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The aim of this study is to examine the structural relationship between Spector’s nine job satisfaction facets (supervision, nature of the work, communication, contingent rewards, co-worker, fringe benefits, payment, promotion and operating procedures), organizational commitment facets (normative commitment, affective commitment and continuance commitment) and the influence of employees’ years of experience on satisfaction and commitment relationships. Owing to the nature of the industry, employee satisfaction, retention and commitment in Information and Communications Technology-Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (ICT-SME) is a matter of great concern.

A total of 256 valid questionnaires were collected among employees of Information and Communications Technology-Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (ICT-SMEs) to evaluate the measurement and structural model using partial least squares path modelling approach.

The findings indicate that payment, promotion, fringe benefits, co-worker, communication, operating procedures and nature of the work are positively associated with affective commitment. Furthermore, payment, promotion, fringe benefits, supervision, contingent rewards, operating procedures and nature of the work have a positive relationship with normative commitment. Considering employees’ years of experience as a categorical moderating variable, the results of partial least squares multi-group analysis show how the discrepancies between employees’ years of experience influence their level of commitment.

This study reveals that employees’ affective and normative commitments are positively associated and their continuance commitment is contingent upon their affective commitment, and not normative commitment. There are only three factors, i.e. promotion, fringe benefits and operating procedures, that are conductive to employees’ continuance commitment. Contributions, implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

With the focus on the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this study aims to investigate the joint effects of entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurial orientation and dynamic capabilities and the mechanisms of how these factors influence firm performance.

A survey from 319 managers in information and communications technology SMEs in Vietnam was conducted, and structural equation modeling was adopted to analyze the collected data.

The results confirm that dynamic capabilities directly influence firm performance and serve as a mediator that connects entrepreneurial leadership and entrepreneurial orientation with firm performance. Additionally, entrepreneurial leadership was found to have a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial orientation.

This research augments the understanding of entrepreneurship and dynamic capabilities literature by examining the joint effects and mechanisms of how entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurial orientation and dynamic capabilities interact to enhance SMEs' performance. Furthermore, this study provides empirical evidence of the strategies that SMEs should pursue to attain favorable performance outcomes.

This study aims to ascertain whether technological diversification (TD) enhances firm performance and explores the effect of patent portfolio balancing (PPB) on firm financial performance and the moderating role of research and development (R&D) intensity.

This study empirically investigates a panel dataset based on 296 information and communications technology (ICT) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over 5 years, using a fixed-effects panel regression with time-lagged and moderating effects. Data are collected from a government survey and a firm and patent database.

The relationship between PPB and return on assets (ROA) is negative, indicating that TD in SMEs adversely affects firm performance. R&D intensity positively moderates the relationship between PPB and ROA, implying that follow-up R&D after creating new patents could weaken the negative relationship between TD and firm performance. This moderating effect only occurs when R&D intensity is sufficiently high, suggesting that high R&D firms could be more successful at diversification.

As TD consumes many resources, managers should set the optimal level of diversification and recognise the need for follow-up R&D for successful diversification.

This study conceptualises a unique theoretical framework for the PPB of ICT SMEs, revealing the moderating role of R&D intensity in changing the negative influence of PPB on firm performance.

The crucial importance of innovation leadership for high technology small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) has been suggested in the literature. However, few studies empirically examined the impact of leadership style on innovation work behavior (IWB) of employees in the context of SMEs. Furthermore, our knowledge is limited about how leaders of high technology SMEs influence the IWB of their employees. The present study explores the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on IWB of employees and introduces creative self-efficacy and support for innovation as the mechanisms through which the leaders encourage their employees' IWB in information and communications technology (ICT) SMEs in Iran.

The sample was selected from high technology ICT SMEs using the simple random sampling method and included 175 CEOs and owner-managers of the businesses. We used validated questionnaires to test the hypothesized relationships between entrepreneurial leadership, IWB, creative self-efficacy and support for innovation.

The findings show that entrepreneurial leadership has a significant and positive impact on IWB of employees in ICT SMEs. Furthermore, employees’ creative self-efficacy and leaders’ support for innovation mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and IWB. Implications of the results and suggestions for developing IWB among the employees of high technology SMEs are suggested.

