Knowledge Management and Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Most literature on knowledge management (KM) focuses on large firms – the domain in which KM was originally developed – and most KM literature on entrepreneurship focuses on entrepreneurial activities in post-revenue firms. The domain of the startup, however, is traditionally very different from these, characterized by a lack of tangible assets and validated value proposition. The authors review the literature on KM and entrepreneurship with a particular focus on young micro-enterprises that have yet to cross the “valley of death” stage of maturation. Using the Dynamic Knowledge Creation Process as a guide, they elaborate on the challenges facing the implementation of KM in startups, and on the subsequent opportunities for startup growth. Finally, the authors reflect upon research questions that may engage future researchers in proposing strategies that better integrate KM as a discipline into the fabric of entrepreneurship and the startup domain.

Configuring foreign market knowledge and opportunity recognition capabilities to predict the performance of export-manufacturing firms

“…The benefits or the costs of leveraging FMK and opportunity recognition capabilities are not similar in all types of firms. Mature firms can get performance benefit differently than young firms based on the experiences in accumulating FMK and nurturing opportunity recognition capabilities, which have not been dealt with in knowledge management and entrepreneurship literature, previously (Bandera et al, 2016). The interplay of FMK and opportunity recognition capabilities is not a singular process (Mostafiz et al, 2019a).…”

Internalization among Technology Entrepreneurs: Looking to the Future While Grounded in the Past

“…When mapping the activities in a startup to the stages of the SECI knowledge creation model, extant literature [11,12] argues that the most frequent activity will be socialization rather than externalization, combination, or internalization. Moreover, since each stage is a prerequisite of the next stage, the amount of the activity, as reported by the narrative descriptions of the entrepreneurs, conducted at each stage will be progressively less, i.e., S>E>C>I (Figure 1).…”

Entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge management: comparing configurations of native and immigrant entrepreneurial firms

“…The guiding assumption is that forming effective KM processes is vital for knowledgeintensive entrepreneurial firms to configure EO to accrue rents from its entrepreneurial posture. Effective KM processes are required for IEFs to navigate the liability of foreignness (Johanson and Vahlne, 2015) and newness (Gimenez-Fernandez et al, 2020) and to outperform native entrepreneurial competitors (Bandera et al, 2016). Therefore, acute knowledge deficiencies among IEFs (Webb et al, 2011) should mean they rely more on organising KM processes to create wealth than native firms from forward-looking, opportunity-seeking and risky activities (i.e.…”

“…Effective KM processes are required for IEFs to navigate the liability of foreignness (Johanson and Vahlne, 2015) and newness (Gimenez-Fernandez et al. , 2020) and to outperform native entrepreneurial competitors (Bandera et al. , 2016).…”