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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of supply chain strategies that manufacturing companies can use to minimise or overcome natural resource scarcity, and ultimately improve resource efficiency and achieve competitive advantage. The relationship between resource efficiency and competitive advantage is also explored.

The proposed research model draws on resource dependence theory. Data were collected from 183 logistics, purchasing, sustainability and supply chain managers from various manufacturing companies and analysed by applying the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique.

The results indicate that both buffering and bridging strategies improve resource efficiency; however, only bridging strategies seem to lead to firm’s competitive advantage in terms of ownership and accessibility to resources. The relationship between resource efficiency and competitive advantage is not supported.

Future research could confirm the robustness of these findings by using a larger sample size and taking into account other supply chain members.

This research provides guidance to managers faced with the growing risk of resource scarcity to achieve a resource efficient supply chain and an advantage over competitors.

Studies have explored the appropriate strategies for minimising dependencies caused by the scarcity of natural resources in the field of supply chain management; however, there is limited empirical work on investigating the impact of these strategies on resource efficiency and competitive advantage.

Vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems, systems of inter-related forces that promote and sustain regional entrepreneurship, are increasingly viewed as sources of innovation, economic development and community revitalization. Regions with emerging, underdeveloped or depressed economies are attempting to develop their nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems in the hopes of experiencing the positive benefits of entrepreneurial activity. For nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems to grow requires resources. However, how nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems manage their resource dependencies and the tensions that exist between creating and attracting resources are not clear. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theory of nascent entrepreneurial ecosystem resource dependence.

This conceptual paper analyzes entrepreneurial ecosystems as meta-organizations and builds on resource dependence theory to explain how nascent ecosystems respond to environmental dependencies and their resource needs through internal and external strategies.

Two specific strategies used by nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems to manage resource dependence – bridging and buffer – are explored. It is proposed that there is a positive relationship between the resource dependence of a nascent entrepreneurial ecosystem and its use of bridging and buffering activities. Two ecosystem characteristics that influence the pursuit of bridging and buffering – ecosystem size and the presence of collaborative values – are also identified. In addition, it is theorized that resource dependence strategies influence a key, system-level characteristic of entrepreneurial ecosystems: resilience, the ecosystem’s ability to respond and adapt to internal and external disruptions.

The theory presented generates insights into how nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems create and obtain resources when ecosystems are unmunificent, resource-constrained or underdeveloped. The theorizing addresses which resource dependence strategy – buffering or bridging – has a stronger link to resource dependence (and resilience) and under what conditions these linkages occur. The theoretical model generates insights for research on entrepreneurship in emerging and developed economies and produces practical implications for ecosystem participants, policymakers and economic development organizations.

This study aims to test the effects of Technology-related Divestitures (TRDs) on firms' exploratory innovation. The moderating effects of firms' internal and external resource coordination activities, resource buffering and bridging, are also explored.

A set of data including 1,372 Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2018 is adopted. Based on propensity score matching sample, random-effect Tobit models were employed to test the hypotheses.

The empirical results indicate that TRDs inhibit firms' exploratory innovation, while both resource buffering and bridging can mitigate this negative effect. This implies that to promote exploratory innovation, resource coordination activities are the essential.

The research findings can contribute to both the exploratory innovation and technological divestiture literature. The test on the moderating roles of resource buffering and bridging can also extend our understanding of the effect of TRDs on firms' exploratory innovation. Accordingly, several practical implications can be provided. This is especially important for strategic decisions of firms from emerging and developing countries, which often lack sufficient internal resources and strong technological capabilities to develop exploratory innovation.

The purpose of this article is to investigate if and how social capital offline – stemming from face-to-face interactions – and social capital online – stemming from social digital media – can influence early-stage entrepreneurs, i.e. ventures with up to 42 months of existence.

The authors used herein a qualitative research approach. The method used was the case study. The authors investigated three early-stage entrepreneurs in order to achieve the objective of the paper. These entrepreneurs are both the unit of analysis and the unit of observation.

The outcomes of this research indicate (1) the combined importance of social capital offline and online; (2) the different performance of the two different types of social capital (they seem to operate in relatively distinct ways) and (3) the existence of recursiveness between resources stemming from the two social spheres (offline and online).

As research limitations, the authors point out the following: (1) the use of semistructured interviews as the only data collection instrument; (2) the limitation of the outcomes to entrepreneurs only (3) the absence of information on the performance of the business ventures; the focus of the paper was only on establishing causality between social capital offline and online and entrepreneurial performance.

This paper provides important research contributions. Initially, the paper presents a range of offline and online variables, which can be used in further research. At the same time, the paper emphasizes the combined impact of social capital offline and online, expanding the literature related to entrepreneurship. Moreover, this study proposes the creation of an integrative model. Finally, the authors point out the need for new theoretical and empirical studies on the subject, which still presents a gap in the literature.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how occupational division impacts on social capital and access to resources that may have a bearing on the growth potential and success of a new venture.

