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The purpose of this (qualitative, multiple-case) study is to determine how small-to medium-sized enterprise (SME) leaders in Nigeria use information and communication technology (ICT) adoption as a business strategy to increase profitability and compete globally.

The participants for this study consisted of executive-level SME leaders who had the authority to approve ICT implementation within their respective organizations. Individual interviews were undertaken with participants to gain an understanding of their experience of determining the merits of and implementing ICT. The technology acceptance model, which specifies the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward computer use and intention to use technology, was applied as a framework to explain the Nigerian SME’s ICT adoption strategies.

Four major themes emerged from the data analysis: ICT adoption factors, ICT roles and benefits, role of government and SME success factors. The findings of this study may help SME leaders and government leaders address many of the factors inhibiting the adoption of ICT in SMEs in Nigeria.

This study may ensure that SMEs are successful and able to create jobs, which in turn may help to promote socioeconomic development through adoption of ICT.

The findings from this study contribute to the knowledge base regarding factors that affect ICT adoption by SME leaders as a business strategy to increase profitability and compete globally, particularly within SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria. It further addressed the gap in existing literature regarding other factors such as the influence of culture on ICT adoption, cost of ICT implementation, available ICT skills, infrastructure and ICT knowledge gap as the primary impeding factors of ICT adoption in Nigerian SMEs.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of economic development for every economy. They contribute to local economic development through household wealth creation, employment generation and poverty reduction. Despite this pivotal role, MSMEs lack access to finance, and scholarship on the enabling role of financial inclusion on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises' performance is scant. The authors contribute to closing the knowledge gap by examining the enabling effect of financial inclusion on MSMEs using the FinScope MSME 2017 survey for the Kingdom of Eswatini. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.

The study used the re-centered influence function regression framework to estimate unconditional quantile regressions and the generalized ordered logit model to analyze the data.

The findings from the unconditional quantile regression revealed that small changes in access to bank accounts, saving for business, formal saving, stokvel and informal saving at the 50th and 75th percentiles have a positive and statistically significant effect on microenterprises' annual turnover profit. Conversely, small changes in formal insurance have a mixed effect on annual turnover profit. At the 10th and 25th percentiles, a small increment in insurance reduces annual turnover profit but increases microenterprise annual turnover profit at the 75th percentile. Meanwhile, the evidence from the generalized ordered logit model showed that financial inclusion reduces the likelihood of microenterprises being classified as least developed and increased the chances of microenterprises falling into emerging and developed business categories.

This study makes use of a cross-sectional survey dataset, as a result, it does not infer causal relationships over the long term, but rather an association between the independent and dependent variables.

Overall, formal and informal financial inclusion enhances the annual turnover profit for microenterprises, particularly at the 50th and 75th percentiles in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The authors recommend a specialized institution such as a micro, small and medium-sized partial credit guarantee scheme to improve the quality and affordability of credit for microenterprises, and a mix of financial and non-financial supports depending on the development stage to boost a sustainable microenterprises' sector.

The study uses two advanced cross-sectional techniques, the recentered influence function framework and the generalized ordered logit model to analyze the data. The paper is original and contributes to the discussion of the role of financial inclusion in enabling microenterprises' success in Africa, using the FinScope 2017 survey of microenterprises in Eswatini as a case study.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2020-0689.

The purpose of this paper is to structure existing research on knowledge management (KM) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to offer a comprehensive overview of research strands and topics in KM in SMEs to determine their evolution over time.

The paper, which is considered a follow-up literature review, is based on a systematic literature review that covers 180 scientific papers that were published since the review paper by Durst and Edvardsson in 2012 that covered 36 papers.

The findings of this review and those of the aforementioned review are brought together in the form of an overview that structures research on KM in SMEs based on themes that, in turn, allow the derivation of promising research directions and research questions aimed at structuring future research on KM in SMEs.

By combining the findings of this review with the findings from the review published in this journal in 2012, this paper offers, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the most comprehensive literature review on KM in SMEs produced to date.

Banks are institutions that inject money in the economy and help to boost it when there are problems in some markets, especially in productive sectors. In this way, analysing the competition in this sector is an important tool for policymakers as non-competitive behaviour could affect the financial system and economy. The purpose of this paper is to measure the degree of competition in the Ecuadorian private banking sector divided by size, from 2000 to 2015, using panel data collected by the official regulator institution.

The authors applied the model proposed by Panzar and Rosse (1987) and its H-statistic using a reduced price and revenue equation estimated by pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects, random effects, feasible generalised fixed effects and panel correction standard errors (PCSE).

The authors show that given the presence of some problems in data such as heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation, the most appropriate technique is PCSE. The authors also found robust evidence supporting that large banks compete in a monopolistic market, small and medium-sized banks operate in monopolistic competition, and Ecuadorian small, medium-sized and large banks stay in long-run equilibrium.

This paper contributes to the actual literature of competition degree in two ways. First, different from traditional papers, we do not control by size; so, we divided the analysis by size, because in Ecuador and also in many developing countries, bank’s competition is different for each group of size because the levels of liquidity, risk and other indicators are different from one group to another. Second, we show the robustness of the results using a scaled and unscaled equation, using many controls and using five methods to contrast the competition degree.

