A knowledge management perspective of corporate social responsibility

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PurposeCompanies increasingly find themselves under pressure to adopt socially responsible forms of operation. Since organizational change is crucially influenced by knowledge creation and sense‐making, this paper aims to determine how knowledge management (KM) processes can foster (or impede) progress towards corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the KM literature to identify areas of knowledge management that are particularly relevant to managing a company's social and environmental externalities.FindingsDistinguishing between two related but analytically distinct approaches to knowledge management, namely an element and a process view, the paper develops a conceptual model of how knowledge management can impact on CSR.Originality/valueDistinguishing between elements of knowledge and processes of managing these allows a more systematic and comprehensive approach to managing knowledge around CSR.