The study makes important contributions to both entrepreneurial leadership and the innovation behavior literature and theory development specifically in high technology SMEs in the transitioning economy of Iran. The findings also contribute to the existing empirical studies on how entrepreneurial leadership affects IWB of employees by examining the mediating role of creative self-efficacy and support for innovation and in the settings of ICT high technology SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationships among explorative learning strategy, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and innovation in information and communication technology small- and medium-sized enterprises (ICT-SMEs).

In total, 213 valid questionnaires from SMEs’ top management positions were evaluated to investigate the proposed model of the research empirically. As a methodological approach, partial least square (PLS) path modeling approach, a variance-based structural equation modeling was employed.

The statistical results imply that explorative learning has a positive impact on improvisational creativity and innovation while improvisational creativity has a positive influence on compositional creativity and innovation as well. Compositional creativity and innovation are also positively associated. Surprisingly, improvisational creativity mediates the relationship between explorative learning and innovation. Furthermore, PLS-multi group analysis reveals that heterogeneity exists in the collected data and number of employees is a moderating variable. The results of the research indicate that companies with number of employees between 51 and 100 are more creative and innovative in comparison with other groups. On the other hand, the positive relationship between explorative learning and compositional creativity was not supported in this research.

This study is one of the few research works in the realm of examining the structural relationship among explorative learning strategy, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and innovation in ICT-SMEs, regarding the number of employees as a moderating variable.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on challenges and facilitating factors of open innovation practices (OIP) implemented by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The empirical research has been conducted on eight SMEs operating in the ICT sector, through a qualitative approach involving comparative case studies.

The findings drawn from the interviews indicate that each OIP established entails specific challenges and facilitating factors that SMEs have to face to sustain the open innovation journey and foster competitiveness. These findings helped to draw some important managerial implications and provide insights to SMEs willing to open innovation processes.

The study identifies OIP used in empirical studies to explore specific challenges and facilitators for each OIP, in the context of SMEs. Previous studies mostly focussed on open innovation sources and scarcely investigated internal dynamics of specific OIP.

There is a lack of empirical-based models derived from practice to explain the digital innovation process. The authors investigate how the digital innovation process unfolds in practice.

The authors undertake an exploratory and phenomenological study of 21 Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

The findings show that the delineation between digital innovation process and outcome is blurred in practice, due to the process' iterative nature. Under this process, customers' role has changed from being passive receivers of innovative products to active reviewers, testers, influential decision-makers, initiators and co-creators at different review points in the innovation process. Enterprises' role has expanded from being the initiator of the innovation process to being a cogitative actor by seeking and absorbing knowledge from customer reviews into the digital innovation process. Market analysis is often the initiator of the digital innovation process, and the findings shed light on the underlying causative mechanisms of the initiation stage, which are understudied and not well understood in the existing literature.

The study contributes to academic knowledge by answering scholars' call for developing third-generation practice-based innovation models, which accounts for enterprises' context-specificities and internal and external environments, and for exploring the suitability of the need–solution fit approach for the digital innovation process. Such models have only been conceptually advocated in the literature. The study also informs practitioners on the organizational and operational activities involved in managing and strategizing for the digital innovation process.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the antecedents of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) internationalization for a small set of Mexican ICT entrepreneurial firms, connected with subsectoral positions in a smile-shaped curve. Such antecedents constitute exploratory patterns related to simplified internationalization characteristics in terms of market choice, founder background and aspatial affiliations, providing a complementary technique to identify elements that shape SME internationalization in Latin America.

A value-added “smiling” curve is sketched according to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry classification, mapping a non-probabilistic purposive sample of Mexican SMEs. The csQCA has been applied to the sample based on secondary data. Mexico’s ICT export behavior is also analyzed.

Internationalized SMEs in the sample tend to group in patterns that approach higher value-added positions in the “smiling” curve, exemplifying a type of non-geographic clustering. Particular groups seem to precede market selection (North America vs Latin America). The founder’s background does not determine internationalization choices. The sample included counterexamples (new entrants, limited cases involving research and development activities), which when analyzed suggest relevant literature validations.

This research contextualizes sectoral SME internationalization from a Latin American perspective, identifying simple patterns around particular ICT subsectors. It focuses on a type of international entrepreneurship that becomes exceptional in developing regions: technology-oriented. csQCA is presented as a preliminary (exploratory) technique to draw alternative theoretical frameworks for SME internationalization, specifically, market selection and aspatial cluster behavior around value-added chains, leading to new theoretical perspectives in SME internationalization.

