Enhancing organizational growth through digitalization in entrepreneurial enterprises: the roles of knowledge search and creation

Purpose This study aims to explore how digitalization affects organizational growth from the perspective of knowledge management. Meanwhile, it reveals the mediating effects of new knowledge search intensity and knowledge creation capability in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study selected 884 high-tech enterprises listed on China’s Growth Enterprise Market from 2018 to 2023 as the research sample. From the perspective of knowledge management, this comprehensive analysis addresses the current gap in empirical investigations of digitalization’s influence on entrepreneurial enterprise growth. Findings The findings indicate that digitalization, new knowledge search intensity and knowledge creation capability all have significant positive effects on organizational growth. Most importantly, knowledge creation capability plays a mediating role between new knowledge search intensity and organizational growth. Furthermore, this study verifies that digitalization exerts an indirect positive impact on organizational growth through the new knowledge search intensity and knowledge creation capability. Originality/value Given entrepreneurial enterprises’ insufficient knowledge accumulation, research on how such enterprises leverage knowledge management to drive organizational growth in the digitalization context remains inadequate. This study not only enriches the understanding of influencing factors for the organizational growth in the digital environment. It also offers vital theoretical support for enterprises to optimize knowledge management structures, facilitate new knowledge search and knowledge creation via digital technologies.