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This study aims to examine the influence of market logics on tendering capabilities and small and medium enterprise (SME) involvement in public procurement, the influence of SME governance mechanisms on tendering capabilities and SME involvement in public procurement and the influence of tendering capabilities on SME involvement in public procurement.

Data was collected from owners/managers of SMEs registered by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority. The SPSS software and CB-SEM software were used to obtain results on the influence of market logics on tendering capabilities and SME involvement in public procurement, the influence of SME governance mechanisms on tendering capabilities and SME involvement in public procurement and the influence of tendering capabilities on SME involvement in public procurement.

Findings indicated that SME involvement in public procurement is mainly influenced by their governance mechanisms whilst both market logics and governance mechanisms had a positive influence on tendering capabilities of SME firms. Market logics and tendering capabilities had no effect on SME involvement.

The study mainly focussed on SMEs’ involvement in public procurement. The research has implications for decision makers in government and SME firms concerned with enhancing levels of SME involvement in public procurement activities.

Many governments are now focussing on procurement lot sizing so as to increase SME involvement in public procurement. Despite the use of lot sizing, SME involvement in public procurement is still low in many developing countries and also declining in others. Aspects such as market logics and governance mechanisms that may help understand the variations in involvement have not been given significant attention.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of external financing needs on both firm value and corporate governance mechanisms within the UK SME context. This framework is of importance because of the limited external financial resources SMEs might face.

The authors consider the endogeneity problem between corporate governance mechanisms and firm value, and hence, the three stages least squares and the instrumental variables based on two stages least squares estimation methods are employed.

The authors find a positive relationship between external financing needs and firm value. In addition, the authors detect that size and profitability are positively associated with firm value in the sample. Concerning the corporate governance index (CGI), the authors detect that big SMEs and those with low-debt levels have better corporate governance structures.

The authors employ a CGI for the sample which is constructed using ten corporate governance variables. The authors also examine different factors that affect SMEs 2019 governance by applying different models including logistic analysis.

This study aims to explore the moderating impact of governance structure, that is, board characteristics including board size, board independence, board committees and ownership structure like ownership concentration, on the underpricing of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) initial public offerings (IPOs) in the context of an emerging economy such as India.

Using a sample size of 403 SME IPOs listed on Bombay Stock Exchange SME platform and National Stock Exchange EMERGE, this study uses moderated hierarchical regression analysis to investigate these relationships.

The findings highlighted that board independence, board committees and ownership concentration negatively influence underpricing measured using market-adjusted excess returns. While analysing the moderating relationship, this study finds that ownership concentration positively moderates the relationship between board independence and underpricing, as well as the relationship between board committees and IPO underpricing.

This study is limited to a single country only. Although perfectly suitable for our research inquiry, it is imperative to check the validity of the findings by extending it to other emerging countries with similar socio-economic characteristics. Furthermore, this study tested the hypotheses concerning three board characteristics only. Hence, it could be extended to explore additional governance characteristics for a more comprehensive understanding.

This study provides a foundation for managers to adopt a fine-grained approach to effectively design the board structure ahead of an IPO event. Additionally, the findings may assist policymakers in formulating various policies and guide regulators in regulating the limit on ownership held by various shareholders to prevent their opportunism. The results of this study may further advise potential investors interested in SME IPO firms to critically consider the ownership concentration as a driving factor when scrutinizing their investment portfolios.

This study is unique as it advances the debate on the importance of a governance characteristic, that is, ownership concentration, as a moderating variable in the underexplored context of IPO underpricing of small- and medium-sized firms in India.

The purpose of this paper is to critically rethink the concepts and the theoretical foundations of IT governance in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The paper is based on multiple case studies. In total, eight cases of outsourced information system projects where failures occurred were selected. An outsourced information system failure (OISF) is suggested as a failure of governance of the IT in a SME environment. A structure for stating propositions derived from two competing theories is proposed (Agency Theory and Theory of Trust).

The results reveal that trust is slightly more important than control issues such as output‐based contracts and structured controls in the governance of IT in SMEs.

The world of SMEs is significantly different from that of large companies, and therefore, the concept of IT governance in SMEs needs reconsideration. For researchers and practitioners, it would be more meaningful to focus on actual, working SMEs instead of on a version of their activities derived from those of large companies.

