Search results

The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the short- and long-term financial strategies to augment SMEs’ performance in emerging markets. Using a resource-based theoretic perspective; the analysis has investigated the mediating role of distinctive management competencies (DMCs) between efficient financial strategies and SMEs’ business growth.

The empirical data were drawn from a cross-industrial panel of 273 SMEs from Spain and 224 SMEs from Pakistan across all manufacturing sectors over the period of 2006-2013. Multivariate tests are conducted to estimate the impact of efficient financial strategies on SMEs’ performance. The advanced mediation version of Kenny and Judd (2013) is used to test mediation confirmation of DMCs; while Sobel test is applied to examine robustness of mediation results.

The robustness check of 497 privately held SMEs confirmed that practicing efficient financial strategies has significant influence on SMEs’ performance. Stimulatingly, mediating effect of DMCs, that are used for executives’ prudent financial decisions have been traced in both respondent countries. Based on the findings, it is argued that efficient financial strategies realistically translate into DMCs, which taken together are likely to lead more effective and significant to improve SMEs’ performance.

The results suggest that power of distinctive managerial decisions is a crucial factor in the employment process besides efficient financial strategies identified in previous studies. The results of this study are of great importance to managers and major stakeholders, such as investors, creditors, financial analysts and policymakers, to inflate their efforts to reduce the incidence of business failure and for survival and growth of SMEs.

The paper raises a new theoretic explanation by determining the intervening role of DMCs in translating EFS into improved SMEs’ performance, thereby supplementing the extant theories.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of different technological aspects of organizations on Spanish high‐technology firms' performance.

The relationships studied are confirmed empirically using a structural equation model to demonstrate our hypotheses. The sample was selected from the database “Dun & Bradstreet España” in the year 2005 and includes 201 Spanish firms. CEOs were our main informants.

The results obtained show that support from top managers will directly influence the organizational learning (OL) process and technological distinctive competencies (TDCs) (antecedents of corporate entrepreneurship) and that corporate entrepreneurship finally influences organizational performance.

The paper is exploratory in character, and its goal is to show whether interrelations exist between the variables. The main limitations are: the sectors chosen refer only to Spain; the analysis is cross‐sectional in character; the study uses a single method and self‐reports (CEOs).

To obtain perfect adaptation of the firm to its environment, it is crucial that managers develop corporate entrepreneurship to improve high‐technology sector firms' performance. The paper shows the important role of the top manager's support in developing TDCs and OL. Success in such issues is of vital importance to corporate entrepreneurship in the firm.

The paper seeks to stimulate new lines of research on one variable (TDCs) and to relate it to other constructs, producing new relationships and observing their repercussions for the firm.

The study examined the influence of small and medium enterprise (SME) owner-managers' managerial competencies on supply chain performance, the mediation role of information quality on the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance relationship, the mediating role of information quality on the information sharing and supply chain performance relationship and the mediating role of both information sharing and information quality on SME owner-managers' managerial competences and supply chain performance relationship.

Data were collected from SME agro-processing firms. The determined sample size for the agro-processing firms was 200, while an effective sample size of 177 was obtained. The Covariance Structural Equation Modelling software was used to obtain results on the influence of SME owner-managers' managerial competencies on supply chain performance, the mediation role of information quality on the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance relationship, the mediating role of information quality on the information sharing and supply chain performance relationship and the mediating role of both information sharing and information quality on SME owner-managers' managerial competences and supply chain performance relationship.

Findings indicated that a positive significant influence of SME owner-managers' managerial competencies on supply chain performance and the presence of partial mediation effects when the mediating role of information quality in the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance relationship and the information sharing and supply chain performance relationship is tested. Also, a partial mediating role of information sharing and information quality is obtained in the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance relationship.

The study mainly focused on SME agro-processing firms eliminating other SME manufacturing firms. Also, the research employed a wholistic approach when studying the SME agro-processing firms without focusing on how SME owner-managers' managerial competencies would affect information sharing, information quality and supply chain performance based on the market type (local or foreign) and the source of raw materials (local or foreign) and the impact of information sharing on information quality hasn't been given significant attention in the existing literature.

The research focused on the mediation role of quality of information shared by SME owner-managers in the relationship between information sharing and supply chain performance, the mediating role of information quality in the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance and the mediating role of both SME owner-manager's information sharing and quality of information shared in the relationship between SME owner-managers' managerial competences and supply chain performance. These mediation effects haven't been given significant attention in previous research. Further, while information sharing and information quality have been studied, they have been studied at a supply chain level, not at a managerial level.

This exploratory paper identifies variables for investigating competitive skill development; variables that help to shape a firm's entrepreneurship, and the privatization process in Central and Eastern Europe. The paper is organized as follows: The topics of entrepreneurship, privatization, and competitive skills are briefly introduced and grounded in the literature. A methodology section is then provided which includes a proposed firm‐level survey design, propositions, and survey questions. The last section discusses implications for future research.

This study aims to analyse design management as a dynamic capability.

This is a systematic review with paper searches conducted on the ISI Web of Science database’s Social Sciences Citation Index, complemented by a historiographical analysis developed using the HistCite software.

The analysis of paper allowed for the identification of three processes that, if integrated, construct design management as a dynamic capability, namely, design learning, design coordination and design skills. Design learning corresponds to the skill of acquiring and absorbing knowledge and practices and spreading them throughout the whole organisation, and design coordination corresponds to the capability to coordinate the activities and practices that are necessary for good design. Finally, design skills comprise a set of techniques and knowledge that generate synergy, creativity and innovation.

