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With the increasing digitalization processes taking place in different industries, the success of family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) appears to be more under threat than for any other types of organizations, especially when information technologies (ITs) are not adequately used and managed. To grow and increase the chances of survival, family SMEs need more than ever IT. Stemming from agency theory, the aim of this article is to understand whether family harmony impacts the performance of family SMEs and to what extent IT mediates this relationship.

The research follows a quantitative approach, based on a sample of 182 family SMEs. Structured equation modeling, through SmartPLS, was employed to validate the research model.

This study’s main findings suggest that family harmony positively impacts firm performance and that IT governance and strategy mediate positively this relationship.

First, the relatively limited number of respondents limits the degree of representativeness of all family SMEs. Replicating the research with a larger number of respondents could strengthen the findings. Second, this study is limited to French firms and future research could extend the findings by looking at cross-country comparisons.

Family SMEs are encouraged to link their IT governance with their IT strategy in order to increase their organizational performance. A favorable family harmony will make it easier to choose and implement a richer IT strategy and put in place an adequate IT governance function.

This research offers an enriched knowledge of the roles of family harmony and technological innovation in family SMEs and IT contexts as significant predictors of organizational performance. It contributes to family firm theory through the identification of three determinants of family SMEs' performance.

As purveyors of knowledge-based and high value-added services to the manufacturing sector, industrial service small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must develop the information technology (IT) capabilities that, in combination with other non-IT capabilities, enable their capacity for organizational learning (OL) and for explorative learning in particular. In this context, this study aims to identify the different causal configurations that account for the nonlinear complex interplay of IT capabilities for exploration and strategic capabilities for explorative learning as they affect these firms’ competitive performance.

Survey data obtained from 92 industrial service SMEs were analyzed with a configurational approach, using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

As it allows for equifinality, the fsQCA analysis identified two sets of causal configurations that characterize the sampled firms’ explorative learning capability as it relates to competitive performance. In the first set, two configurations were equally associated with high innovation performance, whereas in the second set, four configurations were equally associated with high productivity.

By viewing explorative learning as a dynamic capability that is enabled by the firm’s IT and strategic capabilities, the study contributes to OL theory by providing a more concrete or “operational” grounding, which allows for a greater practical applicability of this theory. By taking both the configurational and capability-based views of the OL-IT-performance causal framework, the authors provide an empirical basis for unraveling, explaining and understanding the complex non-linear relationships embedded within this framework.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a framework of small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) strategic orientation (SO) and its impact on social media performance. Moreover, it introduces a new concept, social media orientation (SMO) (composed of sales and business development (SBD) and visibility) to add in the model.

A quantitative approach was used and, based on a study of 257 SMEs, analyses were performed. A smartPLS analysis was judged appropriate regarding the sample size.

Results show that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and customer orientation have a positive influence on SBD which in turn has a positive influence on social media performance. Visibility is positively influenced by EO and has an indirect effect on social media performance. Social media performance is therefore directly influenced by SBD and indirectly by visibility.

The authors complete previous research that called for the introduction of different SO on a same study and go further as the author highlight the role of EO on visibility (and not only on business or performance). A second contribution lies in the conceptualization of SMO (defined here with SBD and visibility) and third in the measurement of social media performance through growth and attention.

SMEs first need to develop their visibility, and then link it to SBD.

This research is one of the first to explore SMEs’ SO on social media and proposes a new concept defined as SMO. It gives SMEs future direction on how to perform on these platforms.

This study aims to propose an integrative conceptual framework of e‐learning adoption and assimilation that is adapted to the specific context of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The literature on the state of e‐learning usage in SMEs and on the IT adoption and assimilation factors that can be specifically applied to e‐learning adoption and assimilation in this context are reviewed. These factors are then integrated within a research framework, and a set of 20 propositions formulated.

The paper identifies the technological, organizational and environmental factors that are likely to favor or hinder e‐learning adoption and assimilation in SMEs, as well as the interaction among these factors.

