Search results

Drawing on the reciprocity principle of social exchange theory situated within Service-dominant Logic, this study aims to examine how customers’ perception of knowledge sharing in co-production, their inherent scepticism and prosocial orientation relate to their willingness to co-create and provide feedback on services. The authors also explored the interplay between these factors to identify conditions in configurations comprising scepticism, which may help navigate its adverse effects.

The authors surveyed 556 online and offline mobile payment service users. They used a combination of partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to assess the relationships among variables, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify configurations associated with feedback behaviour.

The study determined that customer perception of co-production knowledge sharing is positively associated with willingness to co-create and feedback behaviour. Additionally, prosocial orientation positively affects this relationship, while scepticism has an adverse effect. Willingness to co-create mediates the relationship between customer perception of co-production knowledge sharing and feedback behaviour. The fsQCA findings revealed configurations for potentially navigating doubts regarding feedback. To encourage valuable customer feedback, businesses may consider promoting a collaborative and supportive atmosphere, emphasising shared advantages or building trust even among hesitant and doubtful individuals.

This study uniquely examines how both prosocial tendencies and scepticism relate to customer feedback behaviour in co-creation by using a hybrid PLS-SEM/fsQCA approach to identify co-existing conditions in configurations comprising scepticism that may help navigate its adverse effects and leverage customer feedback for business improvement.

While there are many studies on the impacts of formal institutions such as government financial supporting and tax preferential policies on women entrepreneurial entry, few attempted to explore how informal institutions causes cross-country differences in women entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether countries (Pakistan and Malaysia) with similar religious belief, political system and government policies exhibits similar level of women entrepreneurial activity from an informal institutional perspective.

This study used Global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) data for the years 2010–2012 and employed probit regression analysis to examine the impacts of cultural-cognitive and social-normative institutions on women entrepreneurial activity.

The findings reveal profound differences of women’s entrepreneurial activities between Pakistan and Malaysia. While cultural-cognitive dimension shows substantial impact for both nations, social-normative dimension explains the main differences in women’s entrepreneurial activity.

This study proposes that policymakers may craft policies to enhance women skills, knowledge and networking as well as positive societal attitudes to foster women entrepreneurial activities.

This study shows that countries with the same religion and similar formal institutions can also exhibit different level of women entrepreneurial activity. In Pakistan, the negative societal attitudes in the form of deep rooted traditional beliefs as well as misinterpreted religious concepts for women role create formidable challenges and inhibit business opportunities for them. By contrast, favorable social perception and societal attitudes in Malaysia encourage women to pursue their entrepreneurial activities.

Drawing upon the institutional theory, the present study investigated whether or not small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa benefit from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and how the latter influences the internationalization of the former.

An in-depth interview was conducted by using 26 SME managers/owners who are engaged in international activities in the “Belt and Road” countries. The sample was chosen from four East African countries across three industries. The theoretical framework emerged from the grounded theory analysis of the primary data.

The authors found that the BRI as a formal institutional force generates both direct and indirect influences on SMEs' internationalization. Three key driving forces, namely partnerships, specialized services and innovativeness underpin the internationalization of SMEs. Additionally, sectoral analysis of the similarities and differences in responses reveals no remarkable differences in the drivers and impact of the BRI on SMEs in all the three industries investigated.

The internationalization process of East African SMEs could be augmented through formal institutions like the BRI, and the internationalization of SMEs along the “Belt and Road” countries mimic an integrative approach. The theoretical framework demonstrates significant potential for further benefits that SMEs may obtain through the BRI by taking advantage of certain BRI opportunities and adopting crucial strategies to internationalize rapidly.

This is the first study to employ a qualitative approach to study the influence of the BRI at the firm-level. Specifically, the paper covered the hub of BRI countries in East Africa. Hence, the study makes substantial theoretical and policy contributions to the literature.