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This paper aims to investigate the direct and combined impacts of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and conservative orientation (CO) on perceived business performance (PBP) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under strategic-hybrid orientation (SHO) theory.

The data collected from the SABI NEO international database has 90 companies in 13 medium-to-high and high-tech activity sectors. The authors used partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the research model.

Business strategies match a SHO that includes both orientations, i.e. EO and CO. Moreover, as expected, the authors found evidence that each orientation produces performance-related sign-opposite significant impacts. Finally, the hypothesis regarding the positive synergistic effect of both orientations (EO and CO) on PBP was also supported.

One stems from the study’s cross-sectional nature, requiring a longitudinal approach. Another one resides in the absence of further examinations concerning multigroup analysis. Another restraint is the limitedness of data, focused on firms with med/high-tech intensity. For last, while the use of results in the initial stages of theory development can be beneficial, it is important to note that such results cannot be simply extrapolated or generalized to other industrial sectors without careful consideration of the contextual factors at play.

This study humbly endeavours to contribute to the finality of SMEs’ more steady and prosperous existence concerning the consciousness of the need to improve labour stability and wage fairness, conditions such as requiring a continuous commitment.

In this study, the authors aimed to investigate the impact of SHO on SMEs’ PBP. To this end, the authors simultaneously used two different strategic orientations (SOs): EO, which is widely studied in the literature, and CO, which has been less researched. The authors also examined their synergistic effects on PBP. The authors’ approach is based on Venkatraman’s strategic orientation of business enterprises model and the comparative paradigm of SOs.

A key challenge for exporters and international marketing/purchasing managers is formulating strategic responses to deal with geopolitical disruptions during a trade war between superpowers. While past studies provide insightful analysis of the influence of changes in the institutional environment (regulatory pressures) on national and firm-level trade activities, they tend to ignore the association between inward (sourcing) or outward (export) international activities of firms during a trade war. In this study, we aim to explore various strategic options employed by third-party SME exporters in response to geopolitical disruptions, institutional pressures and constraints during a trade war.

We adopted a qualitative methodology and applied a hermeneutical approach in collecting, analysing and theorising interview findings. We conducted interviews with 15 owners or senior managers from 12 Australian and New Zealand exporters that exported or sourced significantly from at least one party of the trade war, the USA or China, between 2018 and 2020.

Our study developed a typology of fencing vs. balancing for explaining third-party SME exporters’ response strategies in terms of export market and international sourcing locations during a trade war. Fencing strategy centres on location choice decisions based on a fence or a secure buffer zone. Balancing strategy focuses on leveraging opportunities outside the conflict zone, i.e. third-party countries. Our study finds that exporters’ location choice decisions are influenced by a number of institutional factors during the trade war.

Firstly, our study examined only the early phase of the trade war under the “Trump” era. Future research may consider a longitudinal study design that examines exporters’ responses to global political uncertainty over a longer term. Secondly, we chose Australia and New Zealand as the focal context of this study. Future research could investigate exporters from other third-party countries that have different institutional conditions during the US-China trade war.

Firstly, an exporting firm should monitor and assess closely the wider changes in international relations between their home country’s major security partner and major trading partner, and the impact of these changes on the political risks of operating in international locations. Secondly, as the trade war intensifies, the fencing option needs to be given a greater weight than the balancing option in the strategic decision making of an exporter from a third-party country. Lastly, we encourage marketers and managers to reflect on and differentiate short-term and long-term benefits in strategic market-sourcing location decisions.

Our study makes a pioneering effort to theorise the linkages between institutional factors and the combined evaluation of export market selection and sourcing location selection choices under global political uncertainty based on the institution-based view. We present a conceptual framework highlighting the importance of institutional avoidance, embeddedness, comparative institutional advantages and multiple institutional logics for SME exporters’ international location selections during the trade war. Furthermore, we combine these institutional factors into two overarching constructs namely institutional buffer and institutional pluralism.