The paper offers two contributions. First, it elaborates the limited research on IT in SMEs and second, it brings theoretical foundations for their IT governance. The value of IT governance in SMEs is explained.

In this paper, the authors seek to contribute to the supply chain digitalisation literature by investigating a potential dark side of supply chain digitalisation from the viewpoint of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers, namely digital capability asymmetry and the partner opportunism of more digitally capable large buyers against SME suppliers. The authors seek to contribute further to the governance literature by investigating the effectiveness of the governance mechanism (legal contracts and relational contracts) in suppressing partner opportunism of this nature.

Using survey data collected from 125 Korean SMEs, the authors employed a hierarchical regression method to test a set of hypotheses focussing on the dark side of supply chain digitalisation and the effectiveness of the governance mechanism.

The study’s findings suggest that supplier-perceived digital capability asymmetry, wherein a buyer has a superior digital capability than its SME supplier, increases the SME supplier's dependence on the more digitally capable buyer, with the result that it is more exposed to buyer opportunism. Moreover, the results suggest that only relational governance is effective in protecting SME suppliers from buyer opportunism of this nature.

So far, the overwhelming majority of supply chain digitalisation research has debated its “bright side”. On the contrary, from the resource dependence theory perspective, this paper explains its dark side by providing empirical evidence on (1) the links between supplier-perceived digital capability asymmetry and a buyer's opportunism through an increased supplier's dependence and (2) the effectiveness of different types of governance in opportunism suppression.

This paper takes a structured literature review (SLR) approach to identify gaps in the literature and suggest future research opportunities. It focuses on corporate governance (CG) performed outside the formal board of directors’ structure and examines research of alternative CG of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs).

The authors use the SLR method to search the Scopus database, extracting and synthesising findings relating specifically to SMEs’ CG. These are tabulated and described using bibliometric software.

The authors highlight an absence of tailored theoretical approaches to understanding CG in SMEs, which differs from the governance of larger entities. They also find evidence of alternative governance structures in SME CG.

Further research should embrace management and other theoretical perspectives and expanded methodologies, nuances in understanding offered in contextualised settings and awareness of practical implications to better understand the specific setting of CG in SMEs.

SMEs seek to access the scarce resources and skills external to their formal CG structures. Regulators and resource providers should mobilise facilitation and training for this expansion.

The authors synthesise a large body of literature to extract findings specific to SMEs. A unique contribution is our focus on alternative forms of CG in SMEs. Evidence of alternative boards points to resolutions for human capital shortages in SMEs.

This study aims to investigate how contract complexity and relational trust could impact offshore outsourcing innovation (OOI) performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study further examines the moderating effects of knowledge routines and joint actions on the relationships between contract complexity, as well as relational trust and OOI performance.

The empirical investigation extends transaction cost economics and the relational view of buyer-supplier dyads in the context of offshore outsourcing SMEs. To test the hypotheses, the authors collected and analysed survey data from 200 European manufacturing SMEs that have existing offshore supplier relationships.

The results suggest that both complex contracts and relational trust as governance structures positively affect SMEs’ OOI performance. Additionally, while both formal knowledge routines and joint actions help strengthen the relationship between complex contracts and OOI, they showed no significant moderating effect on the relationship between relational trust and OOI. Furthermore, based on the results, the authors also develop a governance framework covering four configurations – fit, firm, flexible and fragile (4F).

The 4F governance scenarios – fit, firm, flexible and fragile – introduced in this study emphasise the need for a combination of contract complexity and relational trust mechanisms in OOI relationships. The 4F labelling has rich implications for practitioners on how interfirm outsourcing innovation relationships can be managed based on configurations of contractual and relational governance. The study also adds to the understanding of how SMEs’ specific characteristics (e.g. resource shortcomings and flexibility) may influence their OOI decisions in comparison with large firms.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of corporate governance mechanisms, i.e. board structure and ownership structure on the underpricing of small and medium enterprises (SME) IPOs in India.

