Search results

This study aimed to explore the effect of Financial Innovation (FI) on economic growth in Ghana, with a dataset spanning 1960–2019, adopting a broader conceptualization of FI as the ratio of broad money to narrow money.

The study employs a non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) time series econometric model to estimate data from the World Bank (1960–2019).

There is no evidence that FI significantly impacts economic growth. This could be due to the early and strict regulation of the financial technology (FIN-TECH) sector and the general inconclusiveness of the impact of financial development on economic growth.

Policymakers must empirically explore the impact of early and strict regulation on the transformational impact of FI.

The paper is among the first to apply a broader conceptualization of FI in estimating the impact of FI on economic growth.

The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the effect of corporate social responsibility activities (CSRA) of the firm on its financial performance (FP) and analyze the mediating role of innovation and competitive advantage (CA) in the relationship between CSRA and FP in the manufacturing sector of an emerging country, i.e. Pakistan.

Data has been collected through an electronic structured questionnaire from 300 middle-level and top-level managers by surveying different manufacturing firms of Gujranwala, Pakistan. The study’s hypotheses have been checked by analyzing the reliability and validity of data and applying confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling through statistical package for the social sciences and analysis of moment structures.

Outcomes of this study supported the hypothesized model. It has been found that the CSRA plays a significant positive role in determining the FP of the firm. Furthermore, the CA and innovation have been proved as significant mediators between CSRA and FP.

The first time examining the intermediation of innovation and CA in the relationship between CSRA and FP is the primary input of this study to the literature. Practically, this study’s findings will help strategy makers of manufacturing firms in emerging countries develop better strategies for implementing CSRA, enhancing innovation, seeking CA and improving FP.

The purpose of this article is to show (1) how social innovations are created through co-production in social enterprises in Finland and (2) how enabling ecosystems for the creation of social innovations can be enhanced by the government.

This study is a descriptive case study. The data comprises focus group interviews that were conducted during a research project in Finland in 2022. The interviewees represented different social enterprises, other non-profit organisations and national funding institutions.

Social enterprises create social innovations in Finland through co-production, where service innovation processes, activism and networking are central. Also, to build an enabling ecosystem, government must base the system upon certain elements: enabling characteristics of the stakeholders, co-production methods and tools and initiatives by the government.

The authors address an important challenge that social enterprises struggle with: The position of social enterprises in Finland is weak and entrepreneurs experience prejudice from both the direction of “traditional” businesses and the government which often does not recognise social enterprise as a potential partner for public service delivery. Nonetheless, social enterprises create public value by contributing to the co-production of public services. They work in interorganisational networks by nature and can succeed where the traditional public organisations and private businesses fail.

The purpose of this paper is to retrace the past development of the global tourism sector to identify past drivers of growth and try to understand which factors will shape the sector development in the long term. The paper also intends to initiate a discussion on critical areas the global sector needs to address if it wants to establish as a model for sustainable and inclusive growth.

This paper analyses the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors that influenced tourism growth.

The global tourism sector has experienced continuous expansion and diversification to become one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world. With increased recognition of tourism contribution to economic growth and development, more opportunities will arise for tourism to take centre stage in the political and economic agendas worldwide. Such opportunities can be successfully realised only once the global tourism sector eventually engages to mitigate negative impacts.

The paper is based on an extensive review of published literature; hence, it reflects the view major organisations dealing with tourism have on the future development of this sector. The factors included in this analysis have been prioritised based on the sector knowledge of the authors and may not be reflect other viewpoints.

Tourism could establish itself as a model that puts aspects such as the conservation, preservation and protection of the cultural and natural heritage at the heart of economic development. For global tourism to become a driver of socio-economic change, stronger guidance is needed to set priorities that would lead the sector to mitigate its negative impacts. The paper critically discusses some of those aspects that could become policy priorities for the next decades.

The main value of this piece of research is the extended, cross-disciplinary literature of the factors that conducted to the rapid and healthy growth of the tourism sector worldwide.

Through a comprehensive review of the literature on open innovation (OI), this study aimed to achieve two objectives: (1) to identify the main thematic areas discussed in the past and track their evolution over time; and (2) to provide recommendations for future research avenues.

To achieve the first objective, a method based on text mining was implemented, with the analysis focusing on 1,772 journal articles published between 2003 and 2018. For the second objective, a review based on recent and relevant papers was conducted for each thematic area.

The paper identified nine thematic areas explored in existing research: (1) context-dependency of OI, (2) collaborative frameworks, (3) organizational dimensions of OI, (4) performance and OI, (5) external search for OI, (6) OI in small and medium-sized enterprises, (7) OI in the pharmaceutical industry, (8) OI and intellectual property rights, and (9) technology. The analysis of the most recent papers belonging to the more investigated areas offers suitable suggestions for future research avenues.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no review has yet been undertaken to reorganize the OI literature.

