Research Trends in Knowledge Management and Innovation: a Bibliometric Review

Abstract

Due to the important role of knowledge and innovation in the development of organisations or economies, these issues continue to receive considerable attention from practitioners and researchers. Knowledge and innovation are closely related concepts. Without proper knowledge management (KM), it is difficult to design and implement changes, while, on the other hand, innovation creates a demand for new areas of knowledge and continuously develops it. The main objective of this paper is to identify the leading challenges in knowledge management and innovation, by exploring the key themes, their connections and the latest research trends in this area. Using the SCOPUS citation database, publications were reviewed to answer the following questions: (RQ1) How has the perspective of academic research addressing both knowledge management and innovation evolved over the last twenty years? and (RQ2) What are the leading research areas and new trends in research simultaneously addressing knowledge management and innovation? The analysis covered the years 2003-2023. The collected data was pre-selected and then, based on the frequency of co-occurrence of key terms, mapping was performed and keywords were extracted using VOSviewer software. In the years under review, there has been an increase in the number of publications dealing with the topic of knowledge management, including those linked to innovation. Publications in this field are mainly concentrated in three research areas: Business, Management and Accounting, Computer Science and Engineering. Most studies come from China. The dominant research unit in this research area, according to the affiliation of the researchers, is LUT University. Issues such as knowledge sharing and transfer of knowledge, learning organisations, competition or information management among others, continue to be of interest to researchers. Among the most recent trends, research is dominated by: green innovations, mediating roles, big data and covid-19. The study helps to understand the challenges that have arisen for research in the analyzed area in the last two decades. It can provide a valuable study and a guide for identifying available and future research directions on knowledge management and innovation.