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Although scaling is considered a “hot topic”, very little is known about how knowledge management (KM) assists in scaling social impact. To fill this gap, the authors draw on knowledge-based and social capital theories and investigate how various KM practices and external networks (e.g. bridging social capital) affect scaling social impact in developing countries.

Applying structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS version 23, the authors conducted a survey with 354 women leaders who are working in women-led social enterprises in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The authors found that knowledge codification, training and mentoring, and bridging social capital are positively and significantly associated with scaling social impact.

This is one of the pioneering study that explore how KM impacts scaling social impact for women-led social enterprises in the context of a developing country. The authors also extend knowledge-based theory by applying it at the individual level. Finally, the authors enhance the understanding of women entrepreneurship by showing that women entrepreneurs in developing countries are also utilizing bridging social capital to overcome challenges associated with scaling social impact.

The purpose of this paper is to inform scholars and practitioners about the current body of knowledge on the role of social capital in scaling social impact since these concepts are still poorly understood and literature is fragmented despite their importance.

A systematic literature review of 27 highly relevant studies in leading journals is conducted, and the results are synthesized into an integrative theoretical framework.

The framework identifies possible dependent, independent, mediating and moderating variables which conceptualize the role of social capital in scaling social impact.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to systematically map social capital’s role in scaling social impact literature with the help of an integrative theoretical framework. For researchers, this framework would help by providing a shared frame of reference to conceptualize the role of social capital in scaling social impact and identify future research directions. Practitioners can use the findings of this review as a guide while designing and implementing scaling social impact programs.

This study investigates the role of national culture between outreach and sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Despite microfinance's deep embeddedness in cultural contexts, research on the influence of national culture on MFI performance is rather sparse. This paper seeks to fill this gap and, based on cross-country microfinance data, attempts to explain the outreach-sustainability relationship in reference to cultural factors.

An unbalanced panel, consisting of 5,741 MFI-year observations of 1,232 MFIs from 43 countries in six regions, is drawn from the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Market database. Two different econometric models are tested. Model 1 estimates the direct effect of outreach on sustainability, using a fixed-effects estimator. Model 2 examines the moderation effect of national culture on outreach-sustainability relationship, employing correlated random effects approach.

The results show that depth of outreach and financial sustainability of MFIs are negatively related, and the relationship is moderated by national culture. Power distance and uncertainty avoidance positively moderate the outreach-sustainability relationship, whereas individualism and masculinity negatively moderate the relationship.

The findings suggest that the national culture where MFIs are located plays an important contingent role in their performance and that the magnitude of the trade-off effect varies from culture to culture. The research thus provides further insight in the trade-off debate and contributes to literatures of both microfinance and cross-cultural management.

This study aims to investigate the effect of organizational ambidexterity (OA) and organizational green culture (OGC) on corporate sustainability (CS) while incorporating the mediating role of green innovation (GI) to provide a detailed insight into CS. The study also presents a research framework based on the Organizational Ambidexterity theory and Natural Resource-based view to explain the factors contributing to CS.

Using stratified sampling, the study collected data through survey-based empirical research from 307 textile companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) or the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). The collected data were analysed using path analysis, mediation analysis and moderation analysis through smart PLS-SEM version 4.0 to assess the composition and causal association of factors.

The study found a significant relationship between OA and OGC with CS. Furthermore, the study revealed that green innovation partially mediates the relationship between OGC and CS. The proposed research framework can be valuable for promoting and recommending actions to enhance CS.

The study on CS in the textile sector of Pakistan has limitations such as a narrow focus, cross-sectional design and reliance on self-reported data. Future research should explore additional factors, conduct longitudinal research, investigate contextual factors, scrutinize specific green innovation practices and broaden the scope of the study to include SMEs and other textile organizations.

The research framework can help senior executives to foster CS by promoting OGC, OA and GI. Practitioners and academicians can also utilize or further investigate the proposed framework for validation and to foster CS.

This study fills gaps in the existing literature by investigating the mediating effect of GI between OGC and CS. The proposed research framework provides a comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to CS based on the Organizational Ambidexterity theory and Natural Resource-based view.

This paper aims to examine the per capita income convergence of 57 member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over the period 1990–2017 and to investigate the determinants of convergence club formations.

The authors applied the methodology of Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009) to identify the convergence clubs and estimated several-ordered logit models to determine the key drivers.

The results support existence of two convergence clubs and one diverging unit, indicating that 30 and 26 member countries form two separate groups converging to their own steady-state paths. They also suggest a significant productivity divergence between these clubs. The authors showed that the number of convergence clubs started to decline after the global financial crisis in 2008. Moreover, they found that fixed capital formation, education and political stability are key drivers of convergence club membership.

