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The purpose of this paper is to investigate consensus formation among the top and middle managers during the strategy process. Specifically, the paper seeks to gain insight into the role of strategic consensus during the transition between strategy formulation and implementation.

Adopting a social practice perspective and a single case study approach, we undertook semi-structured interviews of twenty-seven managers working in a Kuwaiti Ministry. Data collected were analyzed using thematic analysis.

We found that social interaction among individuals with similar characteristics and shared understanding fosters consensus. Factors such as alignment of strategic priorities, managerial flux and centralized control contribute to the extent to which strategic consensus is achievable. Additionally, managerial turnover and lack of empowerment hamper the development of shared understanding. Finally, that consensus on strategy content is insufficient for effective intergroup communications.

The research contributes to the strategic consensus literature from a social practice perspective as it provides new insights into the dynamics between top managers and middle managers. Significantly, it highlights the importance and need for common understanding, as well as communications prioritization among managers for consensus development and successful implementation of organization strategy.

This paper examines mechanisms through which social capital strengthens microfinance impact on fostering female entrepreneurial success. Specifically, the study focuses on how, and to what extent, resources embedded in social networks determine MF impact on entrepreneurial success.

Survey data were collected from 276 female micro-institutions entrepreneurs using multi-stage stratified random sampling across 80 MF institutions in three South-Western Nigerian states. Hypotheses were tested using ordinal regression analysis.

The study found that relational and network social capital had a positive and significant influence on female entrepreneurial success. Specifically, intra-group trust and productive network ties amongst female entrepreneurs in poor communities predicated the positive impact of MF on entrepreneurial success. Also, resources embedded in networks are more positively correlated to education level and marital status. Furthermore, MF could have more positive impact for borrowers with sustainable relationships with loan officers who organise MF provisions and understand the entrepreneurs’ context.

The research provides empirical evidence for the relationship dynamics between female entrepreneurs and MF institutions, by emphasising the importance of deploying different forms of social capital in sustaining MF impact on female entrepreneurial success.

Manufacturing and services SMEs in Africa face challenges and constraints exacerbated by ineffectual government policies, environmental turbulence and the near absence of institutional support. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if informal linkages and formal cooperation are helping firms to overcome constraints to uptake of technological innovations in Nigeria.

The paper is based on quantitative data obtained from structured interviews of 631 Nigerian firms. These firms were selected using stratified random sampling from a total population of 18,906 manufacturing and services companies in the national database obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The result of the binary logistic regression indicates that while informal linkages appear to be insignificant, formal inter-firm cooperation is an effective moderator of barriers to technological innovations.

The paper focusses only on technological, rather than non-technological, innovations.

The paper recommends that, in addition to other interventions to promote diffusion of technological innovations, governments should give priority to interventions that support formal cooperation among SMEs.

Previous studies have generally looked at the impact of cooperative networks on firms’ innovation uptake. This paper provides original insights into the “how” of cooperative impact, specifically with respect to helping SMEs to overcome constraints. The paper also delineates formal cooperation from informal linkages.

The purpose of this paper is to build on the research-supported view that interactions between top and middle management enhances effective implementation of organizational strategies by exploring the role of internal actors in driving organizational strategy at the intersection between strategy formulation and strategy implementation.

Adopting a social practice perspective, we undertook semi-structured interviews of 27 top and middle level managers drawn from a single case organization. Data collected were analysed using thematic analysis.

Differences in managerial perception of strategy has significant impact on implementation of strategic decisions as well as creating tensions in recursive communication practices between internal social actors. Furthermore, individual perceptions cannot only limit the extent of strategy awareness amongst key actors, the manifestations through social interaction between top and middle managers is a critical determinant of effective communication and realization of organizational strategy.

The research contributes to the strategy process and practice literature by exploring the dynamic interactions taking place at the intersections of strategy formulation-implementation phases of organizational strategy. It particularly highlights practical issues in top and middle manager interactions and implications for successful strategy implementation.

The reason for concern is the rapid decline in loans to small enterprises which is critical to their performance, compared to large businesses following the periods of banking reformations in Nigeria. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of risk perception on bank lending behaviour to small enterprises. It also investigates the impact of government intervention, consolidation and recapitalization on the relationship between risk perception and bank lending behaviour to small enterprise.

This study empirically analysed (ordinary least square) secondary data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletins, Annual Statement of Accounts covering the period 1992–2020.

The results show that the absence of government interventions and the presence of banking reformations have statistically negative significant effect on bank lending to small enterprises. The findings challenge the argument that generally assumes risk aversion of banks towards small enterprise lending because of small enterprise’s inability to prove their credit worthiness and consequently constraining access to finance to the sector. Instead, the results and analysis from this study found theoretical support for the variation of bank behaviour in lending to small enterprises depending on the status of wealth of the financial system.

A key lesson from this study for government concerned about promoting performance of the small enterprise sector is that regulating and enforcing lending requirements on access to debt financing of the sector is necessary if constraints in access debt finance is to be eliminated. Second, while strategies such as bank consolidation, recapitalization may help strengthen and make financially robust the banking system; it places the banks in a gain position where losses looms to them than gain.

This study challenges the argument that generally assumes risk aversion of banks towards small enterprise lending as a result of inability to prove their credit worthiness and consequently constraining access to finance to the sector. Instead, the results and analysis from this study reveal a variation in lending to small enterprises and suggests that the position of the bank in relation to a reference point influences how risk is perceived by the bank and thus impacts on their risk decision-making behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of managerial decisions where such decisions run contrary to norms, values and espoused beliefs of individual employees, and threaten existing relationships.

The paper is a qualitative study of a single case organization in the construction industry. Data were drawn from a wider data set of 27 in‐depth interviews. Empirical findings are presented as a narrative and interpreted using Bourdieu's habitus as an analytic tool.

This paper finds that perceptions and past considerations of individual actors may determine predispositions to engage in knowledge sharing practices, in direct contravention of managerial directives.

Being a single case study, although substantive conclusions are drawn from the research they are however not subject to extensive generalization. Future research can assess the dynamics of employee reactions to conflicting directives within different contexts, to facilitate further generalizations.

The results suggest that tensions will arise where organizational directives run contrary to individual beliefs and predispositions, and as such the onus is on organizations, wishing to avoid such tensions and foster employee commitment, to devise effective means of ensuring fit between management strategies and perceptions of organizational obligations.

The paper contributes to the knowledge sharing literature by exploring micro‐level dynamics in knowledge sharing practices. It also highlights the inherent value of sustained relationships in enabling knowledge sharing among organizational employees.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems have become policy strategies to stimulate entrepreneurial activities, yet the current understanding underlying value creation and the factors influencing this value-capturing mechanism remains limited. In this chapter, we systematically review literature related to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we seek to provide a greater understanding of the value creation process within an ecosystem. The findings from our content analysis shed light on the multifaceted structures and drivers of the value creation process. The study contributes to studies and theory development in the field of entrepreneurial ecosystem literature and further advances potential future research.