Technological platforms encourage the exchange of knowledge and creation of new ideas that create new value for participating members who pool and combine their knowledge, facilities, tools and skills, thus contributing to the development of innovative solutions. This paper focuses on hackathon platforms, working as open innovation intermediaries, investigating their role and functions and exploring how they encourage the collaboration and the innovativeness among participants in order to boost their innovative new ideas.

The research method is a qualitative design that includes in-depth interviews of ten stakeholders that play different roles in “Hack for Travel,” the case under analysis. It is a hackathon organized entirely online, as a response to the crisis generated by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Findings revealed six processes developed by the hackathon platform used to effectively organize the event and facilitate participants to cooperate and share knowledge in order to boost the spread of innovative ideas. Results identify how hackathons should be organized and through which processes they work as innovation platforms.

This is one of the first attempts to study the increasing phenomenon of hackathons, providing theoretical contribution and practical implications about their role in developing innovation.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies on knowledge creation for innovation purposes by assessing the relationships among the variety of I4.0 technologies adopted (breadth I4.0), the penetration of these technologies within the firm’s value chain activities (depth I4.0) and the mediating role of both internal (inter-functional (IF)) and external [with knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS)] collaborations in this process.

The study employed a quantitative research design. By administering a survey to entrepreneurs, chief operation officers or managers in charge of the operational and technological processes of Italian manufacturing firms, the authors collected 137 useful questionnaires. To test this study's theoretical framework and hypotheses, the authors ran regression and mediation analyses.

First, the results highlight the positive link between breadth I4.0 and depth I4.0. Moreover, the results show the key role played by increased collaboration among the firm’s business functions and by relationships with KIBS in creating knowledge to innovate processes and products when I4.0 technologies are adopted.

The variety of I4.0 technologies adopted enables a firm to use such technologies in various value chain activities. However, the penetration of I4.0 into the firm’s value chain activities (depth I4.0) does not per se directly imply the production of new knowledge, for which a firm needs internal collaboration among different business functions, in particular with the production area, or collaboration with external partners that favor I4.0 implementation, such as KIBS.

To achieve innovation goals by creating new knowledge, especially in the manufacturing industries, firms should encourage internal and external collaboration when I4.0 technologies are adopted. Moreover, policy makers should not only consider fiscal incentives for the adoption of such technologies, but also encourage the building of networks between adopting firms and external actors.

The study is one of the first attempt that provides empirical evidence of how I4.0 enables the creation of knowledge to innovate processes and products, highlighting the relevance of collaboration both within the company and with external partners.

This paper explores how exaptive innovation process might be considered a useful innovation model in constraint-based environments. Through an in-depth case study, it illustrates clearly the antecedents of exaptation processes, which are particularly relevant in rapidly changing environments requiring new solutions under time and resource constraints.

The authors adopt a single case study approach that is particularly suitable in case of an inductive research design, which is required because of the novelty of the topic. The research is inspired by the use of the snorkeling mask EASYBREATH, commercialized by the giant Decathlon, as a medical device, a respirator to treat patients affected by coronavirus in Italy. The authors organized the evidence according to a novel taxonomy grounded in the literature.

The case study stimulates reflections on the existence of some antecedents to the exaptive innovation process in constraint-based environments: (1) the availability of specific actors in the innovation process; (2) the creation of platforms of interaction between people with different competences, nurtured by collective bottom-up financing systems; (3) the role of the community of makers, in particular, and of the 4th industrial revolution, in general, for creating enabling technologies; (4) multidisciplinary individual background of key actors in the innovation process is crucial to ensure the exaptive path to be in place.

This work has some limitations, due to the choice of limiting the analysis to a single case, nevertheless, it offers a first glance on a new technological trajectory available in constraint-based environments.

The case study results underline the importance of new digital collaboration platforms as knowledge multipliers, and illuminate on the potential of the fourth manufacturing revolution, which, through new technologies, creates opportunities for distributed forms of innovation that cross long distances.

Most past studies on studentsʼ entrepreneurial intention tend to focus on the phenomenon in developed countries.There is limited research on entrepreneurial intention of university students from developing nations. This article intends to close this gap by providing some insights into students℉ entrepreneurial inclination in a developing country, Malaysia. A total of 234 students from three faculties at both graduate and undergraduate levels were surveyed to examine their entrepreneurial inclination and also to examine the relationship between their demographic and social characteristics with entrepreneurial inclination.The study found strong entrepreneurial inclination among the students. Significant difference was found between students studying part time and full time and their entrepreneurial inclination. Significant difference was also found between the type of program enrolled in and students℉ entrepreneurial inclination. Further analysis and other findings were reported and recommendation for future research are been put forth in this article.