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This study aims to investigate the impact of entrepreneurs’ decision-making styles on enterprise performance and suggests several entrepreneurial ecosystems – factors are impacting this relationship. The authors extend this line of work by examining how regional entrepreneurial culture, educational institutional support and business and social networks mediating the relationship between entrepreneurs’ decision-making style and small medium enterprises (SME)s’ financial performance.

The data were collected through an e-survey of SME owners in New South Wales, Australia. This study developed a model combining a set of entrepreneurial ecosystem factors, entrepreneurs’ decision-making styles and SMEs’ financial performance. Data were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling.

The results suggest regional entrepreneurial culture, educational institutional support and business and social networks mediate the relationship between entrepreneurs’ decision-making style and SMEs’ financial performance. Hence, this study developed a more complete methodical understanding of entrepreneurs’ decision-making styles and their impact on SMEs’ financial performance. This study provides deeper insights into the conditions and processes by which an entrepreneurs’ decision-making style impacts SMEs’ financial performance.

The focus of this study was to understand the relationship of entrepreneurs’ decision-making styles on SMEs’ financial performance. The authors identified that the entrepreneurs’ decision-making style positively impacts SMEs’ financial performance. This study augments the body of knowledge by proposing ways in how the entrepreneurs’ decision-making style can be more strengthened.

The purpose of this study was to provide comprehensive overview, and exposure of the correlation between entrepreneurial orientation dimension (EOD) and business innovation environment (BIE) on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) financial performance in the Ghanaian manufacturing SMEs sector that enhances knowledge and contextualization in marketing and entrepreneurship literature.

Anchored on resource-based view theory, 520 manufacturing SMEs companies were conveniently drawn from Association of Ghana Industry, through National Board for Small Scale Industries, using structural equation modelling techniques to analyse the hypotheses.

This study revealed that three entrepreneurial orientation dimensions EOD: risk-taking, innovations and pro-activeness have positive significant impact on financial performance manufacturing of SMEs. BIE also has positive impact on financial performance of manufacturing of SMEs and BIE moderates SMEs financial performance.

This is a country-specific manufacturing SMEs sector, which means that the findings cannot be used to justify other SMEs in Ghana and SMEs in different country. However, the study was limited to only three EODs: risk-taking, innovations, pro-activeness and Ghanaian manufacturing BIE of SMEs. More countries and other SMEs are needed to expand the field of research in EODs and BIE.

It provides an insight into BIE which is important for marketers, entrepreneurs, regulatory bodies, SMEs owners-managers, directors, government and NGO to strengthening and reshaping their BIE in manufacturing SMEs sector policies, conducts and laws.

This paper fills knowledge and contextual gap in entrepreneurship and marketing literature by presenting comprehensive overview of BIE and EOD research that enhances the on-going discussion in the marketing and entrepreneurship manufacturing SMEs context and proposing priorities for future research streams within an emerging economy.

This study aims to examine the relationship between religiosity and branding on small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs’) performance in Saudi Arabia. It also examines the mediating role of financial literacy on the relationship among Islamic religiosity, branding and SMEs’ performance.

This study adopts the purposive sampling technique in three major commercial cities, namely, Riyadh, Jeddah and Al-Qassim to sample 100 SMEs each, resulting in a total sampling of 300 SMEs in Saudi Arabia. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the hypotheses formulated in this study. The structural equation modeling is aided with the help of Smart-PLS software.

This study finds that Islamic branding (on customer, compliance and origin) significantly affect financial attitude, while Islamic religiosity affects financial awareness among the SMEs. Findings reveal that there is a mediating role of financial awareness on the relationship between Islamic branding and Islamic religiosity with the SMEs’ performance. No mediation effect was recorded for financial attitude and financial knowledge. Further investigation reveals that financial attitude, financial awareness, Islamic branding (compliance and origin) and Islamic religiosity were the most significant determinants of SMEs’ performance in the context of Saudi Arabia.

This study is conducted on SMEs in Saudi Arabia only. Further studies are required to examine SMEs in other Islamic countries and regions to improve the explanatory power of financial literacy on Islamic religiosity and Islamic branding for improved SMEs performance.

