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

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach Following the systematic literature review approach, this conceptual paper proposes a reflection that is based on the connection of two kinds of literature reviews as follows: a review on knowledge management applied to the context of new venture creation and a review on social entrepreneurship and its vision of knowledge. Findings The authors reveal that one key explanation of poor growth in new social ventures is not necessarily associated with a lack of resources, but rather an inefficient knowledge management process. Originality/value The first original point of the paper is that it links two sets of literature reviews that have hardly ever been addressed together, namely knowledge management literature and social entrepreneurship literature. Moreover, the paper reveals how knowledge management based on a “bricolage” approach could foster the growth of new social ventures.