There is a strong need for large-scale policy interventions to close the gap between leading and lagging clubs of the OIC. A substantial investment in human and physical capital seems necessary for lower-income OIC countries.

This is the first empirical study on the existence of convergence clubs among member countries of the OIC.

Benchmarking has long been recognized as an important business activity. The primary goal of benchmarking is to produce a product or execute a process that is at least as good as the best firms producing similar products or performing similar processes. Important components of benchmarking include: determining what to benchmark, identifying the “best of the best”, collecting internal and external data and data associated with the “the best”, and analyzing how a firm can move from its current capability to that of the best. To date, benchmarking has been considered primarily as a producer/vendor based activity. This paper proposes that in many situations benchmarking should be viewed as a customer/purchaser based activity. The primary benefit of purchaser‐originated benchmarking is that it facilitates the collection of competitor's data and allows the customer to determine directly the product/process requirements desired.

The purpose of this paper is to study critical practices when adopting improvement knowledge as a management innovation in a professional organization.

This paper is based on an action research approach, in which practitioners and researchers are seen as a part of a participative community generating actionable knowledge. Research involved gathering data over a five-year period through more than 250 interviews and 25 focus groups.

This paper identifies five critical practices for adopting a management innovation in a professional context: first, focussing on labeling and theorizing to create an organization’s own vocabulary; second, focussing on the role of internal change agents; third, allowing for an evolutionary adoption process; fourth, building new professional competence through the change agents; and fifth, adopting a research-driven approach to the adoption of a management innovation.

For healthcare practitioners, this paper points to practices to consider when adopting improvement knowledge – for example, identifying the patient as the guiding principle and encouraging involvement and local change initiatives. For practitioners in other professionally driven organizations, this paper identifies critical practices for adopting a management innovation – for example, focussing on theorizing and labeling in order to create an organization’s own vocabulary related to the professional context.

On a generic level, this paper contributes to the understanding of critical aspects when adopting management innovations in a professional organization. In a healthcare context, this paper points to the value of improvement knowledge for improving quality of care. Improvement knowledge is relatively new in healthcare, and this study provides an example of a hospital in which this management innovation helped transform the organization.

Recent trends in total quality management (TQM) argue in favor of incorporating environmental concerns into TQM and considering external stakeholders. The aim of this study is to bring environmental consciousness in the soft TQM dimension of human resource management (HRM) and assess its interrelationship with stakeholder integration towards achieving a competitive advantage.

An empirical study was conducted in the transportation sector, specifically targeting managers in Greek shipping companies involved in global cargo transport and vessel operations. A structured questionnaire was administered, yielding 109 responses. The collected data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal the positive effect of both green HRM (GHRM) and stakeholder integration on the innovation differentiation advantage and market differentiation advantage of shipping companies. Results confirm the complementary (partial) mediating effect of GHRM in the relationship between stakeholder integration and both types of competitive advantage.

The primary limitation resides in data collection exclusively from shipping companies in Greece. A longitudinal approach would be beneficial for examining how the relationship between variables changes over time.

The findings of the study could assist shipping managers in their decisions to allocate resources for developing GHRM practices and for involving stakeholders in organizational practices to overcome competition.

This study contributes to the discourse on TQM by empirically investigating the combined impact of GHRM and stakeholder integration on competitive advantage – an aspect that has been relatively overlooked in existing literature.

The purpose of this paper is the dynamic analysis and seismic damage assessment of steel sheet pile quay wall with inelastic behavior underground motions using several accelerograms.

Finite element analysis is conducted using the Plaxis 2D software to generate the numerical model of quay wall. The extension of berth 25 at the port of Bejaia, located in northeastern Algeria, represents a case study. Incremental dynamic analyses are carried out to examine variation of the main response parameters under seismic excitations with increasing Peak ground acceleration (PGA) levels. Two global damage indices based on the safety factor and bending moment are introduced to assess the relationship between PGA and the damage levels.

The results obtained indicate that the sheet pile quay wall can safely withstand seismic loads up to PGAs of 0.35 g and that above 0.45 g, care should be taken with the risk of reaching the ultimate moment capacity of the steel sheet pile. However, for PGAs greater than 0.5 g, it was clearly demonstrated that the excessive deformations with material are likely to occur in the soil layers and in the structural elements.

The main contribution of the present work is a new double seismic damage index for a steel sheet pile supported quay wharf. The numerical modeling is first validated in the static case. Then, the results obtained by performing several incremental dynamic analyses are exploited to evaluate the degradation of the soil safety factor and the seismic capacity of the pile sheet wall. Computed values of the proposed damage indices of the considered quay wharf are a practical helping tool for decision-making regarding the seismic safety of the structure.