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This paper aims to examine perceived critical success factors (CSFs) affecting the performance of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and their relationship with firm characteristics. The paper also seeks to investigate the interdependence relationship among the perceived CSFs themselves using correlation coefficients.

This paper is part of a wider study that was designed to investigate the perceived critical success/failure factors (PCSFs) affecting the development of SMEs. The study is based on a review of the literature, which provided a theoretical understanding of both CSFs and firm characteristics. This theoretical linkage was then tested using primary data that were collected through a two‐page questionnaire survey of 203 SMEs randomly selected from three cities in the Republic of Botswana. Principal component analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation was used to reduce the data. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test the relationship between firm characteristics and perceived impacts of selected CSFs, and correlations were used to assess the relationships between the CSFs.

The study identifies ten sets of perceived CSFs affecting the performance of SMEs; statistically significant relationships between the perceived impact of selected CSFs and firm‐specific variables, indicating that the perceived impact of CSFs vary from firm to firm depending on their size, age, industry, and management profile; and statistically significant relationships among the selected CSFs themselves.

The study relies exclusively on a questionnaire as the data collection instrument, and many respondents were unwilling to participate in the survey. Therefore, it took the authors eight months to collect 203 questionnaires. This forced the authors to make some important changes from the original research proposal.

SME managers and advisors should not deal with CSFs individually, but should adopt an integrated and innovative approach to deal with them collectively. This approach should consider SMEs' uniqueness, given that these CSFs are perceived differently depending on firm characteristics. The paper forwards some research and policy implications for designing SME support and promotional interventions.

The paper uses well‐established and researched CSFs in the SME literature. To this end, the paper's originality and value lie in the investigation of these factors in Botswana. However, the findings are applicable to most SMEs, since they continue to suffer from the same problems worldwide.

This study aims to examine how owners and managers of micro and small enterprises perceive firm success and the future of their businesses. Entrepreneurial action theory is adopted in the analysis and a modified theoretical framework is proposed.

Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 34 owners and managers representing 32 Italian and Spanish wine businesses; qualitative content analysis was used.

Eight dimensions common to both groups of participants emerged, with the most prevalent themes revealing strong links with opportunity maximisation. In particular, the importance of perceived critical success factors was manifested by continuous improvements, building relationships, and being perceived highly are in line with perceptions of wineries’ future, including entering demanding markets, becoming a referent for the region, or attaining global recognition.

In investigating critical success factors and the perceived future of businesses from two of the world’s largest wine producers and exporters, this study provides a theoretical, practical and international perspective concerning these dimensions. In addition, this study focuses on Europe’s largest business sector, namely, small and medium enterprises. Furthermore, this study proposes a theoretical framework, which brings together the findings and the insights of entrepreneurial action theory.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the critical success factors for sustainable e‐learning in an e‐learning ecosystem framework. Three critical components of the e‐learning ecosystem including principles and methods, processes and systems, and substance and content are considered based on a comprehensive review of the relevant literature in e‐learning.

Systematic interviews are conducted with experts in e‐learning for identifying the critical success factors to sustainable e‐learning within an e‐learning ecosystem framework. This leads to the development of an e‐learning success model that describes the underlying relationship between and among the identified critical success factors.

A comprehensive analysis of the interview results shows that there are several barriers to the effective adoption of the proposed e‐learning success model for improving the effectiveness of e‐learning. These barriers include a lack of understanding of the technologies behind various pedagogies, insufficiencies of the popular learning management systems, and the sustainability of the learning objects repositories.

The paper highlights the criticality of synergizing the three components of e‐learning ecosystems namely pedagogies, technologies and management of learning resources for achieving a sustainable e‐learning success.

A better understanding of these barriers would help e‐learning stakeholders develop appropriate strategies and policies for the implementation of the proposed e‐learning success model towards creating a sustainable e‐learning environment.

Specific contributions of this research to the entire e‐learning community are discussed with recommendations for concerted policy measures to eliminate the identified barriers in the process of adopting the developed e‐learning success model.

This study aims at identifying critical success factors of a sustainable mobile banking application using text mining approach.

A total of 6,073 consumer reviews relating to a mobile banking application were collected and analyzed to meet the study objective. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) was done to identify the critical success factors of a sustainable mobile banking application.

The results indicated that privacy and security, navigation, customer support, convenience and efficiency are the key factors.

The study findings enrich the mobile banking and sustainable service delivery channel literature.

The results are expected to benefit the bankers in delivering effective banking services through a mobile banking application.

Studies in the sustainability are few yet promising particularly the ones that use rigorous statistics suitable on thousands of data points to accomplish the study objectives.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) plays a major part in improving organizational competitiveness in the twenty‐first century global market. Telecommunication technologies have improved the effectiveness of communication along the value chain. Information technology (IT) has been helpful in integrating various functional areas within and outside organisations. This paper uses empirical research to study the application of EDI in Hong Kong. In a survey of Hong Kong companies, questions are asked about perceived barriers to implementation of EDI, perceived benefits achievable through EDI, and critical success factors for the adoption of EDI. The main objective of this study is to develop a framework for enhancing the application and implementation of IT with a view to improved organizational competitiveness.

