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The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize Total Quality Management (TQM) in the light of service ecosystem view through the identification of dimensions underlying both the approaches and a clarification of the relationship between the two theories.

An overview on service ecosystems and on TQM is conducted, with particular focus on the main dimensions of the two frameworks derived from extant research. Consequently, an assessment of the key features of both theories is performed.

The work identifies four recurring dimensions in TQM, suggesting their rereading in the light of the assessed five recurring dimensions of service ecosystem. Moreover, a reconceptualization of TQM in the light of service ecosystem view is proposed.

This paper compares and proposes an integration between TQM and service ecosystem view. Such a reinterpretation of “traditional” view of quality management in the light of current trend of Service-Dominant (S-D) logic can represent a starting point for further research aimed at analysing the mechanisms underlying joint production of value in service delivery.

In industrial and business-to-business (B2B) marketing research, a business network ecosystem is an important antecedent of small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) performance. The purpose of this study is to clarify the direct and indirect effects of ecosystem network health on SMEs’ credit quality.

The data is collected from a survey of operations managers and financial managers of 282 SMEs in China. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses, and latent moderated structural equations are used to estimate the moderating effect model.

This research indicates that ecosystem network health can directly affect SMEs’ credit quality and have an indirect impact on credit quality through value co-creation capability. In addition, better informal institutional arrangements in the ecosystem can amplify the positive effects of network health and value co-creation capability on SMEs’ credit quality.

From an ecosystem perspective, it is necessary to bring the ecosystem characteristics into business scenario and explore their impacts on SMEs’ financing behaviors. This study contributes to B2B marketing research in terms of investigating the role played by ecosystem characteristics and value co-creation capability.

The ongoing business dynamics show two aspects for generating innovation: first, high-impact innovations are developed jointly by several actors, such as universities, enterprises, and governments. Second, startups are better suited to develop innovation during crises or periods of low growth as experienced at the moment. Based on these aspects and drawing on the constructs of the triple helix, this study analyzes the influence between the characteristics of the actors on the quality of the startup ecosystem from a global view.

The study examines the cross-section data of 35 countries between 2017 and 2018 and applies the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for assessing the relationships between the triple helix on the quality of the startup ecosystem on a country-level.

The findings suggest that each actor of the triple helix individually does not positively affect the quality of the startup ecosystem. Yet, when analyzing the actors jointly by creating a second-order latent variable (i.e. triple helix), the study found out that in this way, the triple helix construct has a positive effect on the quality of the startup ecosystem.

Although a large body of prior literature indicates the importance of generating interrelationships among the different entities involved in ecosystems, few studies provide empirical evidence from a global perspective of the need for these entities to act in an overlapping manner. The present study supports previous research and reinforces the importance of the triple helix for a more innovative environment.

Social enterprises can be found across Vietnam. However, little is known about how these organizations contribute to the country’s broader efforts to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper aims to explore whether and to what extent differences in social impacts by social enterprises may be explained by the psychological characteristics of social entrepreneurs and cross-sector “ecosystem” partnerships in training, networking, consultation and funding.

A survey of N ≈ 352 Vietnamese social entrepreneurs explored relationships between individual entrepreneurial orientation (EO), social identity, self-construal and personality, with elements of ecosystem partnerships (access to training, networking, consultation and funding) and social impacts over the previous three years (growth/jobs created and people helped, termed efficiency and generosity, respectively).

Ecosystem partnerships factored into frequency and quality of partnerships. Frequency predicted social enterprise efficiency (p < 0.05) and quality predicted generosity (p < 0.01). Frequency of partnerships further moderated (boosted) significant links between EO (risk innovation, p < 0.05) and efficiency; and between social identity (communitarianism, p < 0.01) to efficiency; plus, quality of partnerships moderated a link between EO (risk innovation) and efficiency (p < 0.05).

Ecosystem partnerships may foster social enterprise development through at least two pathways (equifinality), i.e. frequency and quality. The former is linked to efficiency and the latter to generosity, signaling interrelates but distinguishable outcomes. Direct links between EO and communitarian social identity leading to social enterprise development were additionally boosted (p < 0.05) by the frequency and quality of partnerships. Thus, ecosystem partnerships brought about both direct and indirect benefits to social enterprises in Vietnam.

