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This paper aims to examine the effect of external supply chain (SC) flexibility on the product innovation performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the contingent role of informal control mechanisms in moderating such an effect.

This study conducts a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 236 UK-based SME manufacturers.

Inbound supplier flexibility (ISF) has a stronger positive effect on SMEs’ product innovation performance than outbound logistics flexibility (OLF), and that the strength and direction of both effects depend on informal control mechanisms. Lead supplier influence negatively moderates the relationship between ISF and product innovation performance but positively moderates the relationship between OLF and product innovation performance. Normative integration positively moderates the relationship between ISF and product innovation performance.

This study enriches SC flexibility studies by focusing on understanding the differential effects of ISF and OLF on product innovation performance, as well as the role that contingency factors play in these relationships in the SME context.

To promote product innovation performance, SME managers should focus on building good relationships with their suppliers rather than their logistics service providers. SME managers should be particularly aware of the different types of informal control mechanisms that govern their SC relationships and adjust their managerial approaches accordingly.

This study distinguishes between ISF and OLF and examines their impacts on SMEs’ product innovation performance. This study investigates the differential effects of lead supplier influence and normative integration on the relationship between external SC flexibility and SMEs’ product innovation performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relational capabilities developed by small and medium‐sized suppliers in relationships with larger customers and to explore the influences of these relational capabilities on value co‐creation and innovation.

The paper presents a framework to evaluate the types of relational capabilities developed by small and medium‐sized suppliers that enable them to manage in relationships with larger customers in the context of changing relationship requirements in the organic food sector. The methodology employed involves in‐depth case studies of small and medium‐sized UK organic food suppliers working in relationships with large retail supermarket customers.

The findings suggest that the identified set of relational capabilities may be employed by small and medium‐sized suppliers to enable them to inform and support innovation and the implementation of initiatives to create value in the eyes of their current and potential customers and concomitantly enhance their position as preferred suppliers.

The findings were based on a small number of case studies of small UK organic food suppliers. Therefore, there is scope for future studies to explore the issues addressed in the paper in wider relationship, network and country settings.

The research is among the first to offer a conceptual framework and an empirical contribution linking relational capabilities, value co‐creation and innovation in small and medium‐sized suppliers.

Drawing from resource-based theory, the authors aim to study how and under what conditions small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) capitalise on their proactive entrepreneurial behaviour (PEB) to achieve new product development (NPD) performance.

The authors’ data were drawn from a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 401 UK-based SMEs in the manufacturing sector.

The authors identify an upward curvilinear relationship between PEB and NPD performance. Taking a step further, the authors propose and confirm that this curvilinear association arises from, in part, SMEs’ innovation capability, which in turn translates into NPD performance. The authors also find that this upward curvilinear relationship between PEB and innovation capability flips to a downward curvilinear relationship when firms pursue a customer and competitor orientation.

This paper looks beyond the linear relationship that exists among entrepreneurial behaviour, market orientation and innovation outcomes.

This paper aims to shed light on how children's literature in Africa deserves to be studied because African writers “decolonize” the minds of African children and children and adults around the world.

This paper defines children's literature from an African perspective and the “decolonization of the mind.” This is done to examine how two African writers provide narratives for children inspired by their cultures. They deal with themes, characters and symbols that interest children and adults.

Achebe and Youssef crossed many borders: the world of children and adults, animals and humans, vice and virtue, supernatural and real. Their stories take the reader on journeys that involve enriching, engaging and inspiring adventures.

Youssef and Achebe are prolific writers. Providing a survey of what is available in Arabic and Nigerian literature for children, is beyond the scope of this paper.

This paper sends a message to those in charge of the curriculum in schools in Egypt, the Arab countries, Africa and the world at large: decolonize the syllabi in schools because the world is not black and white. Literature for children that encourages critical thinking is available by African writers in Egypt, Nigeria and elsewhere.

The works discussed show that African writers are creative, and their works inspire the African child with pride in his/her identity, culture and heritage.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, no one has compared Egyptian and Nigerian literature for children before. Youssef and Achebe provide evidence that “Good literature gives the child a place in the world … and the world a place in the child.” – Astrid Lindgren.