Since conducting agile strategies provides sustainable passenger satisfaction and revenue by replacing applied policies with more profitable ones rapidly, the focus of this study is to evaluate agile attributes for managing low-cost carriers (LCCs) operations by means of resources and competences based on dynamic capabilities built on resource-based view (RBV) theory and to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in a volatile and dynamic air transport environment. LCCs in Turkey are also evaluated in this study since the competition among LCCs is high to gain market share and they can adapt quickly to all kinds of circumstances.

Two well-known Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods (MCDM) named as the Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) methods by employing Picture fuzzy sets (PiFS) are employed to determine weight of agile attributes and superiority of LCCs based on agile attributes in the market, respectively. To check the consistency and robustness of the results for the proposed approach, comparative and sensitivity analysis are performed at the end of the study.

While the ranking orders of agile attributes are Strategic Responsiveness (AG1), Financial Management (AG4), Quality (AG2), Digital integration (AG3) and Reliability (AG5), respectively, LCC2 is selected as the best agile airline company in Turkey with respect to agile attributes. SWARA and MABAC method based on PiFS is appropriate and effective method to evaluate agile attributes that has important reference value for the airline companies in aviation industry.

The findings of this study will support managers in the airline industry to conduct airline operations more flexibly and effectively to take sustainable competitive advantage in unexpected and dynamic environment.

To the author' best knowledge, this study is the first developed to identify the attributes necessary to increase agility in LCCs. Thus, as a systematic tool, a framework is developed for the implementation of agile attributes to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the airline industry and presented a roadmap for airline managers to deal with crises and challenging situations by satisfying customer and increasing competitiveness.

This study aims to identify the strategic leadership and change management used to obtain the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditations as well as the research development on AACSB in the past decade.

This study used a systematic literature review following Petticrew and Roberts’ study. The articles were limited to empirical studies published from 2013 to 2022, taken from the Dimensions AI database.

The findings suggested that two leadership styles were used to obtain AACSB accreditation: dominance-oriented transformational and financial leadership, alongside three traits of academic leaders: commitment, engagement and encouragement. Additionally, three change management models/processes were found in the articles: teaching evaluation framework, temporary isomorphism and authenticity. Finally, they discovered that the object of the studies on AACSB accreditation had been narrowed down from the organizational level to smaller objects consisting of schools’ identity, teaching, learning and business schools’ key players.

As this study only used Dimensions AI, potential articles related to the topic outside the database could not be obtained. Thus, it limits the scope of the findings of this paper.

This study informs academic leaders in business schools about the role of strategic leadership and change management in obtaining AACSB accreditation.

Through a systematic scoping review, this study presented a decade of research development on AACSB in addition to the strategic leadership and change management needed to obtain it.

The primary purpose of this study is the development of Zimbabwe's rescue culture. The current framework for rescue operations was shaped by the historical development of laws pertaining to insolvency and liquidation. Socioeconomic pressures in Zimbabwe can be attributed to some of the main factors that led to the need for rescue legislation and restructuring, which in turn fueled the shift from a culture that supported credit to one that supported debtors. The aim of this study is to offer an overview of the key ideas and principles of the corporate rescue programs now implemented in Mauritius and to investigate the ways in which these ideas and principles impacted the newly enacted Zimbabwean Insolvency Act.

This study adopts a comparative legal approach using Zimbabwe and Mauritius as comparative case studies. The fact that both countries are former British colonies and their insolvency legal framework inspired by common law makes them appropriate to be compared. Legislation and case law are used to conduct the comparative study with the aim of Zimbabwe drawing lessons from the Mauritian legal framework on insolvency. Mauritius is a nearly ideal subject for a comparative case study because of its vibrant and fairly successful bankruptcy law framework, as well as its fictional corporate rescue culture. These might provide Zimbabwe with some motivation and guidance.

