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The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationships among explorative learning strategy, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and innovation in information and communication technology small- and medium-sized enterprises (ICT-SMEs).

In total, 213 valid questionnaires from SMEs’ top management positions were evaluated to investigate the proposed model of the research empirically. As a methodological approach, partial least square (PLS) path modeling approach, a variance-based structural equation modeling was employed.

The statistical results imply that explorative learning has a positive impact on improvisational creativity and innovation while improvisational creativity has a positive influence on compositional creativity and innovation as well. Compositional creativity and innovation are also positively associated. Surprisingly, improvisational creativity mediates the relationship between explorative learning and innovation. Furthermore, PLS-multi group analysis reveals that heterogeneity exists in the collected data and number of employees is a moderating variable. The results of the research indicate that companies with number of employees between 51 and 100 are more creative and innovative in comparison with other groups. On the other hand, the positive relationship between explorative learning and compositional creativity was not supported in this research.

This study is one of the few research works in the realm of examining the structural relationship among explorative learning strategy, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and innovation in ICT-SMEs, regarding the number of employees as a moderating variable.

A total of 210 valid paper-and-pencil questionnaires were received from fast-moving consumer goods/small and medium-sized enterprises (FMCG-SMEs) to empirically test the proposed model. Structural equation modelling approach was performed to assess the model fit, measurement and structural models for exogenous and endogenous constructs, and test of nonlinearity.

In the hyper-competitive world, while the essence of strategy making is often focussed on environmental and market-based analysis or the structure of the market, the important role of resources and capabilities in determining firm performance and overall strategy formulation within SMEs begs attention. Grounded in the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, organisational improvisation theory and componential theory of creativity, the purpose of this research is to look beyond the determinants of creativity, innovation and proposes a theoretical model investigating organisations formative performance in strategy formulation.

The results imply that intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, creativity-related processes and expertise as the firm's capabilities positively influence improvisational creativity, and creativity-related processes and expertise also positively impact on compositional creativity. Surprisingly, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are not conducive to compositional creativity, and the relationships between extrinsic motivation and improvisational creativity as well as improvisational creativity and performance are nonlinear. Furthermore, both improvisational creativity and compositional creativity are found to be predictors of innovation in FMCG-SMEs.

Thus, organisations and specifically FMCG-SMEs can increase the level of improvisational creativity if they formulate strategies to motivate employees both intrinsically and extrinsically, and further, they can boost the level of compositional creativity in their companies through hiring and nurturing experts.

Less attention has been paid to motivation, creativity, innovation, performance and strategy linkages as the prominent source of competitive advantages among FMCG-SMEs, especially in developing countries. Theoretically, through introducing extrinsic motivation as the predictors of improvisational creativity and innovation, from strategic management perspectives, the empirical findings of this research illustrate that resources and capabilities (RBV) lead to improved competitive performance within the FMCG-SMEs. This study also provides empirical evidence for the nonlinear nature of the relationship between motivation and creativity.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of competitiveness for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by investigating the structural relationship between organizational structure, knowledge quality (KQ) dimensions, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity and innovation in an emerging market – Malaysia – grounding in sense-making and organizational improvisational theories.

A total of 358 valid questionnaires administered among SMEs’ top management were used in examining the measurement model and structural relationship between latent constructs using partial least squares (PLS) path-modelling approach.

The findings indicate that a flat organizational structure influences business entities’ sense-making activities in the way they realize the intrinsic value of knowledge (intrinsic KQ) and take action to apply the organizational knowledge (actionable KQ). These sense-making activities are also conducive to SMEs’ improvisational creativity, compositional creativity and innovative capabilities. All KQ dimensions are positively interrelated, thus supporting sense-making theory.

A sustainable competitive advantage for SMEs requires a setting that is based on a lean, decentralized and cooperative organizational structure that shapes organizational KQ. As a contribution to the literature, accessibility KQ is introduced as a KQ dimension. Even though previous research was unclear on the reflectiveness/formativeness of KQ, by applying confirmatory tetrad analysis-PLS, this study empirically supports that KQ is a formative construct.

Reiter-Palmon, Herman, and Yammarino (this volume) put forward a series of useful propositions about the nature of team creativity, its connection with individual creativity and cognitive processes, and its antecedents. This commentary highlights some issues raised by these propositions, and explores the emergence of team creativity in greater depth. In particular, it discusses existing principles of multi-level theory and measurement, and considers how they might be applied to team creativity. We conclude that there is no single unified way to treat the concept of team creativity, but just as the antecedents of creativity may change in different situations, so may the way in which the construct is defined.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an actual compositional process that entails a diversity of music information modes and describe the way these modes contribute to the creative aspirations of a composer.

The music information typology proposed by Rousi, Savolainen and Vakkari is used as a point of departure for defining the different modes of music-related information. First, relevant music information modes are identified from the composer-informant’s verbal description of a compositional process. Then, their proportions and dynamics are examined.

The findings suggest that the music information typology may be applied within the context of musical composition, that is, all of its five modes of music information could be identified from the composer’s verbal description of the compositional process. However, two additional significant information modes were identified: shaping music as the third mode of enactive representations and genuine iconic representations.

The purpose of this case study is not to claim that the results regarding the significance of individual music information modes apply to all compositional processes within diverse genres of music.

This study introduces a new mode of music information indicative of the artistic capacity of expressiveness: shaping musical structures as the third mode of enactive representations was the means whereby the composer made musical structures work for himself and hence created performative power in his music.