The integrative framework and the 20 propositions that emanate from it constitute the conceptual foundation for a research program and hypotheses on the adoption and assimilation of e‐learning in SMEs.

This study offers managers a frame of reference to analyze their firm's situation before initiating an e‐learning program by highlighting key adoption and assimilation factors in the specific context of SMEs.

This study proposes an integrative conceptual framework of e‐learning adoption and assimilation that is adapted to the specific context of SMEs.

The present study aims at a deeper understanding of the performance outcomes of the alignment between the e‐business capabilities of manufacturing small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and their business strategy in terms of Miles and Snow's recognised strategic typology that includes prospectors, analyzers, and defenders.

From a contingency theory perspective, a survey of 107 Canadian manufacturers was used to collect data that were analyzed through correlation analysis.

Results indicate that the ideal e‐business profiles vary in the relation to the firms' strategic orientation, whether it is of the defender, analyzer or prospector type. E‐business alignment has positive performance outcomes for manufacturing SMEs in terms of growth, productivity and financial performance.

The nature of the sample impose care in generalizing the results of the study. These results also allow us to emphasise the nature rather than the investment value of the SMEs' information technology investment, given that certain forms of e‐business would be more appropriate for certain firms, depending upon their strategic orientation.

For SME owner‐managers that require greater manufacturing flexibility, increased systems integration, products and services of better quality, and higher levels of product and process innovation, the results of this study allow us to prone an examination of their firm's level of e‐business assimilation, this being done in conjunction with their strategic intent.

This is one of the first studies to have used a rigorous conceptualisation and measure of alignment to confirm the theoretical validity and empirical usefulness of this notion and of the strategic contingency approach for research on e‐business, and to compare this approach with the universalistic approach founded upon “best practices”.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategic use of social media and chat applications of women entrepreneurs to promote their businesses.

Because of the nature of the study and dearth of sufficient data in the Middle Eastern society on the women entrepreneurship, this study employed a qualitative research methodology. The research comprised of 20 in-depth interviews with immigrant women entrepreneurs in the United Arab Emirates. They were identified through personal contacts and referrals.

All the expatriate women interviewed are using social media and chat applications to promote their business. Facebook is used for brand creation and WhatsApp is used as a direct marketing tool to evoke purchase response. Though traditional promotional tools are far from redundant, their role is more supplementary. The increasing trend is a combination of traditional tools and digital tools. Digital tools seem to have an upper hand in their business promotions.

This study is limited to SME sector in one industry and in one country. The qualitative nature of this study could affect the generalizability of the results. A more extensive study is needed and future research should be more diverse including widening the selection of respondents, industries and countries.

This study is a novel attempt to gauge an in-depth understanding of modern communication tools. It looks specifically at the integrative strategies pursued by the immigrant women entrepreneurs using Facebook and WhatsApp.

Within the manufacturing sector, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face specific challenges with regard to their strategic HRM capabilities. In this context, an emerging issue for both researchers and practitioners regards HR information systems (HRIS), i.e. the deployment of strategic IT capabilities to enable the firm’s high-performance work system (HPWS) capabilities and thus improve the performance of its HR function. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by using a capability-based mediation perspective to study the strategic alignment of HR and IT.

A survey study of 206 manufacturing SMEs was realized and the data thus obtained was analyzed through structural equation modeling.

Results confirm that the HRIS capabilities of SMEs influence the performance of the HR function through their strategic alignment with the HPWS capabilities of these enterprises.

The results suggest that the manufacturing SMEs most active in developing their HRIS capabilities while developing their HPWS capabilities are most likely to develop a competitive advantage through the improved performance of their HR function. This is especially important in a time when firms of all sizes across the globe are waging a “war for talent,” and are enabled to do so by their strategic use of IT.

The results of the study constitute a valid basis for prediction and prescription with regards to the strategic alignment of human and IT resources.

