This conceptual article explains how artificial intelligence, knowledge assets and economic governance jointly shape the sustainable growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. Drawing exclusively on an integrated corpus of strategy, entrepreneurship, knowledge management, innovation, sustainability and public-governance literature, it develops a four-mechanism framework linking knowledge productivity, entrepreneurial agency, ecosystem coordination and institutional resilience. The model argues that AI creates economic value only when firms possess complementary human-resource practices, absorptive capacity, ethical safeguards and access to resilient financial and policy infrastructures. Seven propositions specify direct, mediated and contingent relationships. The article contributes by integrating firm-level capabilities with family, market and institutional determinants of entrepreneurship, and by translating the framework into measurable indicators and policy instruments. It concludes with a practical research design for comparative testing across SME-intensive economies.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, knowledge assets, SMEs, entrepreneurial resilience, economic governance, sustainable growth.