledge epistemology, organizational learning, information and technology approaches, or resource- and knowledge-based views of the firm. Meanwhile, sustainability is gaining increasing importance for organizations in every business sector, where concerns about social and environmental responsibility equal the importance of a firm’s economic viability in fulfilling its stakeholders’ demands (Konys, 2018). Sustainability also introduces social and ecological dimensions in the innovation processes of companies. The creation and use of new knowledge contribute to foster sustainable-oriented innovation in technologies, product, or services (Nidomolu et al., 2009). Sustainability-oriented innovation transforms business environments and becomes a key factor for the competitive advantage of companies.

Sustainability is a concept not widely exploited by KM scholars to date, although research efforts are being made to integrate both concepts in order to find new solutions to business and management challenges in economic, environmental and social areas (for a recent literature review about the relationship between these two concepts, see Martins et al., 2019). This Sustainability Special Issue focuses on KM new trends and their relationship with sustainability. When a firm tries to be sustainable, it needs management of its knowledge resources in a distinctive manner, considering aspects such as the ethical treatment of data and information; knowledge exploration based on sustainable decisions (e.g., eco-innovation); knowledge exploitation to improve business processes (e.g., eco-efficiency); or the development of core capabilities (intellectual capital) to achieve sustainable-oriented competitive advantages.

Therefore, firms need KM activities and strategies that help them to generate sustainable outputs, but also to apply sustainability principles to accomplish their vision and stakeholders’ goals (economic, social, environmental). Especially in the so-called “industry 4.0”, the management of data, information, and knowledge by means of advanced technologies and tools such as IoT, Big Data, e-commerce, social networks, etc., is becoming an essential aspect for firms to achieve financial, but also social and environmental goals.

We thus invite researchers to submit papers to this Special Issue, aimed at finding links between sustainability and KM areas. Research subjects include (although they are not exclusively limited to): 

• KM strategies for sustainability;
• KM, sustainability, and eco-innovation;
• Corporate social responsibility and KM;
• Stakeholders’ KM for sustainability;
• Sustainability in KM aspects;
• KM integration in sustainable strategies;
• The dark side of sustainability and KM management;
• KM in sustainable-sensitive industries;
• KM for sustainable innovation;
• KM, innovation, and sustainable intra-entrepreneurship;
• Ethical aspects of KM;
• Industry 4.0, KM, and sustainability aspects;
• Technological aspects of KM and their impact on sustainability;
• Organizational and contextual factors for KM and sustainability. 

References (optional)

Alavi, M. and Leidner, D.E. (2001): “Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 107-136.

Donate, M.J. and Guadamillas, F. (2011): “Organizational Factors to Support Knowledge Management and Innovation”, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 15, 890-914.

Konys, A. (2018): “An Ontology-Based Knowledge Modelling for a Sustainability Assessment Domain”, Sustainability, Vol. 10, 300.

Martins, V.W.B; Rampasso, I.S.; Anholon, R. Quelhas, O.L.G. and Leal Filho, W. (2019): “Knowledge management in the context of sustainability: Literature review and opportunities for future research”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 229, pp. 489-500,

Nidumolu, Ram; Prahalad, C.K. and Rangaswami, M.R. (2009): “Why Sustainability Is Now the Key Driver of Innovation”, Harvard Business Review, September 2009, pp. 57-64.

Dr. Mario J. Donate
Dr. Fátima Guadamillas
Guest Editors

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• Knowledge management 
• Sustainability 
• Sustainable innovation