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This paper aims to explore the position of women in the communication management sector in Spain from their own experiences. The study examines female communication and leadership styles, emphasising the cost of leadership in which they are leaders or led.

This study used a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews with 22 women actively working in top companies and agencies: female communication directors, female employees with a female leader and female employees with a male leader. Data were analysed through thematic analysis.

Results show mixed communication and leadership styles. In addition, the high level of self-demand of female communication managers stands out, making it challenging to achieve a work-life balance and the implementation of successful role models.

Exploring the factors of female leadership remains necessary to understand and make their situation in various industries and positions visible. It also helps remove barriers to leadership, guide organisations in addressing gender discrimination issues and develop mechanisms for the internal promotion of female professionals.

To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first study exploring the leadership and communication styles of women in the Spanish Public Relations (PR) and communication management industries. It also highlights the aspects influencing the cost of leadership.

It has been suggested that to be successful in the current global economy with increased competition and ever changing markets, especially in the post-crisis context, firms need to focus more on innovation in exploring new ideas and designing new products to develop new markets than on cost-cutting strategies to maintain cost leadership in old markets. However, because of the lack of micro data, this conjecture has not been systematically evaluated. This paper aims to fill this important void by studying the economic performance associated with these two different business strategies using Canadian micro data.

The main data for our analysis are from the Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy (2009 and 2012) which is a sample-based survey of Canadian government. The authors used in this research regression models for the econometric analysis of the underlying factors for undertaking certain business strategies and how business strategies link to economic performance. They also used propensity score matching to ensure the group of firms with innovation strategy being comparable to that with cost-cutting.

The research shows that firms focusing on product innovation are indeed more productive than firms focusing on cost-cutting, although there is no evidence that these two different strategies make a difference in profitability. The first indication from the research has been that certain characteristics of Canadian firms are very useful predictors for firms to undertake product innovation. They are, among other things, the age of the firms, the single-establishment structure of the business and being multinationals.

This empirical research opens up many interesting avenues for future research. Some other variables could be integrated into the models to increase the rate of explained variance. Moreover, because this research is based only on the case of Canadian firms and for a relatively short period of four years after the 2008 crisis, an extension to other context and to a longer period of time should be interesting.

The research has confirmed that Canadian firms adopting long-term business strategies based on product innovation are more productive.

The results truly concur with the vision of the Government of Canada, like some other developed countries, on the importance of innovation and its policies in encouraging business innovation in driving the growth of the Canadian economy and improving the standard of living of country.

Mainly because of the lack of micro data, the existing researches have not provided solid evidence on why firms are choosing different business strategies when they are operating in the same business conditions and how the financial crisis has affected the undertaking of business strategies. They have not established a clear linkage between economic performance and different business strategies, although there has been some anecdotal evidence about their association. This study aims to bridge the knowledge gaps with theoretical and practical contributions.

The Korean airline industry continues to change in 20-year cycles structurally. The major changes are in their market through deregulation and liberalization resulting in adding more carriers, especially low-cost carriers (LCCs) from 2006. The authors categorize three types of LCCs in Korea: (1) independent LCCs, (2) LCCs subsidized by existing airlines as airlines-within-airlines (AwAs), and (3) LCCs supported by conglomerates and local governments. Independent LCCs have suffered financially during the research period from 2009 to 2013, especially from the impaired capital, even though these LCCs are growing rapidly and expanding their markets in domestic and international routes. AwAs’ efficiency is higher than that of independent LCCs, the roles in the market are limited because of cannibalization by their mother company.

Based on the case study of an SME company in the United Kingdom (which we will call SweetStar Cloud), this paper examines the attempts of the company to achieve significant strategic change. The company is attempting to move from being a tradition managed service provider of information services towards becoming a significant influencer in the market for digital services in the UK. As part of a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP), a local UK University has been closely involved in developing this new strategic direction and it is well poised to present and analyse the story. From the use of tried and tested strategic tools, including Porter's generic strategies and segmentation and targeting, the company has also embraced digital-specific approaches for developing partnerships with clients, developing pilot projects and experimenting with its use of social media. At the heart of this research is an analysis of the move from push marketing towards models of attraction. This paper aims to explore how traditional strategic tools are still applicable in the digital era alongside new tactical approaches in the digital sector. This aim has led to an approach to business that is responsible, in terms of moving away from a traditional push-selling model to one of partnership with customers at a strategic level. Strategy in dynamic markets often highlights responsiveness as a key success factor. The ability to respond (a response-ability) requires more agile companies. As SweetStar Cloud has developed its strategy, it has focused in achieving this more effective ability to respond through a more collaborative approach. In this sense, agile response-ability converges with business responsibility, as new abilities in communication, cooperation and trust development become key.