This paper explores digital transformation's impact on the work of owners in entrepreneurial firms. The interplay between working practices and technology is analyzed, taking into account the organizations' specific contexts.

A multiple case study design was applied. Eight cases of entrepreneurial firms, defined as companies that bring new products and services to the market by creating and seizing opportunities, were selected, with the goal to maximize the diversity of cases. The sample includes both small- and medium-sized firms, as well as high- tech and low- tech companies in equal number. Interviews have been used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, which was analyzed in a structured way.

The digital transformation of entrepreneurial work, that is the daily work of entrepreneurs, is an evolutionary, practice-based phenomenon, rather than the result of rational design. The use of different digital tools is interrelated and depends on the characteristics, and dynamics of the surrounding environment.

The findings of this study are relevant to entrepreneurs interested in understanding the dynamics of their working practice, to software development firms interested in entrepreneurs as customers and to institutions interested in the education of entrepreneurs.

To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the first study which considers the interplay between digital technology and the daily activities of entrepreneurs, considered as a whole. It provides insights on how these interconnected dimensions evolve, thus contributing to understanding the work of entrepreneurs, and as a consequence the dynamics of entrepreneurial firms in the context of digital transformation of organizations.

This study aims to address how the ISO 14001 standardisation and certification process improves substantive performance in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the development of an environmental management control system (EMCS).

A qualitative cross-case interview design with those responsible for the implementation of an environmental management system (certified to ISO 14001) in SMEs is adopted to inductively “theorise” the EMCS.

The design and monitoring of environmental controls are often beyond the scope of the SMEs’ top management team and include extra-organisational dimensions such as the external audit and institutional requirements. This suggests more complex control pathways for SMEs to produce EMCS that primarily function as packages and are broader than the analytical level of the firm. Here, controlling for environmental performance exists at strategic and operational levels, as well as beyond the SMEs’ boundaries.

Various internal controls are put forward for SME owner-managers to meet environmental targets (e.g. gamification and interpersonal communication strategies). This builds upon a broader accountability perspective wherein formalised hierarchical control is only one route for ensuring sustainable action within the ISO 14001-certified SMEs.

This study contributes to a more sustainable society through developing an understanding of how environmental sustainability is substantively managed by SMEs to improve performance for current and future generations.

This paper, to the best of the author’s knowledge, is one of the first to establish how SMEs control for environmental sustainability from empirically derived evidence. In doing so, it provides an example of the EMCS for the SME context.

This study investigates the optimum size for manufacturing firms and the impact of subcontracting on firms' likelihood of achieving their optimal scale in Vietnam.

Using data from the enterprise census in 2017 and 2021, the paper first estimates the production function to identify the optimum firm size for manufacturing firms and then, applies the logit model to investigate factors associated with the optimal firm size.

The study reveals that medium-sized firms exhibit the highest level of productivity. Nevertheless, a consistent trend emerges, indicating that nearly 90% of manufacturing firms in Vietnam operated below their optimal scale in both 2017 and 2021. An analysis of the impact of subcontracting on firms' likelihood to achieve their optimal scale emphasizes its crucial role, especially for foreign firms, exerting an influence nearly five times greater than that of the judiciary system.

The paper's findings offer crucial policy implications, suggesting that initiatives aimed at enhancing the overall productivity of the manufacturing sector should prioritise facilitating contract arrangements to encourage firms to reach their optimal size. These insights are also valuable for other countries with comparable firm size distributions.

This paper provides the first empirical evidence on the relationship between firm size and productivity as well as the role of subcontracting in firms' ability to reach their optimal scale in a country with a right-skewed distribution of firm sizes.

This paper contributes to the theory of the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and innovation at small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by conducting a conceptual analysis of the question why Germany boasts by far the highest number of “Hidden Champion” SMEs. This is done by case studies from the army and public financial management of aid disbursal in developing countries. Implications for HRM at SMEs are discussed.

Conceptual analysis using case studies.

Contributing towards filling the gap concerning theoretical underpinnings of the link between HRM and innovation, we suggest that interdisciplinary work from relevant organisational case studies indicates that the concept of institutional design to provide motivational incentives may be relevant, especially concerning high performance systems with bundles of HRM practices. Specifically, the fundamental principle of subsidiarity is found to be important.

The research is broadly applicable to organisations of all kinds, as the diverse case studies indicate. We point towards tentative implications for the firms that account for the majority of the work force, namely SMEs, and among them the most successful ones, the so-called “Hidden Champions”.

HR managers can improve motivation, performance and innovation by decentralising decision-making as far as possible, while ensuring the overall organisational goals are well understood and shared, and resources are dedicated to train and educate staff. Additionally, the conception of rank-order competitions complements the institutional design.

Greater productivity and material performance as well as greater job satisfaction via larger autonomy and decision-making power on the local level can be achieved by the application of subsidiarity as key HRM configuration. This can be employed at SMEs, as discussed, but also other organisations. Further, the principle of subsidiarity and the greater emphasis on staff training and education may help reduce inequality.

Our paper contributes towards filling the gap in the literature on the link between HRM and innovation, by identifying the role of subsidiarity. We introduce an interdisciplinary perspective, with contributions from economics and psychology, among others. We also contribute to the history of HRM.