This perspective suggests a new concept of design management that allows organisations to achieve a competitive advantage in environments of rapid technological change.

This study contributes to the literature on design management as a dynamic capability. Another contribution is that design management presents itself as an important dynamic that is capable of creating and maintaining a competitive edge through its potential to generate innovation and creativity and to make firms more flexible and dynamic.

This study has advanced the role of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) as a precedent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance in the emerging economies. This study aims to use the action regulation theory (ART) to show that active social networking of SME owners acts as a conduit in the above-mentioned relationship and how the social skills of SME owners improve their ability to leverage on entrepreneurial orientation and strengthen their social networking.

A three-wave time-lagged survey approach was deployed to collect data from SME owners in the service and manufacturing sector of Pakistan through cluster sampling. The analysis of results was carried out by Models 1 and 4 of Hayes (2017) PROCESS macro.

The findings revealed a positive association in the IEO of SME owners and their performance through a partial mediating role of active social networking. Furthermore, SME owners’ social skills played a moderating role in linking IEO of SME owners and active development of social networks.

Based on ART, this study has targeted a scantly examined psychological perspective in SME performance research and it has shown that by having entrepreneurial orientation and social skills, SME owners can develop active social networks that are an important yet neglected performance precursor in the emerging economy of Pakistan.

This paper aims to identify which top leaders’ behavioral emotional intelligence (EI)-competencies affect firm performance when considering the overall organization orientation toward efficiency, human resources and adaptability to the external environment as an interface (i.e. a filter) between the individual leader and firm outcomes.

The research was conducted on a sample of Italian top leaders. The authors used a cross-level analysis that distinguishes individual characteristics, mid-level performance determinants and organizational results. The authors used a variety of methods of assessment: behavioral event interviews for top leaders’ EI-competencies; subject matter experts’ evaluations for organizational orientation; a non-parametric statistical analysis for distinctive competencies; objective financial data for firm financial performance. To identify which competencies impact on financial performance, factor and regression analysis was used.

In firms oriented toward efficiency, human resources and adaptability to the external environment, top leaders’ people management EI-competencies are the most frequent distinctive abilities. These distinctive competencies can be further distinguished into task, relationship and change-oriented behaviors, although only the first two appear to be related to firm performance.

To foster firm performance, top leaders should leverage certain EI-related competencies, especially those that are task and relationship oriented. Leaders should not only see the organization as an extension of themselves but also be aware that the organization might obstacle their individual impact.

This original empirical study uses different data sources and methodologies, it assesses a multi-level model and is conducted in Italy. No previous empirical study has considered the organization as a filter – and not an enhancer – between the top leader and firm performance.

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the strategic transition undertaken by e-retailers as they progress from meeting order-qualifier requirements to establishing order-winner elements within their operational frameworks. The overarching objective is to uncover how e-retailers can attain and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

This study adopted a focus group strategy, which involved collecting qualitative data. Evidence was collected from 41 customers and 16 business managers. The template analysis method was employed to code and organise themes identified during these discussions systematically.

The study identified 34 operational dimensions. 19 dimensions are related to e-retailing platforms and transaction processes, and 15 measurements are related to product or service characteristics. These dimensions were grouped into threshold resources, distinctive resources, threshold competencies and distinctive competencies. Distinctive resources and distinctive competencies are the most critical dimensions of e-retailing. These dimensions are subject to the “more is better” rule. Nevertheless, threshold resources are essential for e-retailing to be considered in the marketplace. It represents the “Must-be quality element.”

This study introduces the concept of a “cumulative model” in e-retailing. It offers strategic guidance for e-retailers seeking to navigate the complex landscape of competitive priorities. Companies can enhance their differentiation edge by identifying and emphasising distinctive resources and competencies. The study offers a nuanced understanding of the interplay between order-qualifier and order-winner elements in the pursuit of sustained competitiveness within the dynamic e-retail industry.

Agile manufacturing is largely dependent on the capabilities of its people to learn and evolve with change. However, while agile manufacturing uses e‐commerce enabled technology in a decentralized organizational setting, it remains unclear how these individual capabilities should be linked to other organizational resources to create an agile organization. Another important modern management research perspective is the internal resource‐based perspective, resulting in a phenomenon called competence‐based competition with renewed attention for competence management. Competence management comprises the management, building, leveraging and deployment of strategic and operational competencies, the causal relationships and linkages between them, and the way competencies are embedded in organizational and individual resources. In this paper, we explore the relation between agile management and time‐based competence management, and study its adoption in small batch discrete parts manufacturing environments with the help of a coarse fact‐finding survey research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify business practices that may promote internal financing of growing SMEs. The authors expand the literature on entrepreneurial finance that reduces business practices to either financial management or bootstrapping, by exploring all management practices that may have an impact on liquidities. This study enriches the literature on business practices. This is an important consideration for managers of SMEs who intend to preserve their financial independence and their capacity to survive different crises.

The empirical study involved a sample of 235 growing Canadian SMEs. The sample was extracted from a private database using a questionnaire that covered a wide range of business practices. Variance testing of business practices between SMEs with a line of credit and those without (and lower overall debt) was supplemented by a logistic regression.

SMEs which make use of efficiency-promoting technology, carry out preventive maintenance and control their costs and turnover during their growth are more inclined to use less external financing.

This is the first study that associates business practices, beyond bootstrapping, with financing and which answers a critical question posed by SME executives on how to preserve their financial and decision-making autonomy through growth stages. In addition, the desire to retain control of the company does not compel the SME manager to limit the size of the company.