This study compares the social capital profiles of early‐stage entrepreneurs in England with distinct occupational classifications – i.e. entrepreneurs who were completing training on the Science and Enterprise Challenge (SEC) initiative and pursuing professional and higher technician businesses, and entrepreneurs who were completing training on the New Entrepreneurship Scholarship (NES) initiative and who were residing in deprived areas, unemployed or underemployed and pursuing non‐professional businesses. The European Socio‐economic Classification (ESeC) was adopted to classify occupation. The entrepreneurs completed aided name generator questionnaires and in‐depth interviews.

The findings demonstrate that professional and higher technician entrepreneurs have higher levels of bridging and diverse resources when compared to non‐professional entrepreneurs residing in deprived areas. The non‐professional entrepreneurs also seem over‐reliant on too much bonding.

Policy makers strive to understand who has the most productive social capital when launching a business and who does not. The findings may help provide an initial awareness that across the board entrepreneurial policies are inappropriate, as the building of social capital seems contextual.

The high bridging social capital of professional and higher technician entrepreneurs could enable “getting ahead” and could be entrepreneurial/innovative “facilitating social capital”. The non‐professional entrepreneurs residing in deprived areas' over‐reliance on bonding social capital could be a liability and entrepreneurial/innovative “inhibiting social capital”.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of who forms what market assets by making what market investments in a business network.

To investigate what market investments were made by certain actors into resource interfaces as market assets, the author draws on a case network based on an investigation of the Chilean salmon production network. To this end, the author chose the fish – being the focal object resource in that network – as a point of departure. The author systematically investigates the resource interfaces that this resource has with three other specific resources: feed, fishmeal, and vaccines in a thick case study.

This study shows that market investments entail committing resources to resource interfaces which turns them into market assets. Resource interfaces as market assets have implications on how we characterize and value resource interfaces. Multilateral resource interfaces become valuable to firms as a result of continuous market investments made into them. This produces different types of resource interfaces, some of which are of mediatory character bridging between distant resources in a network.

This study focuses on the market investments being made to create and sustain market assets. Of course such assets are linked to a firm’s internal assets which this study do not investigate. In addition, this study emphasizes the commitment of resources into existing resource interfaces, the ensuing creation of market assets, and its use and value for firms and downplays a firm’s need to account for market investments and the market investments required to create a new resource interface.

As resource interfaces are valuable market assets, it is important to understand the functioning of different types of resource interfaces so as to exploit their potential as efficient as possible. This paper shows that some resources act as bridging resources connecting the borders of two indirectly related resources. Controlling bridging resources becomes an essential task for managers in business networks.

Understanding the market investments into resource interfaces enables firms to become more skilled in organizing and controlling networks. These networks can play important roles in the economic development of society and create improved societal conditions for people, organizations, and economies.

By combining a market investment and market asset conceptualization of investments in networks with a resource interaction approach, this paper provides an enhanced understanding of resource interfaces as market assets. Theoretical implications for our understanding of resource interfaces – its value and character – are discussed.

With the aim of shedding light on issues surrounding the development and evaluation of report, this paper offers a theory for facilitating and legitimizing an accountability‐based discourse and disclosure in the public health sector. The project adopts Laughlin’s (1995) vision of middle range theory and an accountability perspective to justify the form and normative perspective which shapes the skeletal model to follow. Formulated in part from an analysis of the health management and public sector accounting literatures, the model is now empirically supported from the preferences of health sector accountees in New Zealand. The result is a conceptual construct which is both considerate of and challenging to the standard financial accounting model. The skeletal model consists of five conceptual categories, their interrelationships and properties. The theoretical model considers and mandates illumination of political incentives, incorporates the assumption that accounting can be constitutive as well as reflective and is sympathetic to a wide range of interests and contextual distinctions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an early assessment of India’s South-South cooperation for trade and technology (SSTT) with East Africa, focusing on Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It aims to analyse the role of SSTT in providing support to targeted sectors.

The paper examines SSTT, focusing on India and East Africa over a specific period (2000–2016) of its emergence, and extends the public sponsorship literature in international business (IB) to better understand the relationship between SSTT and value addition – applying to a particular case study of SSTT interventions in spices.

The paper highlights SSTT as a pathway to support value addition in global value chains (GVCs). Trade between India and East African countries has grown, with three developments over the period of analysis in particular: shifting trade patterns, growing share of intermediate goods trade and differences in GVC insertion. However, East African exports are largely of lower value. Capacity building to support processing capability and thriving markets can encourage greater value addition. Preliminary findings suggest early gains at the margins, as SSTT interventions have been focusing on capacity boosting with buffering and bridging mechanisms for increased volume of trade. Moving up the value chain however requires that specific value-enhancing activities continue to be targeted, building on regional capacities. Our high-level case study for spices suggests that activities are starting to have a positive effect; however, more focus is needed to specifically target value creation before export and in particular higher levels of processing.