The question of what level of public debt can increase inequality has become crucial in Africa. In this study, the authors examine the effect of public debt on inequality in Africa and estimate the debt-inequality threshold. The authors then examine the moderating role of tax burdens and corruption in the relationship between public debt and inequality.

Using data from the period 2005 to 2019 in 38 African countries, the generalized method of moment and the dynamic panel threshold regression techniques were employed to achieve the purpose of the study.

The results reveal that a 1% increase in public debt leads to a rise in inequality by about 0.17%. However, the effects doubles when the public debt ratio hits 57.47%. Tax burden worses the effect of public debt by about 2.9 percentage points, while control of corruption reduces debt effect on inequality by 61 percentage points.

Owing to data availability, the study period was restricted to 2005 to 2019. Moreover, the study could not consider the disagreggation of inequality into different income groups due to pausty of data. While this could narrow the scope of the study, the results provide an important insight for policy makers.

This contributes to the scant literature on the effect of public debt on income inequality in African countries. This study is a novelty because its provides the level of public debt which worsens inequality in Africa, as well as the moderating effects of tax burden and corruption control.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2022-0581

In terms of the concept of broken home as a juvenile delinquency risk factor, whilst Nigeria and Ghana are culturally different from western nations (Gyekye, 1996; Hofstede, 1980; Smith, 2004), parental death (PDE) and parental divorce (PDI) have been previously taken-for-granted as one factor, that is ‘broken home’. This paper aims to deconstruct the singular model of ‘broken home’ and propose a binary model – the parental death and parental divorce hypotheses, with unique variables inherent in Nigerian/Ghanaian context.

It principally deploys the application of Goffman’s (1967) theory of stigma, anthropological insights on burial rites and other social facts (Gyekye, 1996; Mazzucato et al., 2006; Smith, 2004) to tease out diversity and complexity of lives across cultures, which specifically represent a binary model of broken home in Nigeria/Ghana. It slightly appraises post-colonial insights on decolonization (Agozino, 2003; Said, 1994) to interrogate both marginalized and mainstream literature.

Thus far, analyses have challenged the homogenization of the concept broken home in existing literature. Qualitatively unlike in the ‘West’, analyses have identified the varying meanings/consequences of parental divorce and parental death in Nigeria/Ghana.

Unlike existing data, this paper has contrasted the differential impacts of parental death and parental divorce with more refined variables (e.g. the sociocultural penalties of divorce such as stigma in terms of parental divorce and other social facts such as burial ceremonies, kinship nurturing, in relation to parental death), which helped to fill in the missing gap in comparative criminology literature.

The purpose of this paper is to report on podcasting experience by faculty and students in a South African higher education institution (HEI), identify issues, limitations and discuss implications for the design of future tools.

This work consisted of two parts: semi‐structured interviews with lecturers, content/curriculum developers and a student survey.

Rogers's diffusion of innovations theory provided the framework for this research including determining how new innovations are disseminated, their rate of adoption, the five‐stage decision‐making process for adoption and the characteristics an innovation must possess to be attractive to adopters. The methodology used relied heavily on descriptive and qualitative data analyses in order to determine the current podcasting practices and experiences. Results reveal that by assuming some of the respondents are “innovators” or “early adopters”, they are still in the early stages of the decision‐making process.

Some instructors who are identified as “early adopters” are experimenting with podcasting as an add‐on to existing lecture resources. However, innovations and their subsequent adoption require an understanding of lecturers' and students' perceptions, opportunities and challenges.

Podcasting in developing HEIs and the tools therein to support the process has not been given much attention. The context of this study is the first kind of empirical research in this area. The findings from this exploratory research will be valuable for podcasting users.

The purpose of this paper is to establish how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in water, beverage, soap, detergent, metal fabrication, wood and furniture manufacturing industries can sustain or improve their competitive advantage by integrating specific resources and capabilities. The paper seeks to offer an alternative framework “resource capability-based view (RCBV)” that provides a strategic marketing direction for SMEs regarding how innovative marketing practices and dynamic marketing capabilities integrate to create sustainable market advantage.

