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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of conflict and intuition on explorative new products and performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The study proposes a theoretical model that was tested using two survey instruments: one instrument was administered to the owners of 150 SMEs within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the second was administered to senior managers within the same SMEs.

The results show that within the decision-making process both objective and personal conflicts drive decision makers to the use of intuition, with high levels of market turbulence strengthening the effect of objective conflict on the use of intuition. Furthermore, the use of intuition was found to have an adverse effect on explorative new products, negating the positive effectiveness of explorative new products on SME performance.

The study’s conceptual model may not completely represent the perspective it aims to elucidate. An alternative model with equally well-conceived explanatory variables could provide further interesting results.

Drawing on the perspective of the decision-making process, an interpretation of the model results and some practical implications are discussed.

The primary contribution of this study is the introduction of a model investigating the influence of conflict on the use of intuition in strategic decisions. Furthermore, the study collected empirical evidence from SMEs operating in the dynamic economy of the UAE, which is a less studied setting.

This study aims to assess the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and development culture and the role of willingness-to-change in this relationship and analyzes their effect on new product exploration in small enterprises.

A model based on structural equations with partial least squares (PLS) analysis is used to test the hypotheses. This model was tested on a sample of 250 respondents from 125 small enterprises, with less than 50 employees, located in all seven emirates of the UAE.

The results suggest that EO will induce organizational members’ willingness-to-change and will favor the advancement of a development culture in small enterprises; in addition, EO, willingness-to-change and development culture can lead to new product exploration in small enterprises.

The study findings are subject to potential limitations. First, the research design for the quantitative study was cross-sectional and self-reported, which could cause problems of common method and inflation bias. Second, the conceptual model may not be completely representative of the perspective the authors aim to elucidate. Third, as this study is country-specific, further research investigation in other developing economies is recommended to further understand the possible influences of cultural or socioeconomic contexts on the relationships presented in the model.

The article includes several practical implications about the relationships between willingness-to-change and development culture. It sheds light on the controversial link between EO and new product exploration in small enterprises.

The present study expands current knowledge on the EO–new product exploration relationship by investigating some key mediating variables such as willingness-to-change and development culture in an under-researched context such as UAE.

The purpose of this paper is to link management competence to small enterprise performance and assess the role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and willingness to change on this relationship.

The authors use structural equation modeling to test a theoretical model based on a data set from two survey instruments: one instrument was administered to the owners of 125 small enterprises within the United Arab Emirates and the second was administered to managers within the same enterprises.

Results show that within the small enterprise setting, managerial competence indirectly influences performance by influencing EO and willingness to change plays a partial mediating role through which EO benefits performance.

The case for linking managerial competence to performance is supported by the dynamic capability logic, which maintains that an enterprise’s advantage lies in its ability to reconfigure its resources, capabilities and routines appropriately in the pursuit of new opportunities and performance benefits. The study suggests that EO plays a pre-eminent role in developing dynamic capability.

Understanding the link between managerial competence and small enterprise performance has important implications for enterprise owners, investors, educators, researchers and policy makers.

The model is a valuable contributor to understanding the dynamic capability perspective within a small enterprise and adds to the growing body of research examining the ability of small enterprises to continuously recognize and exploit new opportunities for sustainable competitive advantage.

Drawing on the literature on dynamic skills, this study builds upon and empirically tests a conceptual model that connects business and political ties, organizational unlearning, organizational learning and firm performance. Specifically, this study suggests that business ties enable and political ties inhibit organizational unlearning (i.e. regenerative dynamic capability), which may, in turn, affect exploratory (i.e. renewing dynamic capability) and exploitative (i.e. incremental dynamic capability) innovation behaviors of the firm. Thus, the purpose of this study is to offer a theoretical framework in which organizational unlearning and learning act as mediating mechanisms between business and political ties and firm performance.

Structural equation modeling and mediation analyzes were used on a sample of 302 small and medium-size enterprises in Turkey.

This study found that business ties enable organizational unlearning while political ties impede it. This study further demonstrates that business ties positively and political ties negatively relate to organizational learning through organizational unlearning. In addition, this study shows that political ties are mostly negatively and indirectly related to firm performance through organizational learning while business ties positively and indirectly relate to firm performance.

The findings demonstrate the critical role that personal networks play in organizational learning and firm performance. This study provides evidence to the need to recognize and evaluate the potential and undesirable impacts of political ties on cultivating innovation skills and firm performance. In addition, this study recommends managers to embrace the significance of organizational unlearning in strategic renewal, particularly as it applies to building renewing and incremental dynamic skills for enhanced firm performance.

