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The purpose of this study is to examine factors leading to venture success, emphasizing the role of entrepreneurs as critical in the whole process, based on a sample of women entrepreneurs. Drawing upon the competence-based view of the firm, it examines the effect of entrepreneurial competencies, managerial competencies and reliance on networks toward increased female venture success rates.

A structured questionnaire was allocated to women entrepreneurs to seek respondents’ perceptions. Principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was undertaken to confirm the constructs’ validity. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the hypotheses.

Networking stands out as having the most significant positive effect on venture success while entrepreneurial and managerial core competencies are both important, with entrepreneurial competencies demonstrating a slightly higher score. Also, years of entrepreneurial experience, entrepreneurial family background and family status prove significant.

The study confirms prior research, highlighting the role of entrepreneurs as central, sharpening understanding of the required determinants of venture success. It further provides new insight into venture success from the perspective of the competence-based theory, highlighting clear-cut competencies.

The study paves the way for the design of entrepreneurial learning programs targeting entrepreneurs and particularly females, highlighting the need for on-going education and educational programs to support entrepreneurs and distinctly women.

The study contributes to the effective management of venture progress and success and provides insight into entrepreneurs and policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of informal Korean social networks (Yongo) on sales activities in Korea, by focussing in particular on required vertical core competencies.

The authors draw on expert interview data gathered in Korea in two waves (2009 and 2012). Whereas first-wave interviews served to identify the influence of Yongo on sales management in general, second-wave interviews data – gathered from a Korean auto maker, a Korean supplier, and an international supplier – served to derive vertical core competencies vital for sales executives in Korea.

The authors find Yongo to be an indispensable aspect of relationship management in Korea. Further, the authors propose ten vertical core competencies and skills sales managers in Korea need to possess, e.g., respecting strong hierarchical supplier-customer relations, the ability to engage in relational contracts, establish trustful relationships, and perform in a risk-taking manner in a dynamic environment.

So far neither Yongo nor its impact on successful sales management in Korea has been analyzed. Hence, this research provides initial insights into the modes of action of Yongo in sales management, which is of particular importance for management consultants and international sales managers and executives.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to disclose, report, and manage intellectual capital (IC) in a network of companies. To this end, it provides a monetary evaluation of core competencies (CCs), which may be defined as a bundle of various types of intangibles, aggregating their value into a network statement, called a network competence report (NCR).

The paper utilises the interventionist approach. The intervention was conducted by the authors and studied through joint reflections on documentation from meetings and individual, semi-structured interviews.

The NCR makes IC more transparent, thereby allowing companies and network managers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of CCs with a consequent potential insight into their potential earnings.

This method is labour-intensive, especially in its first application, and the data collection requires considerable company involvement. The interventionist approach may have influenced the empirical results, which may be affected by subjectivity. As the paper involves a single network, care should be taken in generalising its empirical evidence.

In making IC management more effective, the NCR is valuable for academics, management, political authorities and, more generally, for a network’s stakeholders. The NCR is a tool for internal and external communication purposes, creating the conditions to mobilise IC. The proposed model supports the diagnosis of networks by providing CC maps and assessments relevant to their governance and competitiveness. The NCR depicts company and network CCs, allowing intertemporal comparisons that facilitate understanding of the effectiveness of the network’s actions and the importance of belonging to it.

This paper represents a first attempt to evaluate, in monetary terms, CCs in a network. Its value lies in its practical implications. Moreover, the paper investigates IC in applied terms, contributing to reducing the gap between theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify the themes of core-competencies required for future-oriented and sustainable e-governance practices, especially across the developing nations.

The present study has been conducted using the sequential mixed method research wherein the exploratory qualitative study is first carried out with the government officials involved in e-governance implementation across India to identify the themes of core-competencies. The findings of this exploratory study are then empirically tested with the 359 respondents from Group A and Group B officers of the two government departments in India using partial least square technique.

The findings suggested that to ensure the implementation of future-oriented and sustainable e-governance, it is required to develop the core-competencies. The significant core-competencies explored are, namely, process management, employee engagement, internal service quality, external service quality, citizen satisfaction, leadership, culture and technology.

As strategic implementation of e-governance is a relatively new area of study, the present study has used the learning from core-competencies studies in the non-government sector.

The findings of this study underscore the need for strategic implementation of e-governance to have long-term success of e-governance. The requirement is to develop the core-competencies. These core-competencies are the key to making the government departments proactive in dealing with any future contingency without compromising on the departmental performance.

The present research is one of the few research studies focusing on the implementation of sustainable and future-oriented e-governance. The current study has laid the stepping stone for investigating the role of core-competencies to ensure the implementation of sustainable and future-oriented e-governance.