The paper aims to put forward a transactional center approach to the four‐party logistics (4PL) development. For about ten years, the European logistics industry has indeed been undergoing massive changes by which dematerialized logistics service providers, also called 4PL, have become more and more important. Special emphasis is placed on their role of intermediary between the supply chain members, on the basis of the implementation of inter‐organizational information systems (IOS).

The paper goes over the research literature on 4PL referring to the info‐mediation and intermediation processes. The accent is on the electronic brokerage application and on the main hindrances to 4PL development. Three propositions are put forward concerning a relevant research program.

The findings in this paper show that understanding 4PL's strategy dynamics requires going into the specific details of the role of transactional center. Thus, thanks to the effective management of IOS, some 4PL could become the hub firms of network organizations. To do that, they will have to acquire a thorough expertise on selecting network members and monitoring supply chain interfaces.

In this paper a preliminary framework provides elements of discussion to enable a better understanding of the transformation process of the logistics industry. The interest for managers and academics is to illustrate how 4PL are becoming the agents for strategic change, while an excessive importance is usually attached only to manufacturers and large retailers in the academic literature.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which collaborative consumption (CC) enthusiasts are significantly more likely to engage into specific forms of socially responsible consumption (SRC), in contrast to regular consumers.

The authors administered an online questionnaire survey to a panel of 1,006 consumers. A cluster analysis combined with analyses of variance then determined the extent to which CC enthusiasts were more likely to engage in the focal SRC behaviors as opposed to others.

CC enthusiasts differ positively from other consumers concerning sustainable transportation, citizen consumption and composting but negatively from other consumers concerning recycling; they do not differ significantly with regard to environmental, animal protection and local consumption.

Conflating CC and SRC remains debatable. This study provides some preliminary evidence about the complex associations that exists between the two constructs.

There is a need to promote socially responsible consumption which would accelerate the efforts of economic upliftment and sustainable development initiated by the government and corporates through corporate social responsibility initiatives. This study aims to explore the factors that contribute to socially responsible consumption across demographic factors.

The socially responsible consumption behaviour (SRCB) scale developed by Antil and Bennet was used to gather responses on a five-point Likert scale along with information on demographic profile from the residents of Delhi National Capital Region.

The factor analysis revealed a striking finding that personal contribution is the most important factor that governs socially responsible consumption, and this factor also emerges across demographic variables to have significant contribution for the consumption. Gender wise, there is no significant difference, while education bears an inverse relationship with SRCB. People in the middle-income group with lower incomes and younger in age are more likely to exhibit SRCB.

The implications for marketers is to use the results of this study in their promotion for targeting consumers by focusing on the joy/pride of personal contribution in being socially responsible while they fulfil their product purchase needs that could create a loyal segment of consumers who would buy such products and further spread a positive word of mouth to convert non-consumers into buyers, leading to sustainable economic development. Policymakers and the Government need to promote SRCB by subsidizing goods that are generated from such sources to enhance their usage. Younger Indians, in the early years of their career and people in middle-income groups, are promising customers with higher inclination to be socially responsible in their purchase behaviour. This paper presents a practical dimension of personal contribution that could be used to develop promotion strategies to motivate consumers towards socially responsible consumption.

These incorporate usage of the results of this study to promote cause-related marketing, wherein a company donates a portion of each purchase made by its customers during a specific period to a socially responsible cause. Marketers can enhance the purchase of socially responsible products by creating awareness among their target consumers about the consequences of their purchase and their personal contribution in community development. Creating confidence among customers and goodwill by providing awareness of the contribution made by firms in the social development of the country will encourage customers to patronize products of such firms, as they would feel a sense of personal contribution in nation development by supporting buying from such firms.

The adoption of socially responsible consumption by the vast majority of population shall uplift the economically backward sections of society, thereby creating employment opportunities and incomes at the bottom of the pyramid, ultimately, leading to sustainable economic development and attainment of millennium development goals.

This is a maiden attempt to gain an insight into the Indian SCRB. This can be a base for further studies in the area of socially responsible consumption which is relatively unexplored in the Indian context.