Esta investigación persigue un entendimiento de los antecedentes en la internacionalización de la PyME para un pequeño conjunto de negocios mexicanos de TIC emprendedores, en conexión con posiciones subsectoriales en una curva con forma de sonrisa. Dichos antecedentes constituyen patrones exploratorios relacionados con características de internacionalización simplificadas, en función de la selección del mercado, los antecedentes del fundador, y las afiliaciones no espaciales, ofreciendo una técnica complementaria para la identificación de elementos que moldean la internacionalización de la PyME en América Latina.

Una curva de valor añadido en forma de “sonrisa” es delineada de acuerdo con la clasificación industrial SCIAN, mapeando una muestra deliberada no probabilística de PyMEs mexicanas. csQCA ha sido aplicado a la muestra con base en datos secundarios. El comportamiento exportador de México en TIC es analizado también.

Las PyMEs internacionalizadas en la muestra tienden a agruparse en patrones que se aproximan a las posiciones de mayor valor añadido dentro de la curva de la “sonrisa,” ejemplificando un tipo de conglomerado no geográfico. Ciertos agrupamientos parecen prevalecer respecto a la selección del mercado (América del norte vs. Latinoamérica). Los antecedentes del fundador no determinan las opciones de internacionalización. La muestra incluyó contraejemplos (nuevos participantes, casos limitados que involucran actividades de I+D), los cuales sugieren validaciones relevantes de la literatura una vez analizados.

Esta investigación contextualiza la internacionalización sectorial de la PyME desde una perspectiva latinoamericana, identificando patrones simples alrededor de subsectores particulares de TIC. Se enfoca en un tipo de emprendimiento internacional que llega a ser excepcional en regiones en desarrollo: orientado a la tecnología. csQCA se presenta como una técnica preliminar (exploratoria) para delinear marcos teóricos alternativos para la internacionalización de la PyME, específicamente, selección del mercado y comportamiento de conglomerados no espaciales alrededor de cadenas de valor añadido, llevando a nuevas perspectivas teóricas en la internacionalización de la PyME.

The paper aims to present the e‐readiness status of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector in Botswana and make comparisons with global trends.

The paper is based on a doctoral project that was carried out at the University of Johannesburg from 2002 to 2005. A qualitative approach was employed using both focus group discussions and in‐depth interviews to collect data.

The findings revealed that SMEs in Botswana, like their counterparts in most developing countries, had not achieved a reasonable measure of e‐readiness status compared to the developed world.

There is paucity of research on the e‐readiness of SMEs in developing countries, especially with respect to information access. Furthermore e‐readiness, being a new phenomenon, does not yet have an established theoretical basis and a universally acknowledged definition.

This study presents a framework that has the potential to assist governments, especially in the developing world, to make informed ICT investment decisions that will enable SMEs to penetrate the international electronic business environment. Moreover, the findings provide a lens through which SMEs, especially in developing world, would benchmark their e‐readiness status against the best in the world and effectively undertake corrective measures.

The existing e‐readiness measurement tools are largely quantitative and only address the qualitative dimension of the phenomenon in a limited way. In addition, the tools focus more on ICT, business, policy and legislative framework and underplay the information access factor. Furthermore, whereas e‐readiness research is increasingly populating development, IT and business literature, little is happening within the information science discipline. Finally, most e‐readiness studies have confined to macro (national) assessments and ignored sectoral‐level environments.

Inter-organizational knowledge transfer (IOKT) is important especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Organizations need external knowledge to improve learning capabilities and their own competitiveness. SMEs are important for every nation’s economy. IOKT can enable SMEs’ learning and innovation and consequently its contribution to the national economy. This study aims to examine the factors that influence the IOKT process in Omani SMEs.

This study uses qualitative methodology. Participants were ten Omani SMEs from the information and communications technology sector, a knowledge-intensive sector. The study is based on face-to-face semi-structured interviews and content analysis.

The results confirmed that inter-organizational knowledge is considered to be important to SMEs. This research also showed that IOKT is affected by many factors related to the donor organization, recipient organization, nature of the knowledge and inter-organizational dynamics. The core factor to IOKT in SMEs is risk and trust.

Literature shows that there is an emphasis on the importance of studying knowledge management in SMEs; however, there is little work that has been done. Such study is even more important for Omani SMEs to improve their learning, innovation and contribution to a national diversified economy. This study provides valuable insights to establish an effective foundation for IOKT in Omani SMEs.