This current paper employed a quantitative survey design with a positivist methodological research paradigm. The paper used a multi-stage stratified and simple random sampling technique to collect data from 591 manufacturing SMEs in Ghana. SMEs in water, beverage, soap, detergent, metal fabrication, wood and furniture manufacturing industries were sampled for the study. A structural equation model was employed to test the study hypotheses to arrive at the findings.

The study found that product design and packaging innovations, promotion innovations, retail innovations and pricing innovations provide sustainable market advantage for water, beverage, detergent and metal fabrication SMEs. The paper also found that new product designs and packages are the major drivers of sustainable market advantage followed by innovative retail outlets. The paper further originated that integrating marketing competence (marketing resources and marketing capabilities) and innovative marketing activities provides a marginal improvement in competitive advantage. Physical resources may result in market advantage but integrating physical resources with dynamic marketing capabilities provides sufficient competitive sustainability in a competitive market.

SMEs in water, beverage, soap, detergent, metal fabrication, wood and furniture manufacturing industries should prioritise their key marketing resources and capabilities in product designs, promotion, pricing and retailing innovations in order to sustain market advantage. Old products should not be faded from the market but rather SME managers should employ innovative retail strategies, such as eco-friendly advertising, product re-branding and digital platforms (social network sites and websites), which are important to sustaining market performance. Government must develop targeted policies to bridge the information gap between SMEs and research institutions such as universities through regular subsidised entrepreneurial training and creation of semi-annual industry-academic fairs. The main theoretical contribution of this current paper is the development of “RCBV” as a framework which shows how SMEs can integrate specific resources and capabilities to achieve sustainable market advantage. This framework offers an integrative view of conventional resource-based view and dynamic capability theory (DCT) which are independently examined in the literature.

This current study has proposed an integrated and elaborative approach to the conventional resource-based view and DCT which does not provide a composite understanding in the literature. SMEs may lack the needed resources and capabilities to introduce new products or extant product lines but this paper has demonstrated that how SME can sustain market advantage of existing product(s) by synchronously using specific marketing resources and capabilities. The proposed framework offers a guide for SMEs to integrate their physical resources and capabilities to sustain their market advantage.

This research identifies the supply chain performance indices and designs an evaluation framework to assess and compare the Indian petroleum supply chain performance. We presented a case study of three Indian petroleum companies. For this purpose, we identified fifteen performance criteria extracted from previous literature and expert inputs and classified them into four groups.

A fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is employed for evaluating the performance of the Indian petroleum supply chain.

The design and evaluation framework suggests that the top three performance measurement criteria, the purity of the products, compliance with environmental laws, and new technology adoption. The result findings also indicate that company C contributes to a maximum satisfaction level of 77%. Simultaneously, companies A and B hold satisfaction levels of 72% and 67%.

The managers should ensure that environmental standards, new technology adoption, and quality are significant concerns in the petroleum supply chain. The managers should follow national and international policies to preserve the environment and ensure safety in operational activities.

This paper makes two contributions in the domain of performance measurement of the petroleum supply chain. First, it identifies the prominent supply chain performance indices. Second, it proposes a model to assess and compare the performance of Indian petroleum companies.

The purpose of this paper is to trace and analyse the relationship between information and democracy in the old and in the new South Africa. The authors interrogate the applicability to the situation of the famous quotation attributed to Thomas Jefferson, “Information is the currency of Democracy”.

The authors frame the argument by analysing the differences in philosophy underpinning the state’s attitude to the free flow of information between the pre-democratic regime (often referred to as the Apartheid regime which came into power in 1948) and the current democratic state established in 1994.

While the philosophical approach between the two regimes is demonstrably different – the findings show the discontinuities – the authors also find evidence of continuities. The authors examine traces of recurrent patterns and propose reasons for their persistence.

Because South Africa is a very young democracy it presents unique opportunities for social scientists to analyse the unfolding of challenges and opportunities not readily apparent in mature democracies. The theme of the issue allowed us to study and observe the evolution and growth of policy related to the free flow of information, and also to examine the current drift between policy and practice.