Most of the extant empirical research studies have either pivoted on mainstream IPOs or SMEs IPOs in developed economies, but the present study examines 200 SME IPOs issued during Feb 2012 to April 2017. Multiple regressions have been used to examine the impact of the corporate governance mechanisms on raw return (RR). Furthermore, robustness of the results has been verified through the employment of market-adjusted excess return (MAER) as an additional proxy of underpricing.

The results highlight that board size, inverse of board committees, board independence, board age, board directorships positively, and top ten shareholding negatively influence RR. Further, direction of promoter ownership variable indicates curvilinear relationship with underpricing. Other explanatory variables used in model lack statistical validity. Similar results have been obtained when variables were regressed against MAER with related board members being additionally significant in model.

The findings suggest that Indian investors do take cues from board structure and ownership patterns for making investment decisions in small- and medium-sized firms. Further, the results are also helpful to top management in structuring their boards.

The present research enriches SME IPOs underpricing literature because the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on unadjusted returns is relatively under explored particularly within the context of small- and medium-sized firms.

Public listing of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) stimulates unremitting transformations into their corporate governance (CG) practices. These transformations in CG are likely to impact the financial performance (FP). The current study examines how individual corporate CG mechanisms and their mutual interactions (configurational approach) stimulate the FP of listed SMEs. The study selects promoters’ ownership (PO), the board (B-INX) and information disclosures (DISC) as individual CG mechanisms. In addition, market competition (COMP) is considered a form of external governance/regulation.

The study uses five years of panel data (2018–2022) of 80 SMEs listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) SME listing platform in India. Panel data fixed effects and cluster robust standard errors estimated. In addition to the impact of individual CG mechanisms, their mutual interactions (configurational approach) are tested using moderated hierarchical regression and confirmed by slope tests.

The results signify the ineffectiveness of individual CG mechanisms when acting in silos. However, their mutual interactions drive the FP. A hierarchy of results is obtained. PO is the dominant form of internal CG, negatively influencing the relevance of B-INX and DISC. B-INX tends to adhere to good governance by positively moderating the impact of DISC on FP. Lastly, COMP acts as external governance that dominates the ownership effects. Findings reveal that the interactions among individual CG mechanisms are essential to the FP of listed SMEs. Such interactions adjust the agency theory dynamics of CG in these firms.

The study takes a holistic approach to investigate the agency theory dynamics via the mutual interactions among multiple CG forms. It highlights how the presence of a dominant form of CG can adjust the financial effect of others, thereby adjusting agency theory dynamics.

These results hold practical significance for SMEs in multiple ways. SMEs should embrace configurational approach to comprehend their agency dynamics. The configurational approach of CG mechanisms is the way forward for SMEs, which are known to be financially constrained. In other words, the fact that the resiliency of SMEs is very often questioned calls for the configurational approach, where different CG mechanisms coexist to drive FP.

The study is by far the first of its kind to investigate the CG of listed SMEs against the backdrop of the configurational approach. The findings will benefit industry practitioners, academics and regulatory bodies to visualize the governance practices through the lenses of configurational approach.

This paper aims to examine the effect of external supply chain (SC) flexibility on the product innovation performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the contingent role of informal control mechanisms in moderating such an effect.

This study conducts a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 236 UK-based SME manufacturers.

Inbound supplier flexibility (ISF) has a stronger positive effect on SMEs’ product innovation performance than outbound logistics flexibility (OLF), and that the strength and direction of both effects depend on informal control mechanisms. Lead supplier influence negatively moderates the relationship between ISF and product innovation performance but positively moderates the relationship between OLF and product innovation performance. Normative integration positively moderates the relationship between ISF and product innovation performance.

This study enriches SC flexibility studies by focusing on understanding the differential effects of ISF and OLF on product innovation performance, as well as the role that contingency factors play in these relationships in the SME context.

To promote product innovation performance, SME managers should focus on building good relationships with their suppliers rather than their logistics service providers. SME managers should be particularly aware of the different types of informal control mechanisms that govern their SC relationships and adjust their managerial approaches accordingly.

This study distinguishes between ISF and OLF and examines their impacts on SMEs’ product innovation performance. This study investigates the differential effects of lead supplier influence and normative integration on the relationship between external SC flexibility and SMEs’ product innovation performance.