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This study aims to theoretically discuss and empirically investigate to what extent the interplay between the domains of knowledge complexity (managerial, strategic and operational) facilitates firm performance and the role of organizational resilience in this relationship.

This paper uses primary data collected from 102 European small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain and the UK during 2012–2015 and 2010–2020. This study corrects for potential data disclosure and technology adoption bias in two survey ways.

First, compared to other acumens of knowledge complexity, managerial and operational acumens contribute most the most to a firm’s performance (sales and productivity). Firm resilience positively moderates managerial skills and negatively moderates inter-organizational collaborations. Taking SMEs and their inter-organizational relationships, skills and resilience in focus, considering that they are transitive organizations whose business model is based on innovation and productivity to outcompete larger counterparts it is found that resilience and agility in SMEs are important to leverage the effect of knowledge complexity on firm performance.

One of the limitations of this study is that SMEs are expected to face more problems in achieving organizational ambidexterity with all three acumens, as they have restricted managerial expertise, less structured procedures and fewer resources than larger firms. In addition to regression analysis which is limited in answering “how” and “why” knowledge complexity is managed within and outside a firm, future research will consider a mixed-method approach of both interviews with high growth SMEs and online surveys. To unveil the role that firm resilience in SMEs and in the volatile environment, future research may focus specifically on firms that lack resources, skills and time, however, continue innovating, commercializing new knowledge and create new jobs.

One of the most important mechanisms which facilitate the managerial acumen was found to be information technology (IT) investment and management decision-making, exploitation of new information and communication technology trends and markets, innovating business models and driving change management, innovating new mobility and digital technologies, as well as use inter-disciplinary staff and knowledge to influence external stakeholders. The most relevant elements of the operational acumen of knowledge for performance in SMEs are various mechanisms and forms of inter-organizational collaboration such as collaboration on business and IT applications and infrastructure, administration and operations with data and information exchange, collaboration on data availability, accumulation and exchange.

The findings call for innovation policy to account for the need for interactions between various elements of strategic, managerial and operational acumens of knowledge complexity in SMEs. Prime support should be focused on facilitating inter-organizational collaboration and providing “soft support” in the time of agility and adversity. This paper founds that lack of budget, skills and resources would significantly affect a firm’s resilience, potentially “locking in” within an organization.

First, it emphasizes that the returns from inter-organizational collaboration as part of the operational acumen of knowledge complexity depend upon the firm’s ability to manage infrastructure, mobility and data. The relationship is negatively moderated by firm resilience, which means that the most resilient firms may focus on the exploitation of internal resources and substitute it for inter-organizational collaboration. Second, this study demonstrates that SMEs’ growth and productivity strategy should be management skills and competencies driven, rather than strategy-driven, with strategy facilitating managerial decision-making on business and IT.

The Brittelstand are innovative, family-owned firms that offer national and international opportunities in the United Kingdom (UK). These fast-growing businesses are customer-oriented and proud of family ownership and embeddedness of the businesses within communities. While Brittelstand firms are as likely to deploy open innovation models as non-Brittelstand firms, these firms' engagement with customers in regional and national markets and the ability to benefit from this collaboration contrasts with these firms' willingness to engage in open innovation.

Using longitudinal data and regression analysis on 13,876 firms with 24,286 observations over 2004–2020, the authors develop and test a theoretical framework of open innovation in the Brittelstand. The authors' model explains the willingness and ability of the Brittelstand firms to engage in open innovation and benefit from it.

The authors' results show that Brittelstand firms are less willing than non-Brittelstand firms to collaborate with customers and universities, contrasting prior research on family firms, and distinguishing the innovation model of the Brittelstand from a family business model. The Brittelstand firms who are able to engage in collaboration with customers in domestic markets will outperform the firms' non-Brittelstand counterparts in innovation outputs.

In line with other studies, this study is associated with several limitations that open opportunities for further research that replicate and/or extends this study. First, this study is unbalanced panel data and the fact that some firms appear in the model only once from 2004–2020. The longitudinal study will allow to enforce causality of the relationship and examines the dynamics of open innovation in the Brittelstand. Second, the indicator on the extent and mechanisms of collaboration with customers could be better explained and measured, for example, using a scale indicator instead of a binary variable for knowledge collaboration across different types of partners and four geographical dimensions.

