**1. Introduction**

The global economic crisis of 2008/2009 has drastically affected all types of organizations, including service and manufacturing firms [1]. Consequently, public policymakers, top management, and managers were recommended to implement new mechanisms in their organizations to institutionalize organizational systems that can foster creativity and innovation. Researchers also believe that creativity is the outcome of intricate interactions between individuals and their circumstances, rather than an inherent quality of an individual [2]. They were also asked to use critical resources rationally, including intellectual capital [3]. The lack of comprehensive valuation of the available intangible resources, particularly in intellectual and financial capital, has been regarded as one of the main reasons for such a failure [4]. Accordingly, successful organizations consider the effective use of strategic resources, such as human resources as one of the important drivers for competitive advantages that lead toward organizational success [5, 6]. In addition, according to the resource-based view (RBV), it might be difficult for organizations to have access to such resources and capabilities, and it cannot be imitated by other organizations [7]. Companies can overcome internal resource constraints, increase profitability, and increase their chances of long-term survival through working and teaming with external partners [8]. As a result, organizations need to nurture knowledge

employees and create a conducive environment by developing an organizational culture that can contribute to innovation and competitiveness [9]. Munir and Beh [10] discovered that an organization's creative atmosphere has a large impact on innovative work behavior, an organization's climate has a positive impact on knowledge sharing, and knowledge sharing has a big impact on innovative work. Companies can benefit greatly from leveraging teams and teamwork both within and outside of the company. If the team possesses certain basic features, it is more likely to succeed [8].

Knowledge employees are known as the main resource of the organization and their development takes place within the organizational ecosystem, and cannot be duplicated by other organizations [11]. The organizational culture plays an important role in developing human capital through effective knowledge management and transfer. Thus, they can create a sustainable competitive advantage [12]. Knowledge employees have a high level of skills, training, and experience, and they intend to create, share, and implement knowledge with intraorganizational and interorganizational peers [13]. So, up to two-thirds of each company's employees can be included in this definition [14]. Given the growing importance of knowledge employees in organizations, management should welcome and evaluate their constructive suggestions and opinions [15]. Therefore, managers should provide employees with opportunities to propose feedback and suggestions so that they can make successful organizational changes [7, 16]. Consequently, it can be stated that the main value of knowledge employees for their companies is their ability to collect and analyze the data and make decisions accordingly [17]. They are capable of working together and learning from each other [18]. Therefore, organizational performance, innovation, security, and operational development process can be highly influenced by knowledge employees' expression of their opinions and willingness of sharing their knowledge with other organizational peers [19]; besides, the timely information that is provided to decision-makers improves the quality and accuracy of the decisions taken by senior managers [20].

Moreover, the knowledge employees' voices should be re-evaluated in terms of time and space to observe the nature and the content of the relationship with different types of tasks, jobs, and industries [21]. Factors that can contribute to the effectiveness of feedback and knowledge sharing depend on the organizational culture, infrastructures, ecosystem as well as the institutional frameworks that contribute to the governance of the concept of voice in organizations, corporate management, and business ethics, which affect individual and collective voice rights [22]. Hence, the issue of knowledge employees' voices is crucial. Firstly, making constructive suggestions is considered the primary step in the innovation process. Secondly, unlike organizational silence, employees' voice demonstrates employees' dissatisfaction with the present situation, which helps identify and revise the mistakes, improve processes, and provide new solutions to solve organizational problems. At the same time, knowledge employees' voices can lead to the recognition of the employees' competencies [23]. Furthermore, research on knowledge employees' voices will be highly dynamic and challenging in the future, and it will also be mentally involved with more common concepts for policy, practice, and theory. Accordingly, knowledge employees' voices have been one of the critical issues that have attracted a lot of attention. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to review the role of knowledge employees in creating knowledge in digital startups.