Social impacts of efficiency and generosity support both decent work (SDG-8) and poverty eradication (SDG-1), through ecosystem partnerships in development (SDG-17).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to show that social enterprises in Vietnam may enhance social impacts through a combination of effects from social entrepreneurs and ecosystem partnerships. Current models of social enterprises in low-income countries like Vietnam can be expanded to include ecosystem partnerships and social outcomes relating to SDGs 1 and 8, and especially the multiple path benefits that ecosystem partnerships (under SDG-17) bring to social enterprise development.

This study examines the mediation effects of entrepreneurial attitudes (EAs) on the nexus of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) quality and productive entrepreneurship for early-stage and high-growth entrepreneurial activities.

The study employs global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) panel data of 137 economies from 2014 to 2018. Random effect panel regressions and relative effect size estimations were used for data analysis.

The study’s findings show complementary mediation effects suggesting that EE quality steers entrepreneurial activities via the EA. However, such mediation is much more vivid towards high growth than early-stage activities. Vibrant EEs provide necessary resources that boost the attitude of potential and nascent entrepreneurs to engage in early stage and high-growth entrepreneurial activities.

The study utilizes GEM data to explain the EEs and EA dynamics and their related effects on entrepreneurship at the macro level. Future research may study the phenomena by using micro level data.

The paper explores a less empirically researched question on how EEs steer entrepreneurship growth and development. It reveals a need for new perspectives/logics (e.g. mediation/moderation) for improving the explanations on the extant EEs framework. It further informs policymakers and practitioners to design entrepreneur-centred EE policies and programs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the challenges of quality skill development in complex and large economies like India and develop innovative processes of improving employability.

The problem areas and gaps have been identified through literature survey and published reports by governmental agencies on employability and quality skill development in India. The research focuses on prevalent challenges for large-scale skill development and utilizes TRIZ (Russian acronym for “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving”) for finding innovative solutions to the grand challenge of employability.

The applied research methodology in the paper leads to a model for the “Innovation driven ecosystem for quality skill development” and also defines the role and responsibilities of each stakeholders in the ecosystem.

Solutions derived through TRIZ are qualitative in nature. The actual implication of solution needs to be tested after implementation. Further, intangible costs incurred, and harmful and useful effects cannot be easily quantified.

The parameter mapping for the TRIZ matrix was undertaken in this paper and this methodology when applied to other problem statements renders an organized process for improving total quality and innovative process management. The inventive principles were applied to find solution to contradictions and arrive at an integrated ecosystem which binds all stakeholders efficiently, to generate higher employability. The innovative solutions derived through the process are applicable to policy makers, researchers and practitioners.

The process of improving employability through quality skill development, benchmarked by the TRIZ methodology can have far reaching social implications.

The research extends the body of knowledge of TRIZ modeling concepts in areas other than engineering, and depicts a unique total quality methodology which can be easily applied for other problem-solving contexts. The contribution can serve as a reference technique/tool for improving reliability and quality through a methodical process of working out innovative solutions to solve operational problems.

This paper aims to explain the causal complexity between ecosystems of doing business and living standards based on the theoretical model of the ecosystem of doing business proposed by Li (2019) and Du et al. (2020). By integrating ecological theory, transaction cost theory and institutional logics theory, this study explored effective ecosystems of doing business that achieve high living standards and explained the interpretive mechanisms behind different ecosystems of doing business. Moreover, this study also analyzed whether there were any necessary elements that lead to high living standards and discussed how the interactions between these elements influence carrying capacity and transaction costs from government logic and market logic, thus affecting living standards.

In this study, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and necessary condition analysis (NCA) were combined to analyze the data from the 2020 China City Statistical Yearbook, covering the main socioeconomic statistical data of cities at all levels in 2019.

This study found that no individual factor of the ecosystems of doing business was necessary to achieve high living standards, but the high level of human capital, innovation capacity, financial access and market demand play a significant role in achieving high living standards. Furthermore, two effective types of ecosystems of doing business lead to high living standards, namely, market dominance (government’s “invisible hand” or “nudging hand”) and government–market logic mutualism/symbiosis (government’s “helping hand”).

First, this work found that individual elements were not a necessary condition for high living standards, not only in kind but also in degree, complementing fsQCA with NCA, which indicates that environmental elements can be substituted by others. Second, this study considered the complex effects and explained the mechanisms behind different ecosystems of doing business, drawing on ecological theory, transaction cost theory and institutional logics theory from a configurational perspective. This study deepened the theories’ applications in the field of living standards and further discussed the elements interactions. Third, this study introduced configurational perspective and QCA into living standards research and adopted a mixed method that combines fsQCA and NCA to analyze the causal complexity between ecosystems of doing business and people’s living standards.

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.