First, Brittelstand firms who are less likely to employ open innovation models nationally and with customers. However, those Brittelstand firms who decide to collaborate with customers nationally are more likely to increase the innovation sales compared to those firms that do not engage in such collaborations? This is an interesting and unexpected finding, which means that low willingness of cross-country and cross-regional collaboration for Brittelstand firms is not optimal and engagement in collaboration with customers in domestic markets is beneficial for innovation. Managers and policymakers may use this finding to design and re-design open innovation strategies managers and policymakers with customers within and across regions in the UK. Second, managers may benefit from the integrated view on the two drivers of firm innovation – collaboration with customers and the local embeddedness of such collaboration.

The authors' results show that Brittelstand firms outperform the firms' non-Brittelstand counterparts by adopting an open model of innovation with customers in domestic markets. This means that the most dynamic and fast growing Brittelstand firms are those who collaborate with customers for new ideas and innovation.

This study describes the phenomenon of the Brittelstand and investigates the link between open knowledge sourcing across different geographical proximities and partners and innovation outputs. First, the authors contribute to open innovation and resource-based view (RBV) literature in family firms by theorizing and empirically testing the open innovation model for the Brittelstand firms. The authors also debate that the Brittelstand firms should overcome this inertia of willingness to collaborate across heterogeneous external partners and convert regional/national embeddedness of the firms with customers into strengths for greater product innovation. Second, the authors contribute to family business literature by explaining how and why the Brittelstand firms can achieve greater innovation outputs. In doing so, the authors draw on the concept of familiness and local embeddedness.

This paper aims to investigate the role of dynamic capabilities in the Information Technology (IT) Governance view framework and explores the relationship between three domains of IT governance (Strategy, Management and Operations) and firm performance.

In this study, the authors used a mixed methods approach and using a survey instrument and its validation with interviews, to collect data from 134 successful European SMEs in the multi-country setting of Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain and the UK.

The findings show that various IT governance mechanisms function as dynamic capabilities and are directly associated with firm performance. The impact of each mechanism is different.

This study highlights the relationship between IT governance acumens and organisational performance. It contributes to the field of IT Governance Framework in management, and the results may be generalisable to wider economies and different organisation types.

The creation of start-ups using knowledge provided by universities has been identified as an important source of knowledge spillover and regional economic development. Entrepreneurship ecosystems in education have become the most important and efficient mechanism of business community engagement and knowledge transfer within university-industry-government framework creating value to society and regional economy. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study undertakes in-depth synthesis of eclectic literature on entrepreneurship ecosystems and knowledge spillover of entrepreneurship, examining the critical success factors and enablers of entrepreneurship ecosystems in education.

This study proposes entrepreneurship education ecosystems as an alternative unit of analysis when it comes to considering the role of university-industry-government collaboration in knowledge commercialization. The authors recommend key entrepreneurship education ecosystem enablers for knowledge commercialization and engagement with entrepreneurial communities.

The authors propose a framework for the creation of an entrepreneurship education ecosystem as a unit of analysis when considering the role of university-industry-government collaboration. It requires different approaches to teaching, research and business outreach, some of which have not yet been discovered or yet need to be created.

This paper aims to link location choice and ownership structure to the debate on the multinationality–performance relationship.

This paper draws on a panel data set that covers 1,321 emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) and includes 4,227 observations from 44 emerging economies between 2004 and, 2013.

The empirical results find that multinationality has a positive effect on EMNEs’ performance, and that this positive effect is larger for their investments in developed countries than in developing countries. The study also finds that this positive effect of foreign operation in developed countries switch to negative at higher levels of multinationality for privately owned EMNEs than for state-owned EMNEs.

This paper provides new empirical evidence to support an institutional perspective of the internationalisation of EMNEs that are investing in developed countries, contributing to the multinationality-performance literature, highlighting the importance of foreign direct investment location decision and ownership structure.