This study offers a deeper perspective of the dissected relations of social ties in emerging economies to firm performance by considering organizational unlearning and learning behaviors as mediating mechanisms.

This study recognizes service as the majority contributor to global and US gross domestic product and the importance of innovation speed to service innovation. Generating innovative products and services at a faster rate generates advantages for business-to-business (B2B) service organizations in keeping up with and moving ahead of rivals. This study aims to introduce the concept of capacity for social exchange (CSE) in buyer–supplier relationships, which reflects the degree to which individuals possess competencies that enable the exchange of information, and this study also explores how CSE affects knowledge sharing and innovation speed within a supply chain organization.

The sampling frame of this research consisted of service businesses in the USA. The data were collected through Zoomerang, an online survey research firm where the B2B panel of Zoomerang formed the sampling frame. The data was collected from 264 B2B service sector executives.

The key findings are as follows: CSE facilitates knowledge sharing; knowledge sharing is positively related to innovation speed; and the relationship between CSE and innovation speed is fully mediated by knowledge sharing. Additional analysis reveals that knowledge channels which are designed as boundary-spanning strategies used to transfer and create knowledge between business units, directly increase – and positively moderate – the relationship between CSE and innovation speed.

This study addresses the gap in literature focused on micro-level influencers on innovation. This study sets out by presenting the concept of CSE, and this study addresses limitations in prior work by examining the research questions.

There is a growing interest in understanding family firms’ strategic behavior using the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective. This study explores how family SEW dimensions influence non-family managers’ attitudes toward risk in the context of product innovation. This study also examines whether managerial risk-taking mediates the relationship between SEW and product innovation.

The study uses a sample of 150 family firms in the United Arab Emirates and collects data from family owners and non-family managers via self-administered questionnaires. The study uses SmartPLS structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model and the proposed hypotheses.

The results indicate that multidimensional SEW influences non-family managers’ risk-taking behavior in different magnitudes and directions, thus impacting firms’ product innovation. Moreover, risk-taking partially mediates the relationship between SEW dimensions and product innovation.

While product innovation could be seen as a loss scenario for family firms due to the potential loss of SEW, growth, continuity and reputation outweighed the desire to maintain control for the firms in this sample. Thus, these firms encourage non-family managers to take risks in product innovation.

The aim of this research is to uncover issues that inhibit patients' satisfaction and loyalty and identify factors that could enhance customer retention by government hospitals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The mediating impact of outpatient satisfaction on service quality, word of mouth (WoM), hospital image, outpatient–physician relationship and outpatient loyalty were tested.

The sample data used to test the hypotheses were drawn from a pool of patients served by a government healthcare agency in Abu Dhabi. Questionnaires were provided to 418 participants using methods such as short message service, e-mail and face-to-face delivery. The data were analyzed using SmartPLS 3.3.2 software.

The results indicate that service quality, WoM and outpatient–physician relationship positively impact outpatient satisfaction and indirectly effect outpatient loyalty; that hospital image positively impacts outpatient satisfaction and loyalty and has a partially mediating effect on loyalty; that waiting time satisfaction has no effect on outpatient satisfaction and no moderating effect on the outpatient satisfaction–loyalty relationship and that switching cost has a positive effect on loyalty but no moderating effect on the outpatient satisfaction–loyalty relationship.

The first limitation of this study concerns the fact that only patients who had previously been served by these hospitals' outpatient units were included. Furthermore, the research was not able to obtain extensive findings related to the various factors that negatively impacted patient satisfaction and loyalty among all of the departments of government hospitals, such as inpatient care and emergency care.

Centered on the findings from this research, increasing switching costs would prevent patients from switching to other healthcare providers. Therefore, it has the potential to create a false loyalty or a hostage customer (Jones and Sasser, 1995). Additionally, making patients feel connected to their treatment plan and engaged in their care by developing a tool to maintain their enthusiasm about their health is important. It is therefore recommended that government hospital care providers and management consider providing online tools that patients can use to self-manage their care.

The results regarding patients' satisfaction level suggest several areas for improvement. The first pertains to waiting area entertainment and comfort because patients indicated that there is not enough entertainment or ways to pass the time when waiting for services. In addition to enhancing the entertainment and comfort of waiting areas, government hospital staff should maintain contact with patients who are waiting to ensure that they are aware of the time they will spend. Another area for improvement is the parking lot. During summer, patients prefer to walk less in the sun, which causes them to seek parking closer to the door. Government hospital management should consider different methods for transporting patients closer to the door, such as golf carts or valet services.

