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The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the connections between an organization’s knowledge management and growth management strategies. The study shows how knowledge management can support organizations’ growth objectives.

The paper first connects the literature streams of growth management and knowledge management. This conceptual understanding about growth-oriented knowledge management is then advanced through an exploratory case study of a company aiming at rapid growth in the construction industry.

The paper recognizes two knowledge perspectives to growth management. First, the perspective of knowledge assets concerns whether an organization has the needed knowledge resources to enable growth. Second, to make informed decisions, the management needs relevant and up-to-date information. From these viewpoints, the paper derives the case-specific cornerstones of growth-oriented knowledge management and suggests some paths forward in terms of future research.

Although growth strategy defines an organization’s growth aims and clarifies how the intended growth will be attained, knowledge strategy takes a stand on the needed knowledge assets and paints a path from the existing knowledge base to a state where organization’s knowledge assets enable reaching of its business goals. The paper helps practitioners to plan growth-oriented knowledge management strategies.

The paper contributes by extending the analysis of knowledge strategy to growth management and by providing a practical illustration of the development process where knowledge was put into prime focus of organization’s growth strategy. The paper also provides original data and perspective to the roles and interaction of the board and the management team in the case of growth management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether intellectual capital affects the probability that a particular firm will default. The authors also test whether including intellectual capital performance in bankruptcy prediction models improves their predictive ability.

Using a sample of US public companies from the period stretching from 1985 to 2015, the authors test whether intellectual capital performance reduces the probability of bankruptcy. The authors use the VAIC as an aggregate measure of corporate intellectual capital performance.

The findings show that the intellectual capital performance is negatively associated with the probability of default. The findings also indicate that the bankruptcy prediction models that include intellectual capital have a superior predictive ability over the standard models.

This paper contributes to prior research on intellectual capital and firm performance. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study to show that the benefits of intellectual capital extend from superior performance to long-term financial stability. The research can also contribute to bankruptcy studies. By using a time frame covering decades, the findings suggest that intellectual capital performance measures can be included in bankruptcy prediction models and can effectively complement traditional performance measures.

This paper highlights that intellectual capital is associated with long-term financial stability and a lower bankruptcy risk. Firms realising the potential of their intellectual capital can produce a virtuous circle between higher performance and greater financial stability.

In recent years a significant number of intellectual capital (IC) metrics has been developed and applied in many organizations. However, there is still a strong need to specify the relations among the different categories of intellectual assets that exist in the context of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SME), and to determine the way these assets affect financial performance. This paper has a dual scope; first, to specify these relations, and, second, to explore the impact of IC on corporate performance.

Hypotheses are tested through a survey conducted on Greek knowledge‐intensive SMEs of the service sector. Firms' perceptions regarding intellectual capital categories, which were measured through the answers given on a structured questionnaire, and accounting data gathered from financial databases were combined.

The findings indicate that the interaction of certain categories of intellectual assets in SMEs is in some aspects different from the pattern evidenced in other surveys that analyze large companies. Also, the empirical data provides supportive evidence that certain categories of intellectual capital positively contribute to corporate performance.

In most Sub-Saharan African countries, a widely adopted policy to increase access to healthcare is the complete or partial removal of health user fees. This paper examines the effect of removing health user fees on the cognitive development of children in Ghana.

The study uses the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey (GSPS) and a difference-in-differences method to analyze the impacts of free healthcare.

The findings show that improved access to healthcare enhances the cognitive ability of children. More importantly, children who received free healthcare in early life experienced significant improvement in their cognitive ability. The benefits are also huge for girls and children from low-income families. The findings further show that maternal health, the timely receipt of vaccinations and regular infant health visits are important operative channels through which improved access to healthcare affects children’s cognitive ability.

There are several studies on the effects of eliminating health user fees on various outcomes, but only a few focus on children’s outcomes. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on a vital child outcome, cognitive ability and exploring the timing and pathways through which abolishing health user fees affect cognitive development in children. Because cognitive ability is crucial for educational and labor market outcomes, the findings are useful for policymakers in determining the population to target and the timing of interventions that yield huge impacts when designing health intervention programs in developing countries.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2022-0739.

This research has the following specific objectives: provide an overview of the literature addressing operational excellence (OE) and OE in emerging countries; propose an integrative framework of OE attributes; and propose future research directions for the OE literature.

To remain competitive in industry, many organizations are implementing OE initiatives. However, achieving OE in emerging markets has been a pressing challenge due to the scarce knowledge on how it works. Through a systematic review of the literature, this study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the concept of OE in emerging countries through the triple bottom line.

This study has found nine attributes of OE based on the three pillars of sustainability or triple bottom line (economic, environmental and social). Four of them were the most cited and served to build the proposed framework. The analysis concludes that most of the studies related to OE in emerging countries have been carried out in Asia. Finally, based on the results obtained from the literature review, six points of future research are proposed based on three research directions: OE in emerging countries, active participation by employees and culture generation and finally, research methods.

The gap that is filled in this study is that some authors have studied the application of OE in emerging countries, specifically on the Asian continent. In those cases, the literature is either oriented to describing OE from different perspectives or to its application in different companies, some of which are emerging countries. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study that describes the specific and complete aspects that make up a model of OE and which can show how this model can be applied in emerging countries.

This research investigates the adoption of the industrial Internet of things (IIoT) in SMEs to achieve and increase organizational performance. With the latest technology, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can create a competitive edge in the market and better serve customers.

Twelve hypotheses are proposed for this study. This study constructed a questionnaire based on technological, organizational, environmental and human perspectives. A survey is conducted on the SMEs of India using the questionnaire.