The objective of this study is to examine the structural relationship between creativity-relevant processes, domain-relevant skills, intrinsic task motivation, creativity and the moderating effect of social environment (sufficient resources, workgroup support, realistic work pressure and lack of organizational impediments).

A total of 289 valid questionnaires were collected from engineering students in Malaysian universities to test the measurement as well as the structural model using partial least squares (PLS) path modelling.

This study reveals that while a high level of domain-relevant skills, intrinsic task motivation and creativity-relevant processes influence creativity among the sample of engineering students, social environment acts as an insignificant moderator to the creativity perception. While the statistical results support the structural relationships (direct effects), the social environment shows the insignificant moderating effect (except creativity relevant process to sufficient resource to creativity). Work-group support, sufficient resources and lack of organizational impediments, as the three factors of the social environment, will not have any effect on creativity of upcoming engineers.

While businesses in the emerging markets mostly neglect the concept of developing creative mindsets among engineering students, in the competitive world of business that is extremely fast-paced, being creative within a business setting will act as a paramount criterion to differentiate. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) mainly rely on their structure and internal networks to achieve their goals and remain competitive. However, their limited internal capabilities and complex environments can hinder their stability. Thus, this study evaluated the relationships among specific factors toward fostering organizational resilience (OR) in tourism SMEs.

A multi-methodological approach was adopted to address this research study, including (1) social network analysis (SNA) to formulate the conceptual model and (2) construct validation through partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM).

The six proposed hypotheses were supported. These results suggest that addressing these variables and relationships after considering management style and people development as critical factors can foster OR in tourism SMEs.

The ideas that were developed were constrained to the organizational domain. Although the results apply to the Mexican context, this limitation can be offset by extending the proposal to other emergent regions or organizations. This can also increase the generalization of the results and foster improvements in the approaches applied.

Academics and managers must rethink resilience as the final state generated by multiple factors. This requires reconfiguring inner organizational interactions, providing more autonomy to operative units, reinforcing business intelligence and improving feedback mechanisms.

This research study contrasts previous studies because it proposes that SNA be exploited to avail of the advantages it confers in designing the conceptual model. In this regard, we present new relationships to promote OR and provide new avenues in order to improve the analysis of adaptation processes.

The study addresses four vital issues in the area of organizational learning (OL) literature. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the following: definition of OL, accepted dimensions of OL, antecedents and consequences of OL and the link between OL and performance and innovation.

The study presents a systematic literature review and concept analysis of OL, along with a focused discussion on the association of OL with performance and innovation.

After articulating multiple perspectives, OL can be defined as the process by which organizational knowledge base and insights are developed via associations between past actions, the effect of those and future operations. OL has two widely acknowledged dimensions, namely, exploratory learning and exploitative learning. Moreover, the study presented a conceptual analysis of OL along with a comprehensive framework for precursors and outcomes of OL.

This study probes the issues and the pattern in the literature of OL domain. The presented conceptual analysis gives direction to the future endeavours of researchers in the field of OL.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of knowledge management (KM) enablers on KM activities in the context of Malaysian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The effects of organizational culture, transformational leadership, organizational structure, and technology utilization as infrastructural KM enablers are examined on KM activities as knowledge acquisition, knowledge conversion, application, and protection.

A total of 227 responses from SMEs’ top management are used to assess the measurement and structural models applying partial least squares-structural equation modeling.

The results show that technology utilization and organizational structure are two main factors in KM activities (all structural relationships are supported). Surprisingly, organizational culture is only associated with knowledge conversion and protection and the findings indicate no relationships between organizational culture and knowledge acquisition and application. The results also indicate a positive relationship between transformational leadership and knowledge acquisition and the hypotheses on the association between transformational leadership and knowledge conversion, application, and protection are rejected.

The results of importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) imply that technology utilization has the highest importance on knowledge acquisition, conversion, and protection while organizational structure has the highest importance on knowledge application. The results of IPMA also show that organizational culture has the highest performance on all KM activities.

This study is amongst the few that examines the structural relationships between organizational factors and KM activities in a SME context.

The aim of this study is to examine the structural relationship between Spector’s nine job satisfaction facets (supervision, nature of the work, communication, contingent rewards, co-worker, fringe benefits, payment, promotion and operating procedures), organizational commitment facets (normative commitment, affective commitment and continuance commitment) and the influence of employees’ years of experience on satisfaction and commitment relationships. Owing to the nature of the industry, employee satisfaction, retention and commitment in Information and Communications Technology-Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (ICT-SME) is a matter of great concern.

A total of 256 valid questionnaires were collected among employees of Information and Communications Technology-Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ICT-SMEs) to evaluate the measurement and structural model using partial least squares path modelling approach.

The findings indicate that payment, promotion, fringe benefits, co-worker, communication, operating procedures and nature of the work are positively associated with affective commitment. Furthermore, payment, promotion, fringe benefits, supervision, contingent rewards, operating procedures and nature of the work have a positive relationship with normative commitment. Considering employees’ years of experience as a categorical moderating variable, the results of partial least squares multi-group analysis show how the discrepancies between employees’ years of experience influence their level of commitment.

This study reveals that employees’ affective and normative commitments are positively associated and their continuance commitment is contingent upon their affective commitment, and not normative commitment. There are only three factors, i.e. promotion, fringe benefits and operating procedures, that are conductive to employees’ continuance commitment. Contributions, implications and limitations of the study are discussed.