Artículo de publicación WOS - SCOPUSPurpose – This article presents the Special Issue (SI, 35-2) of ARLA, edited (not exclusively) with the best articles from the specialized conference of the Academy of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Knowledge (ACIEK, 2021) conference and performs a bibliometric analysis on innovation, management, governance and sustainable growth. Design/methodology/approach – Guest editors conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the scholarly literature by examining the characteristics of publications and how articles published in this SI contribute to their growth. Findings – Innovation, management and governance for sustainable growth is an area that revolves around five points: (1) sustainable innovation in SMEs, (2) technological innovation, social capital and information patents to create value chains and financial development in the textile industry, (3) knowledge management and competitiveness for growth and productivity, (4) social entrepreneurship, business ecosystems and startups for sustainable development and (5) marketing-based business strategies for sustainable development. Practical implications – From the analysis conducted, it is concluded that more research is needed on knowledge management and competitiveness in developing countries, such as Latin American and African countries, and to compare the results with more developed countries.