The legal framework on insolvency in Zimbabwe has been found to be too stringent and does not provide companies with any lifeline. There is arguably a tendency of forcing companies out of business rather than implementing a rescue culture. Selected aspects of the Mauritian legal framework on insolvency can be mapped onto the Zimbabwean system to implement a much-needed rescue culture given its challenging economic context.

This study contributes to comparative legal literature in the field of insolvency. It is among the very few research work that compares the legal structure on insolvency of Zimbabwe and Mauritius in a collaborative endeavor to enhance the insolvency law and its application in Zimbabwe.

The development and evolution of stakeholder collaborative innovation in megaprojects is impacted by various influencing factors. The effect of influencing factors on collaborative innovation performance (CIP) in megaprojects is not a simplistic linear relationship but an iterative and non-linear relationship that requires a dynamic perspective to analyze. Therefore, this paper adopts the system dynamic (SD) approach to investigate the dynamic and interactive relationships between the CIP and the influencing factors.

The study first develops a research framework with the system boundary of “CIP system – organizational collaboration subsystem – knowledge collaboration subsystem – strategic collaboration subsystem”. Then, the causal relationship model, the stock-flow model, and the mathematical equations were determined based on the literature review and the expert interviews. Finally, five performance improvement scenarios were designed according to the practice context of CIP in megaprojects, and simulations were performed using the Vensim PLE software to investigate the CIP from a dynamic perspective.

The findings reveal that the effect of different influencing factors on CIP grows non-linearly, with the cumulative effect becoming more pronounced as time advances. The incentive mechanism has the most significant effect, and the combined effect of multiple influencing factors has a highly significant facilitating effect on improving CIP. Strategic collaboration, organizational collaboration and knowledge collaboration are mutually conditional and reinforcing with each other, which ultimately promotes the improvement of CIP.

This study uncovers the inherent pattern and the interactive dynamic mechanism of factors for improving CIP in the context of megaprojects. It enriches the theoretical research in the area of collaborative innovation in megaprojects and provides practical management strategies for improving CIP.

Grounded in the framework of social learning theory (SLT), the current study explores the impact of leaders’ unethical proorganizational behavior (UPB) on their subordinates’ self-management and moral self-efficacy, which, in turn, affect knowledge hiding and sharing among followers. This study aims to examine how instrumental thinking influences the relationship between leader UPB and subordinate behaviors, shaping knowledge sharing and hiding.

Using a longitudinal approach, this research uses a two-wave data collection strategy with a one-month interval. The study cohort comprises 378 employees drawn from technology service firms situated in China.

Empirical findings confirm that leader UPB is linked to increased follower self-management and knowledge hiding, as well as reduced moral self-efficacy. Instrumental thinking moderates these effects, amplifying knowledge hiding and diminishing moral self-efficacy while reducing knowledge sharing.

The study contributes to the existing literature on UPB by offering insights into the distinct consequences of leader UPB on knowledge-related behaviors of followers. Furthermore, the exploration of employees’ instrumental thinking in the context of leader UPB underscores the strategic manipulation of knowledge to fulfill individual goals, thereby enriching the underpinnings of the SLT. The study underscores the imperative for organizations to grasp the implications of UPB and underscores the necessity for stringent ethical frameworks to mitigate its deleterious impact.

The study contributes to the existing literature on UPB by offering insights into the distinct consequences of leader UPB on knowledge-related behaviors of followers. Furthermore, the exploration of employees’ instrumental thinking in the context of leader UPB underscores the strategic manipulation of knowledge to fulfill individual goals, thereby enriching the underpinnings of the SLT. The study underscores the imperative for organizations to grasp the implications of UPB and underscores the necessity for stringent ethical frameworks to mitigate its deleterious impact.

The present study addresses a gap in the current literature by elucidating the multifaceted outcomes of leaders’ UPB on paradoxical behaviors related to knowledge sharing and hiding among followers. This nuanced examination underscores the need to comprehend the intricate contingencies that accentuate the effects of UPB, particularly in the realm of leadership dynamics. Grounded in SLT, this study delves into leadership dynamics and ethical decision-making.