While findings are preliminary, policy implications emerge to guide SSTT interventions. There is capacity for building higher value-added supply chains as is evident among East African countries that trade with each other – future SSTT programmes could tap into this and help build capacity in these higher-value value chains. Future SSTT programmes can take a comprehensive approach by aiming at interventions at key points of the value chain, and especially at points that facilitate higher value addition than initial processing. An example is that Ethiopia and Rwanda are likely to benefit from an expanded spice industry, but the next phase should be towards building processing for value-addition components of the value chain, such as through trade policies, incentivising exporters to add value to items before export. From a development perspective, more analysis needs to be done on the value chain itself – for instance, trade facilitation measures to help processers engage in value chains and to access investments for increasing value add activities. (iv), Future research should examine more closely the development impacts of SSTT, namely, the connection between increased trade, local job creation and sustained innovation, as it is these tangible benefits that will help countries in the Global South realise the benefits of increased trade.

The paper underlines how the SSTT approach can contribute to the critical IB and GVCs literature using a theoretical grounded approach from public sponsorship theory, and with a unique lens of development cooperation between countries in the global south and its emerging impact on development outcomes in these countries.

This study aims to explore how educational leaders in South Korea adopted equity mindsets and how they organized changes to support students' deeper learning during COVID-19.

The authors developed a comprehensive framework of Equity Leadership for Deeper Learning, by revising the existing model of Darling-Hammond and Darling-Hammond (2022) and synthesizing equity leadership literature. Drawing upon this framework, this study analyzed data collected from individual interviews and a focus group with school and district administrators in the K-12 Korean education system.

The participants prioritized an equity stance of their leadership by critically understanding socio-political conditions, challenging unjust policies, and envisioning the big picture of equity-centered education. This led them to operationalize equity leadership in practice and create a more inclusive and supportive environment for student-centered deeper learning. District leaders established well-resourced systems by creating/developing instructional resources and making policies more useful. School leaders promoted quality teaching by strengthening access, developing student-centered curricula, and establishing individualized programs for more equitable deeper learning.

This study builds on scholarship of deeper learning and equity leadership by adding evidence from Korean educational leaders during COVID-19. First, the findings highlight the significance of leaders' equity mindsets in creating a safe and inclusive environment for deeper learning. This study further suggests that sharing an equity stance as a collective norm at the system level, spanning across districts and schools is important, which is instrumental to scale up innovation and reform initiatives. Second, this research also extends comparative, culturally informed perspectives to understand educational leadership. Most contemporary leadership theories originated from and are informed by Western and English-speaking contexts despite being widely applied to other contexts across the culture. This study's analysis underscores the importance of contextualizing leadership practices within the socio-historical contexts that influence how education systems are established and operate.

Leaders' adopting equity mindsets, utilizing bureaucratic resources in creative ways and implementing a school-wide quality curriculum are crucial to supporting students' deeper learning. District leaders can leverage existing vertical and horizontal networks to effectively communicate with teachers and local communities to establish well-recourced systems. As deeper learning is timeless and requires high levels of student engagement, school leaders' efforts to establish school-wide curricula is critical to facilitate deeper learning for students.

The study provides a nuanced understanding of how equity focused leaders responded to difficulties caused by the pandemic and strategized to support students' deeper learning. Existing studies tend to prioritize teacher effects on student learning, positing leadership effects as secondary or indirect. Alternatively, the authors argue that, without leadership supporting an inclusive environment, resourceful systems and student-centered school culture, deeper learning cannot be fully achieved in equitable ways.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative analysis of the contribution made by intellectual capital (IC) to company performance at company and industry levels in the Russian context. It examines the performance effect of IC using a multilevel approach.

The study combines the resource- and industry-based view. It decomposes performance determinants into two levels of analysis in such a way that it is assumed that IC at industry and company levels has a significant simultaneous impact on company performance. The empirical part of the study uses a database of 1,096 Russian public companies, covering the period of 2004–2014 and divided into 19 industries. The econometric methodology uses hierarchical linear models to estimate the effect of IC in the different levels of analysis.

The study confirms that the strength of the performance effect of IC is contingent on the industry. Furthermore, the study reveals that industry-level endowment with regard to intangibles contributes more to company performance in comparison with a company-level endowment, in the context of the transitional economy.

The study proposes a novel methodological approach to the performance effect of IC in the Russian context, studying the differences between industry and company effect. The study provides insights to better understand the importance of the politics of IC at the different levels (industry and company) and presents a new empirical enquiry into strategic behaviour regarding IC in Russia.