The purpose of this study is to examine various key aspects associated with entrepreneurs’ behaviour following a long-term crisis. Specifically, the study compares the perceptions of female and male entrepreneurs operating in Cyprus and Greece concerning success factors and firm performance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Conceptually, the study considers the organisational adaptation literature (Miles and Snow’s typology).

The views of female and male micro and small firm owners-managers operating in Greece and Cyprus, a total of 406, were gathered through a questionnaire. To analyse the quantitative data, independent samples t-test and exploratory factor analysis were applied.

Participants’ responses reveal similar levels of perceived importance between genders regarding adaptive measures and strategies to confront a long-term crisis, as well as perceived firm performance. Nevertheless, exploratory factor analysis highlights differences in how male/female entrepreneurs perceive actions that, as in the case of financial management, can safeguard the immediate outlook of the firm.

While scholarly discourses on gender and entrepreneurship abound, important knowledge gaps still exist, for instance, in entrepreneurs’ problem-solving strategies adopted by female and male entrepreneurs following crises. In addressing this scholarly gap cross-culturally, that is, drawing on cross-national data (Cyprus and Greece); the present study makes an important contribution. Empirically, the study ascertains similar entrepreneurial behavioural characteristics between female-male entrepreneurs. Theoretically, the study validates Miles and Snow’s typology and develops a theoretical framework linking the typology and dimensions emerging from the empirical findings.

The purpose of this study is to develop an academic theoretical framework relating success and performance in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) so that future research could be carried out to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for SMEs.

The research used a literature review, in‐depth interviews with owner‐managers of SMEs and a knowledge elicitation exercise was carried out based on the experience of the researchers and on the interviews with owner‐managers.

A new academic conceptual model was developed linking CSFs, definitions of success and performance to the characteristics of the business environment, the characteristics of the owner‐manager and the characteristics of the business. The relatively new idea that feedback on performance in the model could modify the strategic/tactical behaviour of the SME owner‐managers was introduced.

The many research problems posed by performance studies aimed at establishing CSFs in SMEs are still present in the current framework but a longitudinal research methodology could be employed to avoid these problems in future research.

The theoretical framework offers a different way forward for both practitioners and business advisors in thinking about those factors that may be critical for success in SMEs.

This is a new framework that can be used to inform thinking and research design in the area of performance measurement and success.

Both intellectual capital and the management of knowledge are strongly emerging themes in today’s organisational world. Many authors and practitioners note that the emerging patterns are that intellectual capital will replace natural resources, commodities, finance, technology and production processes as the key factor influencing competitive advantage. However, knowledge management (KM) is still in its infancy. Aims to identify the critical success factors and best practices of KM through analysing the experiences of several organisations. Starts by defining what is meant by “knowledge” and “knowledge management”, and overviews the methodology used for identifying best practices. The second part is concerned with presenting a systematic and critical review of the published experiences of 40 organisations in KM. The analysis examined the methodologies pursued, IT support used, structures employed, results achieved, and the perceived critical success factors. This analysis allowed the proposal of several “best practices” for successful KM, which are presented and discussed.

Focuses on the marketing strategies used by Polish marketing firms and their role as change agents after the fall of communism and the transition to a market economy. A survey of 93 marketing consulting firms in four large Polish cities was conducted in 1996‐1997. The results suggest that this sector is thriving, and the two most important success factors are on‐time delivery and high service delivery.

This study aims to lay the groundwork for the potential application of value management (VM) in construction projects. This paper presents a critical review on the status of VM in a developing country and highlights the role of perceptions on critical success factors (CSFs) for the phases of VM studies, as the participants in a VM study should consider CSFs tailored to the local context.

A series of interviews and a questionnaire were conducted to understand the drivers, perceptions, barriers, and CSFs of VM in the Jordanian construction industry. Although descriptive statistics were used to analyze the status of VM, a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was adopted to highlight the interrelationships between perceptions and the CSFs of the three phases of VM (i.e. pre-workshop, workshop, and implementation).

The descriptive analysis revealed conflicting viewpoints for perceptions and drivers. Most practitioners acknowledged little awareness of VM phases, and the SEM results indicated that perceptions of VM, in terms of its capacity in improving the scope and objectives of the project, and reducing overall costs, most strongly influenced the CSFs of the implementation phase in terms of support and clear plan for implementation, and had the least influence on the pre-workshop phase. Further, the perceptions had a moderate effect on the CSFs of the workshop phase and it tended to be positive, highlighting the importance of function analysis in this phase.

This is the first study to reveal the status of VM in Jordan in terms of adoption, drivers, perceptions, barriers and CSFs; no prior studies have investigated how perceptions can affect the CSFs of each phase of VM and the endorsement of VM by the construction industry. The contributions of this study include linking the perceptions of construction professionals with the CSFs of VM.