This paper aims to conceptualize supply market orientation (SMO) for the purchasing and supply chain management function and discusses how SMO capabilities are developed and how their application differs within and across firms. This research can thus be used as a blueprint for the development of a SMO capability that accommodates a firm’s unique contextual antecedents’ profile.

The qualitative research design comprises five in-depth case studies with 43 semi-structured interviews with large manufacturing and service firms.

SMO is defined as the capability to exploit market intelligence to assess, integrate and reconfigure the heterogeneously dispersed resources in purchasing and supply chain management in a way that best reflects the peculiarities of a firm’s supply environment. The empirical analysis shows that although SMO capabilities are configured similarly, their application varies across and within firms depending on the characteristics of a firm’s purchasing categories and tasks. Hence, reactive versus proactive SMO application is contingent upon firm-level and purchasing category–level characteristics.

The study uses the dynamic capabilities view as a theoretical background and provides empirical evidence and theoretical reasoning to elaborate and endorse SMO as a dynamic capability that firms need to have to compete in a complex and dynamic environment. The study provides guidance for supply chain managers on how to successfully develop and deploy a SMO capability.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between leadership and business model innovation (BMI) in an entrepreneurial firm. From the literature, it was found that the role of a leader in BMI was unexplored. A research framework was created which was the replication of the model created showing the relationship between leadership and innovation.

The qualitative single in-depth case study was used to understand the effects of leadership in BMI. The case of an entrepreneurial firm in the graphic and animation education sector from India was chosen to test the research framework. The leader of Xplora Design Skools was observed closely, and he was interviewed multiple times.

From the analysis, it was clear that, in this organization, the leader was a trigger for BMI through creating and influencing creativity and innovation in the organization. This case also shows that he was making tangible contribution to the work being done and motivating his employees. These initiatives show his influence on the process or execution of BMI.

This is the first study explores the role of a leader in BMI in an entrepreneurial firm in emerging economy contexts like India.

This article focusses on the hybrid strategy, a simultaneous combination of cost leadership and differentiation strategy. The study aims to examine the impact of hybrid strategy on firm performance through its anticipated positive effects on process and product innovation. In addition, we study the moderating role of adaptive capacity in the direct relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation.

Structural equation modelling was used to analyse 1,842 Spanish firms with fewer than 250 employees. We randomly selected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Spain from the Spanish Central Business Directory (2021) database. The overall sample design was based on stratified sampling.

We found that hybrid strategy is positively related to firm performance and to process and product innovation. Additionally, in firms implementing hybrid strategies, process innovation fostered firm performance. Finally, adaptive capacity strengthened the relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation. This sheds light on how and when hybrid strategy is most effective in fostering SME performance.

We highlight that SMEs need to establish strategies that use diverse resources and capabilities and not just generate competitive advantage using one strategy (cost leadership or differentiation strategy). This requires an agile and flexible systems and structures.

Our research provides novel results by proposing the adoption of hybrid strategies instead of pure strategies (cost leadership and differentiation strategy) as a way for SMEs to survive during crises. Unlike “stuck in the middle” strategies, our study demonstrates the importance of hybrid strategies in a comprehensive model that links them to innovation and firm performance, with adaptive capacity being a determining factor.

This paper draws on resource-based theory (RBV) to examine the impact of the management control system (MCS) package on business performance through the mediating role of entrepreneurial competencies and the interaction role of business strategy in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A total of 372 questionnaires were used in this research for analysis purposes using partial least square–structural equation modelling. Cluster sampling was used and nine states out of 16 states were selected randomly, including Kelantan, Johor, Sarawak, Selangor, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Perak and Sabah, because the nine states cover 84.4% of the total SMEs.