Eight hypotheses were accepted, and four hypotheses were not supported. The hypotheses rejected are infrastructure, organizational readiness, internal excellence and prior experience. The findings suggested that adopting IIoT in SMEs will increase organizational performance.

This study will be helpful for the manager, top management and policymakers. This study identified the areas SMEs need to work on to adopt the technologies.

In the literature, no article considered IIoT adoption in SME firms as a human factor. Therefore, this study is unique, including human, technological, organizational and environmental factors.

The purpose of this study is to explore the human capital (HC) value creation practices of knowledge‐based software and service exporter industry in India.

The study used HC disclosure attributes as a tool to the contents of the annual reports for the year 2003‐2004, to evaluate the type and amount of HC disclosed by the software firms. The study also conducted semi‐structured interviews with the heads of human resources (HR) of 14 software firms to obtain a greater understanding of the similarities between reporting and managed HC practices.

The study identified most reported and least reported attributes of HC using content analysis and explained their reporting of value creation using interviews and resource‐based view. The findings suggest that the HC reporting practices were consistent with interview findings. The frequency of HC attributes reported followed the extent of the management's perception of HC value creation to the firm.

The limitations of the study are: first, it is a cross‐sectional study; second, the findings may be applicable exclusively to the software and service industry in India and cannot be generalised to other industries in India or software industry in other countries; third, the assertions by the HR heads are assumed to faithfully reflect the firm's HC practices; fourth, the study assumes that annual reports are the primary documents available to public (stakeholders) requiring information on the firms.

This study provides an insight into the HC reporting practices of the nascent software and service exporter industry in India that is experiencing an economic boom that is positively influenced by the information technology software industry. This study throws light on the utilization of HC for value creation by the top software firms. This may help countries having tie‐up with Indian firms to understand the value creation process of these firms to sustain growth. The study would enable other software firms to understand HC reporting practices of the industry, and could use a framework that is similar to the framework used in this study.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the anatomy of firms which adopt comprehensive performance measurement (PM) systems in order to gain an understanding of how internal (organisational capabilities) and external (perceived environmental uncertainties) factors shape performance measurement practices.

This paper hypothesises that firms dominated by organic capabilities and operating in unpredictable markets are more likely to adopt comprehensive PM systems. The statistical test of these hypotheses is based on a 2008 survey of 299 Danish firms.

This paper concludes that a limited number of internal and external factors have a significant influence on the adoption of PM systems. There is no consistent pattern, however, between the different sub‐categories of organisational capabilities/perceived environmental uncertainties and PM adoption.

Much has been said about how changes in the environment and business structure require firms to develop new ways to measure performance. Less has been done to study whether firms adopting comprehensive PM systems actually match the characteristics of the “new economy”. The findings from this study indicate that the relationship between PM adoption and the organisational characteristics/external environment is more complicated than anticipated.

Informed by the findings of a follow-up research study of companies originally involved in the Danish Guideline Project (DGP) for intellectual capital statements (ICS), the purpose of this paper is to provide valuable insights for a potential shift from intellectual capital (IC) reporting, largely informed by an accounting perspective, towards IC-related disclosures.

The paper draws on data obtained from 21 semi-structured interviews with respondents in 16 companies. The respondents were contacted following a genealogical exercise carried out on the 102 companies involved in the DGP between 1999 and 2003.

The interviews suggested a rather critical perspective towards IC reporting using the ICS framework. Despite the attempt of the DGP to establish a reporting standard, a range of experiments resulted in changes to the framework’s original structure. Overall, a trend towards more integrated forms of reporting was discernible, in some part being motivated by the need to reduce the levels of reporting overload. Examples of integration designed to legitimise IC or corporate social responsibility reports, involving issuing them in tandem with a recognised reporting vehicle such as the annual report, were also encountered.

The implications of this study are that timely, value-relevant IC disclosures and compliant reporting, primarily for accountability purposes, have the potential to coexist. In addition to the usual limitations of a semi-structured interview research design, respondents’ difficulties in clearly recalling events during the project after some 10-12 years is a further potential limitation. Additionally, the use of internet-based communication channels for disclosure purposes was in its infancy at the time of the DGP.

The paper provides important insights into the mechanisms of IC disclosure and IC reporting as seen from a practitioner perspective. Implications relevant to the continued development of integrated reporting are also identified.

This paper examines issues that focus on the importance of accounting data generated knowledge information and its role in modern business. The cognitive aspect of this research reflects the ability of companies and its employees to apply knowledge for managerial purposes using accounting data.

Using a questionnaire, a five-factor model related to information communication, information cognitive utilization, functional optimization, applicability and cognitive efficiency was created.

Findings present a series of complex correlations highlighting possible actions to utilize knowledge as a tool for management. Information is obtained regarding the management of knowledge and the adoption of information systems.

The results reflect the limited implementation of intellectual capital practices and understanding of knowledge as a financial tool for executives and employees. Based on the above, an attempt was made to formulate the questions for the careful identification of the factors.

Rapid developments in information and communication technologies, together with a realization that knowledge is a resource of general and cost strategic importance, changed the operational structures of companies, shifting value from materials to intangible assets. This paper demonstrates how multiple variables are correlated and how small changes could help increase intellectual capital and facilitate the construction of knowledge based systems.

The need for an accounting valuation of intellectual capital in order to present the true picture of business value is evident. This paper illustrates factors such as interactive communication and systematic cognitive efficiency or the monetization of information as a preliminary step for future valuation and management intellectual capital models.

Direct access to sufficient and reliable information, lead to the search for effective tools for the creation, aggregation and exchange of knowledge. The latter becomes a key goal for information systems. Emphasis is placed on the benefits and critical success factors of knowledge management systems, as essential information systems to support and enhance organizational processes.