This is the first study to investigate the mediating impact of outpatients' satisfaction between its antecedents and loyalty in the UAE. These results provide an improved understanding of the factors influencing patient choices and establish more accurate methods for increasing patient loyalty to retain more patients.

To extend family business research, this article proposes and tests a curvilinear relationship between social ties and family firm innovation, with the firm's market orientation and transgenerational intent as moderators.

Representatives from a sample of 150 family firms in the United Arab Emirates completed self-administered questionnaires. Regression analyses on the collected data test the conceptual model and proposed hypotheses.

The empirical study reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship, such that a high market orientation mitigates the diminishing returns of social ties on enhancing family firm innovation. Similarly, at high levels of transgenerational intent, family firm innovation increases due to social ties, instead of exhibiting diminishing returns.

These results help explain contradictory outcomes previously attributed to social ties and offer clear guidelines for how family firms can leverage these ties more effectively to enhance their own innovation.

This study aims to develop and empirically examine a model that investigates the mediating role of technology development capability (TDC) on the relationship between customer focus (CF) and technology leadership (TL).

The analysis and interpretation of a partial least square model include the following two stages: the first stage focuses on assessing the reliability and validity of the measurement model, while the second pertains to evaluating the structural model.

The general understanding prevailing in practice and literature is that management sponsorship (MS) has a positive impact on the relationship between CF and TDC. It is also generally understood that MS has a positive impact on TL initiatives. However, the findings of this study contradict these assumptions. Specifically, the study indicates that MS has a negative moderating effect on CF and technology development capabilities, and has no impact on CF and TL relationships.

CF, TDC and MS, and their interplay and impact in enhancing firms’ TL position, have not been explored thus far in an integrated manner in the context of the automobile industry in developing countries. The research relating to CF, technology development capabilities, technology innovation capabilities, MS and TL reported in the literature has drawn inferences from case studies, anecdotal evidence and experiences of industry leaders, experts and consultants. This study attempts to fill the gaps mentioned above by presenting and testing a new moderated mediation model that shows the relationship between CF, TDC, MS and TL.

Drawing on the resource dependence theory (RDT), this paper investigates ownership composition, export intensity, and industry class as moderating factors to investigate the role of imported raw materials in performance of inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) in Ethiopia.

The hypotheses were tested using secondary data obtained from the 2016 Central Statistical Agency (CSA) on Large- and Medium-Scale Manufacturing and Electricity Industries Survey. The data included basic quantitative information on the country's manufacturing industry. The data items for the 2016 manufacturing and electricity industries surveyed are the numbers of proprietors or establishments involved in various sectors. The report did not record small firms that employed fewer than 10 people and did not use power-driven machinery. Two-Stage least squares (2SLS) regression analysis was performed to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results of this study indicate that three moderators (ownership composition, export intensity, and industry classification) interact with the hypothetical relationships between imported raw materials and performance. These findings enrich the knowledge of IFDI firms' operations in Ethiopia and in other least-developed countries (LDCs). The findings could provide information for IFDI firms that are looking to invest in LDCs.

Like all social science research, this study has some limitations. First, the research was conducted with the data found in the Report on Large- and Medium-Scale Manufacturing and Electricity Industries Survey In 2016. This was the first year of the second five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), a national development plan for the 2016–2020 period. Continual research on IFDI in Ethiopia in the following years will be needed to get a full picture of the effects of the determinants on IFDIs.

To IFDI investors, the result of this thesis demonstrates several alternatives to overcoming hurdles in manufacturing operation. The results find that J.V. firms make better use of imported raw materials than W.O. subsidiaries in order to achieve better performance. Concerning the choice between focusing on export or domestic markets, the study suggests that domestic market—oriented companies require less imported raw materials to achieve better performance. Concerning the comparative advantage on different industries, this study found the performance of firms in Industry 12 depended on imported raw materials. These findings highlight the challenges and opportunities for potential foreign investors. Ownership composition, market factors, and industry factors should be well considered in making investment decisions.

This is one of few studies on IFDI in Ethiopia, the most populous LDC. Ownership composition, export intensity, and industry class are used as moderating variables to investigate the difference between imported raw materials and the level of expatriate deployment to IFDI performance. For IFDI investors, the results of this study demonstrate several alternatives to overcoming hurdles in manufacturing operation.