This study establishes that Islamic religiosity and branding could further increase the predictive power of financial literacy on SMEs’ performance. This study concludes that efforts to improve financial literacy should be religion-based as well as culture-based depending on where the SMEs are located so that specific strategies can be implemented, to enable the conducive growth of the SMEs and maximize the contribution of the SMEs to economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of core competencies, namely, transformational leadership (TFL), entrepreneurial competence and technical competence on financial performance through the mediation effect of innovativeness, among owner-managed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries.

A research model was developed to test nine research hypotheses. Self-report questionnaires designed for this study were sent to SME owner-managers in Malaysia. A total of 178 completed questionnaires were successfully collected. SPSS and SmartPLS were used to perform the data analysis to test the measurement model and structural model.

This paper provides empirical evidence that behavioural innovativeness mediates the relationship between TFL and financial performance, product innovativeness mediates the relationships among entrepreneurial competence, technical competence and financial performance and process innovativeness mediates the relationship between technical competence and financial performance.

The findings of this study are potentially limited by perceptual measures, cross-sectional data and the risk of response bias from a single informant.

Owner-managed SMEs can focus on developing the core competencies to achieve financial performance through innovative products, processes and behaviours. Policymakers and practitioners can gain fresh insights into the complexity of sustaining the business activities and financial performance of SMEs through the core competencies and innovativeness.

The extant literature has revealed that entrepreneurship, leadership, expertise and innovativeness are considered key factors in promoting financial performance, yet little is known about the combined effects of the core competencies on financial performance through innovativeness for owner-managed SMEs in the context of a developing country. The study makes an important contribution to filling this research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the impact of strategic competitive innovation types on the financial performance of SMEs during a very critical period: the COVID-19 pandemic. Four strategic competitive innovation types are considered in this study: marketing innovation, organizational innovation, product innovation and processes innovation.

To examine empirically the relationship between strategic competitiveness and financial performance, data were collected from a sample of 426 Lebanese SMEs belonging to seven different sectors.

The empirical findings of principle component analysis model (PCA) and multiple regression model (MR) reveal that the ability to innovate is essential to an SME’s survival during a crisis. The results of this study confirm the existence of a positive impact of marketing innovation and processes innovation on the financial performance of SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, results suggest that, in Lebanese SMEs, product innovation and organizational innovation do not have any impact on the financial performance during the pandemic period.

This research focused on strategic competitive innovation as a broadly considered essential condition for the survival of SMEs during the COVID-19 crises.

This paper aims to examine the influence of corporate social responsibility on financial performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana by using access to capital and firm reputation as mediating variables.

The authors collected primary data from 423 SMEs within the Accra Metropolis. Partial least squares estimation technique was used to analyze the data.

The authors documented evidence for a mechanism through which corporate social responsibility results in financial performance of firms: SMEs with improved corporate social responsibility practices are better positioned to achieve enhanced reputation, which translates into improved financial performance. Even though this study did not document a significant relationship between corporate social responsibility and access to finance by Ghanaian SMEs, the authors contend that looking at the positive relationship between them, SMEs can minimize their capital constraints by embarking on CSR practices, which can eventually translate into financial performance.

The authors recommend that for SMEs to enhance their reputation and increase their access to capital, which will eventually result in enhanced financial performance, corporate social responsibility practices should be a major part of their operations.

It contributes to our knowledge on how CSR practices lead to financial performance of SMEs in developing countries. In addition, this is the first of its kind to establish the relationship between CSR practices and financial performance of SMEs in Ghana by using access to capital and firm reputation as mediating factors.

This study aims to examine the determinants of Facebook adoption and its impact on the performance of service-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in northwestern Nigeria. The mediating effect of Facebook adoption between the determinants of Facebook adoption and the performance of the SMEs was examined.

A comprehensive framework was built using the technology – organisation–environment framework integrated with the resource-based view theory. Data were collected from 165 SME decision-makers using an online survey. The hypothesised relationships were tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

Facebook adoption exerted a positive impact on the financial and non-financial performance of the SMEs. The important determinants of Facebook adoption were relative advantage, perceived risks, top management support, organisational readiness and government support. The mediating effect of Facebook adoption between these determinants and financial and non-financial performance was confirmed.

The findings contribute to better insight into the determinants of Facebook adoption and its impact on the financial and non-financial performance of SMEs. The findings can inspire and guide SMEs on adopting Facebook as a marketing strategy to improve performance and reduce failure rates.