The results revealed that only cultural and administrative control has no relationship with business performance. Moreover, in the MCS package, all elements have a significant and positive influence on entrepreneurial competencies. Furthermore, business strategy (cost leadership and differentiation strategy) significantly moderates, while entrepreneurial competencies mediate between, cultural, planning, cybernetic, rewards and compensation, administrative control and business performance.

SMEs in Malaysia are contributing 36.6% to gross domestic product. Further, as this sector is important, less attention has been paid to this area of MCS package with business strategies to determine organisational performance. This study fills these gaps, and the recommendations and findings for further research are discussed in detail accordingly. Moreover, the findings of the current research provide guidelines for the management of SMEs.

本文應用資源基礎理論，來探討管理控制系統套裝對經營績效的影響；研究的進行，乃透過探討企業家才能所扮演的中介角色以及在中小型企業裡，經營策略所扮演的交互作用角色。

研究共分析了372份調查問卷, 研究使用的方法為偏最小平方法PLS-SEM。使用集體抽樣法，從16個州屬中隨機抽取9個州，該9個州包括吉蘭丹州、柔佛州、砂拉越、雪蘭我、吉打、吉隆玻、檳城、霹靂和沙巴；這是因為該9個州已涵蓋整體中小型企業的84.4%。

研究結果顯示，只有文化和行政管制是與業務績效沒有關聯的。而且，在管理控制系統套裝裡，所有元素對企業家才能均有顯著和正面的影響。再者，經營策略 (成本領先戰略和差導化戰略) 在文化、策劃、神經機械學、獎勵和補償、行政管制與經營績效之間起著顯著的緩和作用；而企業家才能則於當中起中介的作有。

在馬來西亞，中小型企業佔國內生產總值的36.6%。再者，這個部門至為重要，唯對管理控制系統套裝這範疇 (組織的業績如何取決於經營策略) 的關注則不足 。本研究彌補這研究的差距，因應為進一步研究仔細討論了建議和研究結果。另外，本研究的研究結果，為管理中小型企業提供了指引。

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between organizational adaptability, institutional leadership and business process reengineering performance using the tested complexity theory in a developing economy setting.

This study is correlation and cross-sectional and adopts institutional-level data collected via questionnaires from reengineered microfinance institutions in Uganda. Cluster analysis as data mining technique was used to classify cases based on respondents’ opinions into homogeneous clusters. Nvivo was used to understand the perceptions of business process reengineering performance based on qualitative data. The authors used structural equation modeling to derive the predictive model of business process reengineering performance in a developing world setting.

The authors find that organizational adaptability and institutional leadership are key predictors of business process reengineering performance. Results reveal a predictive model of 61 per cent based on structural equation modeling for the study variables. Cluster analysis as data mining approach explored complex patterns of reengineered business processes.

The use of cluster analysis is susceptible to problems associated with sampling error and absence of fit indices. However, the likelihood of these problems is reduced by the interaction with the data, practical implications and use of smart partial least square to generate structural equations based on derived measurement models of each study variable.

Policymakers of Bank of Uganda, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, should develop sound policies in relation to knowledge management, institutional leadership and adaptive mechanisms to enhance business process reengineering performance to take advantage of new knowledge opportunities for the improvement of their businesses.

Given the results from structural equations generated, managers need to consider institutional leadership and organizational adaptability as key drivers of business process reengineering performance in microfinance institutions. The results confirm the significant role of institutional leadership, organizational adaptability in determining business process reengineering performance outcomes.

Unlike most of the business process reengineering literature, this study contributes to literature by domesticating and testing complexity theory to explain business process reengineering performance in developing economies.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the appreciation of the moderating role of competitive intensity on the relationship between low-cost strategy and firm performance of restaurants.

The study uses empirical data collected from 118 restaurants operators, Ghana. The effects of relationships and the interaction of low-cost strategy and competitive intensity were tested using regression analysis.

The findings indicate the existence of a significant positive relationship between low-cost strategy and firm performance. The effect of competitive strategy on firm performance was found to be partially significant. The findings revealed that competitive intensity does moderate the relationship between low-cost strategy and firm performance of restaurants.

Implications of the findings for restaurant operators suggest that effective application of low-cost strategy and monitoring and managing competitive intensity results in high performance.

This study contributes to the existing literature on low-cost strategy, competitive intensity and firm performance. More specifically, the interaction terms of low-cost strategy and competitive intensity have been explored in this study and can be used for further investigations.