The primary purpose of this contextual study was three-fold: (1) to study the effect of HR practices on employee lifecycle (ELC) on organisational outcomes; (2) to investigate the mediating role of employee outcomes in the relationship between HR practices and organisational outcomes; (3) to assess the differences in HR practices of the Indian and Thai food processing industries.

The study used random sampling to select 574 (278 Indian and 296 Thai) HR managers in food processing industries. A structured questionnaire was administered. The PLS-SEM was used to validate the relationships, while multiple group analysis (MGA) was employed to compare the HR practices.

The results revealed a significant influence of HR practices on organisational outcomes. Employee outcomes also mediate this influence. MGA results showed no significant variation in the effect of HR practices on organisational outcomes between India and Thailand.

HR practices must be aligned to suit country-specific business contexts to achieve organisational outcomes by improving employee outcomes. The findings would guide managers of the Indian and Thai food industries to develop tailor-made HR strategies.

This study contributes to comparative HRM in the Asian context by offering an empirically tested framework. Additionally, this comparative research offers insightful information on convergent best practices among Asian nations.

The integration of sustainability, performance measurement and new product development (NPD) is key for aligning environmental and social objectives with business strategies. While previous research has initiated proposals for integrating sustainability into NPD or incorporating sustainability into corporate measurement systems, there is a notable deficiency in studies that comprehensively integrate these three perspectives. In this sense, this study proposes a performance framework (PF) to integrate sustainability performance indicators (PIs) into the measurement system considering the company’s NPD phases.

The PF was developed through a literature review and action research (AR). This resulting PF was positively evaluated by the practitioners in the company.

First, the review enabled the synthesis of an initial conceptual PF with 188 sustainability PIs and a five-step procedure. Then, the empirical results of the AR led to a new PF that presents the systematisation of the PIs database and a practice-based seven-stage approach.

This action-oriented research limits the extent to which this study’s findings can be generalised. Future research should apply the PF in different research designs to produce managerially relevant knowledge.

This PF may provide managers with actionable knowledge that best supports the measurement system integration with sustainability PIs considering the NPD phases.

Integrating sustainability, performance measurement and the NPD has been recognised as critical for supporting decision-making concerning the impact of processes and products. Compared with previous frameworks, the proposed PF extends the existing literature by introducing a systematised PIs database and a novel procedure for integrating sustainability measurement throughout the NDP.

This study aims to explore the dissemination and evolutionary path of online public opinion from a crisis management perspective. By clarifying the influencing factors and dynamic mechanisms of online public opinion dissemination, this study provides insights into attenuating the negative impact of online public opinion and creating a favorable ecological space for online public opinion.

This research employs bibliometric analysis and CiteSpace software to analyze 302 Chinese articles published from 2006 to 2023 in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database and 276 English articles published from 1994 to 2023 in the Web of Science core set database. Through literature keyword clustering, co-citation analysis and burst terms analysis, this paper summarizes the core scientific research institutions, scholars, hot topics and evolutionary paths of online public opinion crisis management research from both Chinese and international academic communities.

The results show that the study of online public opinion crisis management in China and internationally is centered on the life cycle theory, which integrates knowledge from information, computer and system sciences. Although there are differences in political interaction and stage evolution, the overall evolutionary path is similar, and it develops dynamically in the “benign conflict” between the expansion of the research perspective and the gradual refinement of research granularity.

This study summarizes the research results of online public opinion crisis management from China and the international academic community and identifies current research hotspots and theoretical evolution paths. Future research can focus on deepening the basic theories of public opinion crisis management under the influence of frontier technologies, exploring the subjectivity and emotionality of web users using fine algorithms and promoting the international development of network public opinion crisis management theory through transnational comparison and international cooperation.