The findings confirm the potential of adopting Facebook for enhancing the performance of SMEs. This is arguably among the first empirical studies to test the mediating effect of Facebook adoption.

This paper aims to investigate the moderating role of innovation capability and strategic goals in the financial performance of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana.

Innovative capabilities and strategic goals in SMEs and their influence on financial performance were recognized and briefly debated according to the existing literature. Hypotheses were tested on research data on 340 SMEs in Ghana, which were conveniently selected. Finally, quantitative analysis was done, followed by a discussion of the research findings.

Results from the study have proved that strategic goals have a strong positive relationship with financial performance. Also, there is a strong, positive and highly significant impact innovative capacity has on financial performance. Finally, the study found that innovative capability moderates the relationship between strategic goals and financial performance. It showed that at high levels of innovative capacity, high levels of strategic goals boost financial performance massively.

The findings are limited to SMEs in Ghana. Researchers should study why SMEs may not pursue any innovation capability activities as they have positive impact on their financial performance. They may also focus on strategic goals and financial performance.

The study shows a necessity for longer-term innovation perspectives and a higher level of the importance of the application and assessment of strategic goals. Business owners and caretakers need greater awareness about the importance of innovation capability and strategic goals and their influence on the overall financial performance of SMEs. This will help them to adopt right innovate procedures for their businesses.

One of few research works to examine innovation capability and strategic goals on the financial performance of SMEs in a developing country.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are crucial for socio-economic growth due to their significant role in creating new workforce, gross domestic product increase, innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper aims to examine financial management performance in SMEs with regard to industry, firm age and education level of owner/managers differences.

The data used in the study are collected from 188 SMEs through structured questionnaires, and three hypotheses regarding the associations are tested by using structural equation modeling.

Findings of one-way ANOVA tests indicate that performance in financial management practices has a strong and positive correlation with education level of small business owner/managers, whereas no significant difference is found regarding SMEs operating in different industries. For the impact of company age, independent samples t-test is conducted, and a meaningful difference between small- and medium-sized companies which are five years or older and younger is found.

This study shows that a significant difference for age of an SME is present between over and under five-year-old SMEs, with respect to financial management performance, which is an important finding for both small business and financial management literatures. The tests regarding the particular hypotheses about education level of SME owner/managers indicate that education level of SME owner/managers significantly impacts financial management performance.

The present study provides important practical implications. First, the importance of education level of owner/managers on SME financial performance is highlighted. Second, strong empirical support is found for the impact of company age on SME performance, which might be discussed as the importance of accumulation of knowledge of the owner/managers and the changes required with the growth patterns of the company, with increasing company age. Third, the study shows that industry differences do not exhibit a significant performance variation factor in financial management of SMEs, with respect to other demographic factors. Overall, these contributions help us better understand the financial management performance indicators in small and medium sized businesses.

This study focuses on company age, education level and industry differences with respect to financial management performance in SMEs in emerging economies, therefore provides additional empirical evidence to a research area where very few empirical studies exist.

Research signifies that well-governed companies exhibit long-run financial results and sustainable growth. In the context of SMEs, this paper aims to review the literature on corporate governance, the implementation challenges of corporate governance and its relationship with performance. Entwined with Indian scenarios, the study can be generalized to other emerging economies, with geographic considerations.

Studies from 1990 to 2020 are included in the literature review. Three databases were used for the extraction of relevant research articles: Scopus, EBSCO and ScienceDirect. To identify the relevant work, keywords along with Boolean operators for literature search were used from the research databases. The selected articles were further refined based on the authors’ keywords, journal type, data analysis methodologies and abstract analysis. Finally, 115 articles were selected and categorized into themes based on inclusion criteria for further study.

Corporate governance provides tangible and intangible benefits to SMEs. The study emphasizes on designing a cost-effective discrete governance mechanism for SMEs than the prevailing corporate governance code for large firms. Furthermore, implementing the corporate governance structure with a great level of discipline and stability is equally essential and related to performance.

Listing of SMEs is a relatively new phenomenon in emerging economies, including India. With listing, corporate governance and financial performance are expected to shift. The inclusion of the changing landscape of SME governance makes this study unique and relevant in the current scenario. The study will benefit the policymakers and firms to adopt optimum governance practices and link it optimally with performance.