Does knowledge management explain the poor growth of social enterprises? Key insights from a systematic literature review on knowledge management and social entrepreneurship

This paper aims to present a contribution to the fields of knowledge management and social business. As the extant literature about knowledge management reveals the role of knowledge in the process of new venture creation, the authors argue that such literature can answer concerns and calls for further research on examining social entrepreneurship. This paper proposes several key insights for this purpose and argues that one key contribution of the literature on knowledge management to the field of social entrepreneurship is that it explains the poor growth of new social ventures. The authors also conclude the paper by explaining how the specificities of knowledge management among social businesses could create a new research agenda in the field of knowledge management.