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PurposeThe current competitive system, complex and rapidly changing, knowledge represents one of the main strategic resources for organizations. Agri-food organizations, traditionally characterized by low-knowledge management (KM) practices, are facing several challenges that require new knowledge to improve performance and their ability to survive. Since agri-food organizations are low-propensity R&D, they are forced into a collaborative approach and the creation of inter-organizational relationships (IORs) for knowledge transfer. The purpose of this study is to offer an overview of the academic literature on knowledge transfer within scientific institutions and agri-food organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on a systematic literature review. In particular, two international and multidisciplinary databases (Scopus and WoS) were considered. Subsequently, the scientific documents were selected following the PRISMA guidelines. In addition, a scientific landscape visualization was created through VOSviewer software.FindingsThe study offers interesting reflections and suggestions on the management of inter-organizational relations in the agri-food sector. In particular, it highlights the importance of the “knowledge” resource in IORs. For this reason, IORs and KM represent a challenge for agri-food organizations.Originality/valueThe main limitation lies in its criteria for collecting and selecting articles. The study is based on the analysis of articles contained only in two scientific databases (Scopus and WoS) and refined by “Business, Management and Accounting”, “Social Sciences” and “Economics, Econometrics and Finance” areas.

The agribusiness sector represents an economic sector of particular importance and with the highest employment rate. The sector is very complex due to the characteristics of the organizations that are part of it and need to base their competitive advantage on innovations often obtained by sharing knowledge with third organizations. The study highlights the main theories of the key organizational factors that influence the knowledge transfer process between universities and firms and presents the first results of an exploratory analysis, aimed to understand what are the key organizational factors identified by the entrepreneurs of the agribusiness sector that affect knowledge transfer for innovation, in particular from universities and high educational institutions. The study can help agribusiness organizations to activate and manage their interorganizational relationships in order to improve their mechanism of knowledge sharing for innovation and shed light for scholars on an important business sector.