The growing importance of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in high‐technology innovation and the importance of innovation in maintaining competitive advantage has been acknowledged. The possibilities of co‐operation between high‐technology SMEs as a mechanism for enhancing individual firm growth is considered. The current stock of empirical evidence on high‐technology SMEs is outlined and the fact that few small firms achieve substantial growth highlighted. The major barriers to growth which lie behind this outcome are considered. The possibilities of networking, in its various forms, are considered as a facilitating medium for aiding business growth, with particular attention paid to high intensity co‐operative arrangements. The need for heterogeneous skill possession is emphasized, and how environments comprising homogeneous core competencies make networking an inappropriate solution for business growth. The existing empirical data on SME networking is considered and the relative costs and benefits of membership tabulated on the basis of network type. This leads on to an analysis of how beneficial, long‐term arrangements between actors may not occur in the market because of short‐term risks associated with other party(ies) defecting, as can be modelled within a prisoner's dilemma game theory structure. The final section discusses the possible role for network brokers in lessening these risks and aiding the development of mutually beneficial, growth‐oriented relationships between high‐technology SMEs.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze knowledge management in service networks. It analyzes the knowledge management process and identifies related challenges. The authors take a strategic management approach instead of a more technology‐oriented approach, since it is believed that managerial problems still remain after technological problems are solved.

The paper explores the literature on the topic of knowledge management as well as the resource (or knowledge) based view of the firm. It offers conceptual insights and provides possible solutions for knowledge management problems.

The paper discusses several possible solutions for managing knowledge processes in knowledge‐intensive service networks. Solutions for knowledge identification/generation, knowledge application, knowledge combination/transfer and supporting the evolution of tacit network knowledge include personal and technological aspects, as well as organizational and cultural elements.

In a complex environment, knowledge management and network management become crucial for business success. It is the task of network management to establish routines, and to build and regularly refresh meta‐knowledge about the competencies and abilities that exist within the network. It is suggested that each network partner should be rated according to the contribution to the network knowledge base. Based on this rating, a particular network partner is a member of a certain knowledge club, meaning that the partner has access to a particular level of network knowledge. Such an established routine provides strong incentives to add knowledge to the network's knowledge base

This paper is a first attempt to outline the problems of knowledge management in knowledge‐intensive service networks and, by so doing, to introduce strategic management reasoning to the discussion.

Researchers and managers have assumed that the overseas Chinese business networks do not conduct strategic planning. Summarizes, in general, the literature on the overseas Chinese networks’ decision‐making style and compares it with perspectives from established schools of strategic planning. Specifically enhances understanding of the overseas Chinese networks’ business style, generates awareness of the style’s strengths and weaknesses, and explores strategic implications for foreign multinational corporations that enter into alliances with, or compete against the overseas Chinese networks.

Offers a discussion on the interorganizational network approach as an interesting, alternative avenue for the development of sponsorship research. An example of how to describe and analyze a sport sponsorship arrangement case, using the interorganizational network approach as a theoretical frame of reference, is presented. Researching sports sponsorship from a network perspective extends the interorganizational network thinking from a traditional industrial/marketing channel context to the context of sponsorship formed by actors from the fields of sports, media and business. The phenomenon of networking is quite visible in the case of NMP‐FIS sponsorship arrangement. NMP has entered into relationships with various types of organizations in order to more effectively gain benefits from its sponsorship investment. Actors of the NMP’s focal snowboard sponsorship net possess different kinds of resources linked to public relations management, sports management and distribution of television rights. Different network actors bring to the arrangement not only their own resources and capabilities, but also their own networks of value adding relationships. Consequently, when planning international sponsorships companies need to assess not only the sponsored event/organization (its resources) but also its corresponding network (ability to link activities and tie resources with those of other actors), i.e. the “network identity” of the sponsored. The case presented clearly demonstrates the appropriateness of the network approach to sponsorship and other service‐oriented situations different from the “traditional” production situations. Further research could continue to add examples from other kinds of sponsorship relationships and networks, for example, from different kinds of sports and arts sponsorship arrangements. Furthermore, longitudinal perspectives are needed in order to gain understanding of the development processes of sponsorship relationships and networks.

Conventional economic contexts and value creation exert on the extensive use of intangible resources whose value is much greater than the tangible assets. In particular, intellectual capital (IC) is recognized as an important source of value creation for firms. However, the field of IC is majorly dominated by large firms, and little has been done in exploring IC in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Within this context, the purpose of this article is to contribute to the body of literature on IC in the SMEs context by investigating the different dynamics of IC and understanding its impact on their organizational performance and processes.

The study has contextualized an integrative review of literature collected from Web of Science (WoS) and further analyzed integrating the bibliometric and manual review in a systematic approach.

The paper summarizes the key findings highlighting how SMEs can grasp IC in their core competencies and operational processes to achieve sustainable business performance. The study provides theoretical propositions highlighting the conceptual underpinnings of the literature on IC in SMEs and proposed methods outlining the methodological issues arising out of the diverse empirical/quantitative approaches adopted in the previous literature. Furthermore, empirical findings from the literature show that IC management affects a broad range of financial performance metrics in SMEs, however, sometimes with unexpected and mixed results. Hence, more research to replicate prior studies and corroborate extant research in both similar and different contexts would be desirable.

The study adopts an integrative review to understand the context of IC in SMEs; however, it does not study the synergy between varied IC components individually and their role in SMEs performance. Furthermore, the review relates IC to SMEs and does not cover the role of IC in large corporations.

The originality of this paper lies in its contribution to the body of knowledge in the field of IC and SMEs by exploring IC's impact on SME performance, especially the market performance, knowledge management (KM), strategic business models, sustainability performance (corporate social responsibility [CSR]), innovation and their intercollaborations (varied stakeholders).