Business incubators vs start-ups: a sustainable way of sharing knowledge

From incubator’s knowledge transfer to sustainability start-ups’ impact: a case study in a French support program

Purpose

Sustainability start-ups introduce business models that address current environmental and social challenges. However, to reach their mission, they need to integrate the intention of delivering such impact since their formulation. Business incubators show promise in supporting them in this process by enhancing their access to resources and knowledge during the early stage. For these reasons, this paper aims to investigate the transfer of knowledge in a support program, outlining what knowledge is transferred in the program and through which activities for encouraging the generation of sustainability start-ups’ impact.

Design/methodology/approach

The present paper is supported by a qualitative case study methodology based on primary data (interviews) and secondary data (internal and external documents) related to a French support program.

Findings

The study shows that the support program transfers explicit and tacit knowledge for encouraging the generation of sustainability impact, throughout three main phases: awareness, identification and assessment.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation concerns the analysis of a French support program and the focus on sustainability start-ups. Future research lines will study other and more traditional business incubators to confirm and possibly enrich the results.

Practical implications

The study has managerial implications for incubator managers willing to support sustainable entrepreneurship and for sustainable entrepreneurs who want to find a support program and reach their impact.

Social implications

The study shows that a sustainability orientation in business incubators can play a role in fostering sustainable development through the creation of new sustainability ventures.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to two different fields: sustainable entrepreneurship support and knowledge management in incubators.

Knowledge management in SMEs: a follow-up literature review

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to structure existing research on knowledge management (KM) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to offer a comprehensive overview of research strands and topics in KM in SMEs to determine their evolution over time.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper, which is considered a follow-up literature review, is based on a systematic literature review that covers 180 scientific papers that were published since the review paper by Durst and Edvardsson in 2012 that covered 36 papers.

Findings

The findings of this review and those of the aforementioned review are brought together in the form of an overview that structures research on KM in SMEs based on themes that, in turn, allow the derivation of promising research directions and research questions aimed at structuring future research on KM in SMEs.

Originality/value

By combining the findings of this review with the findings from the review published in this journal in 2012, this paper offers, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the most comprehensive literature review on KM in SMEs produced to date.