The current article delves into the concept of green knowledge management (GKM), aiming to elucidate the intricate web of intellectual connections within the literature already published on this subject. The significance and value of this pursuit lie in its endeavor to pinpoint the most pivotal works in the field and to elucidate the overarching research directions that have been pursued. Through this process, the ability to centralize and encapsulate the knowledge within the GKM domain is achieved. Employing bibliometric analysis tools, the apparently elusive or intangible body of the literature on GKM is given structure and form through the creation of bibliometric analysis maps, which are then scrutinized through the discerning eyes of the author. Consequently, this paper seamlessly integrates the benefits of systematic literature review methodologies with those of computer-aided software, thereby efficiently processing a substantial volume of data on GKM and transforming it into tangible representations of this specialized literary niche. Thus, this undertaking serves as an open invitation to the advancement of the GKM field, providing a solid foundational platform for further research endeavors. In essence, it serves as a stepping stone towards the development of a GKM encyclopedia, offering a comprehensive repository of knowledge and insights for scholars and practitioners alike.
Over the past decades, in sync with developments in the international business market
[1], the field of knowledge management (KM) has undergone a remarkable and almost exponential evolution
[2][3][4][2,3,4]. Nevertheless, KM also received its share of the novel challenges notorious for their disrupting effect on past, settled times. Nowadays, KM has a mission of meeting the frequent and intense reconfigurations of the business arena with innovative approaches towards the effective handling of intangibles and with tenets and models for knowledge strategies essential for shaping a desirable future. According to Zbuchea, Pînzaru, Busu, Stan and Bârgăoanu
[5], KM should be implemented as a natural and integrated method to ensure the long-term growth and success of companies.
In the current context shaped by the endangered state of natural resources, activists, policymakers, and business representatives are more involved than ever in their efforts to transition towards environmentally sustainable systems. In the dedicated literature, there has been a prevailing scientific agreement about the relevance of sustainability, including not just organizational contexts but also national and global scales
[5][6][7][8][5,6,7,8]. From a business management perspective, this requires strong green knowledge capabilities which involves not only the awareness of the key improvement areas and green solutions but also relevant resources for integrating and developing green knowledge management.
Green knowledge management (GKM) represents the result of a group of scholars’ effort to develop the knowledge management field beyond its existing footprint, by integrating environmental sustainability objectives in the KM area of expertise. In the literature, GKM aims to identify the main enablers or hindering factors for business sustainable performance and to identify and promote best practices for achieving organizational performance with a minimal negative impact on the environment. The central values of GKM remain business performance and growth but in a sustainable environmentally friendly manner. GKM is an emerging concept, still defining its limits and focal points, but already strongly intertwined with green innovation, green knowledge, or environmental intellectual capital. The roots of this literature segment reside in the increased concern of civil society and policymakers concerning the negative impact of human activities on the state of the environment and scarce natural resources. In this context, this segment of the literature is of high relevance in the present day and has a significant potential to contribute to the collective transformations aligned with the strategic sustainable objectives for the next decades.
GKM is a niche research direction of KM, recently approached by scholars, who seek to expand the current limits of the KM concept. More specifically, the GKM research field developed as a response and reflection into the academic life of the societal and political struggles related to environmental sustainability
[9][10][9,10], into all elements of KM: knowledge acquisition, adoption, retention, dissemination, etc.
Beyond the United Nations’
[11] recommendation towards organizational sustainable transformation from an external effects perspective, authors have shown how this aim shall be adopted by businesses from internal performance perspectives
[12]. Through the present article, the author aims to unveil the current state of the art of the GKM field of the literature reunited within the Scopus and Web of Science databases. At the end of our bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review, the reader gets a clear understanding and overview of the key concepts approached concerning GKM, the evolution of the literature from a time perspective, and the main findings in this research field.
The present article falls under the scope of the Encyclopedia Studies by representing an original contribution to the KM field, and by incorporating theoretical and bibliometric analysis research. The objectives of the research are to identify the key concepts in the existing literature, to reveal potential gaps and highlight future research directions. The outcomes of this endeavor are represented by a through and detailed overview of the GKM literature, promoting and contributing to the development of digital encyclopedias in the field of KM.
Encyclopedia
