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Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

This paper aims to analyze the potential and limitations of donor-financed management tools that seek to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Drawing on key insights from three streams of literature relating to institutional theory, critical perspectives on CSR in developing countries and the literature on CSR and SMEs in the developing world, the potential and limits of donor-financed management tools aimed at promoting CSR in developing country SMEs are analyzed.

Using official UN and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development lists of all multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, 38 donors that might have produced such CSR tools were identified. The authors contacted them via e-mail and/or telephone, and conducted an extensive Internet search with the aim of identifying whether they had developed management tools aimed at promoting CSR in SMEs in developing countries. The authors then scrutinized the contents of the 11 tools identified and examined the extent to which these tools accord attention to contextual differences and specific peculiarities of institutional environments in developing countries; the extent to which these tools account for the silent or sunken aspects of CSR which have been prominently highlighted in the SME – CSR literature; and the extent to which these tools accord attention to the paramount concern for poverty alleviation in developing countries.

Overall, the analysis testifies to the continued predominant orientation of these tools to the context of larger firms in developed countries, with insufficient tailoring or customization to the specific realities of SMEs in the South.

In-depth interviews with aid agency personnel, SMEs, workers or community members were not conducted. Hence, this study should be seen as an initial, exploratory desk study of the potential and limits of management tools aimed at promoting CSR in SMEs in the developing world.

It is suggested that donor agencies could develop such tools in a bottom-up fashion by first mapping the silent CSR practices of SMEs in developing countries and then use this as a basis for strengthening existing CSR activities in SMEs instead of trying to impose new priorities from the outside. This might enhance the local relevance and applicability of these management tools.

The study is likely to be the first analysis of the potential and limits of management tools that are developed by donor agencies with the aim of promoting CSR in SMEs in developing countries.

This paper reviews the literature on internationalization barriers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from developing countries. The purposes of the study are: (1) to explicitly point out specific factors influencing the growth and internationalization of SMEs from developing countries and (2) to identify the research gaps to provide lucid and succinct directions for future research in this area.

The authors selected relevant papers from journals listed on Web of Science and Scopus databases.

It was found that there are large number of questions remain unanswered regarding the internationalization of SMEs from developing countries regarding the factors determining their growth and internationalization.

This review distinctively accentuates previous studies on such barriers influencing the growth of SMEs from developing countries and systematically synthesize the issues faced by those SMEs. Thus, the authors seek to provide a comprehensible platform for researchers working in this area.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) remains a prevalent topic for businesses worldwide, especially for those operating in developing countries. The attention on small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') CSR engagement in developing countries has been neglected, although SMEs play a vital role in socio-economic development in African countries like Kenya. This paper aims to conceptualize the relationship between the SME manager's values, ethics, emotional commitment to long-term socio-economic development and the firm's CSR practices.

The authors conducted seven semi-structured interviews with Kenyan and German SMEs located in Nairobi. A deductive-inductive analysis approach was chosen, confirming previous findings and contributing new ideas to the International Business (IB) literature.

This paper develops a concept linking the values and beliefs of the SME manager with the firm's CSR practices in developing countries via the manager's emotional commitment to local long-term socio-economic development. The Kenyan managers tend to show a higher degree of emotional commitment, which the authors explain by two drivers: (1) philanthropic, self-motivated driver and (2) expectation-based, environment-motivated driver. The authors' findings add to the literature on SMEs' CSR engagement in developing countries by looking at the individual level of analysis.

This paper develops a concept linking the values and beliefs of the SME manager with the firm's CSR practices in developing countries.

Developing countries are still challenged by infrastructural and cultural issues related to the adoption of e-commerce although with the emergence of social commerce, a new stream has been introduced. Iran is a developing country, in which the adoption of e-commerce by small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is challenged by such barriers; it is now applying models for the adoption of new technologies by SMEs. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This research attempts to develop a model, based on existing models of e-commerce, which can be applied in Iranian conditions. The study uses data gathered by a survey, together with existing models in this area, in order to propose a new model, which has been empirically tested.

The results of this research demonstrate that e-commerce barriers in Iran are related to a lack of awareness of the benefits of e-commerce adoption, as well as organisational issues related to its application. The paper also discusses the results and implications of this research, which can be applied to other developing countries. The paper also gives a better picture of Iranian market. Finally the paper discusses possible future directions of this research, as well as its limitations.

This study contributes to the theoretical basis of IS and e-commerce adoption studies by proposing and testing a pre-adoption model for e-commerce. The adoption of e-commerce in SMEs in Iran has not been substantially investigated. This is despite the fact that SMEs play an important role in all economies. The results demonstrate a significant relationship between organisational readiness and the adoption of e-commerce. It also shows that there is a positive relationship between awareness of e-commerce and its adoption.

Purpose – Corporate governance requirements imposed internationally as part of the New International Financial Architecture (NIFA) include compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The appropriateness of applying IFRS in developing countries has long been controversial. Recently, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) extended its project on IFRS for Small and Medium Entities (SMEs) to include developing countries. This paper provides a history of the controversy over IFRS in developing countries and examines the SMEs project as it affects developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses an agenda-setting theoretical framework and document analysis to analyse IASB's published documents as part of its formal due process.

Findings – The controversies surrounding the application of IFRS in developing countries seem likely to continue. The public submission process may be ineffective and too late for those seeking to influence IFRS developments. The findings suggest that those seeking IFRS for developing countries may need to both devise an acceptable solution and obtain inside access to the standard-setting process to achieve this aim.

Research limitations – The research is limited to literature review and documentary analysis and therefore subject to the known limitations of published project documentation in accounting standard-setting.

Originality/value – Contributes to understanding of international accounting standard-setting, including why developing country issues seem likely to continue.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main determinants logistical factors that have an impact on the adoption of cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. By adopting the diffusion of innovation, technological, organizational and environmental model as a theoretical framework, the 14 factors examined in this study are as follows: relative advantage (RA), compatibility, complexity, value creation, technology readiness (TR), security concerns, technical barriers, top management support (TMS), enterprise readiness (ER), enterprise size (ES), enterprise status, competitive advantage, government support and infrastructure/telecommunication.

Data were collected from 131 respondents’ senior executives and IT managers in SMEs in developing economies (Jordan, Lebanon, King Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Kuwait and Turkey). A web-based survey questionnaire was used for data collection process. The research framework and the derived hypotheses were tested by logistic regression analysis.

The findings indicate that compatibility, TR, technical barriers, TMS, ER, ES and competitive pressure have a significant effect on the adoption of cloud ERP. This conclusion can be utilized in enhancing the strategies for approaching ERP cloud by pinpointing the reasons why some SMEs choose to adopt this technology, while others still do not go forward with this.

This study provides an overview and empirically shows the main determinants logistical factors that might face SMEs in the developing economies. The findings also help SMEs consider their information technologies investments when they think to adopt cloud ERP.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the supply chain strategy, flexibility, and performance relationships in the context of SMEs in Canada and Pakistan.

The research is based on a quantitative approach using a questionnaire survey from a total of 170 small and medium-sized Pakistani manufacturing companies. The current study draws upon the earlier work of Fantazy et al. (2009) for comparative purpose and employs path analysis technique.

The results partially confirm the findings of previous study on Canadian SMEs with regard to the relationships among strategy, flexibility, and performance in the context of supply chain. The survey results revealed that SMEs in Pakistan adopt followers strategy in order to achieve financial and non-financial performance. Whereas in the previous study, Canadian SMEs adopted innovative strategy and customer-oriented strategy in order to enhance their performance.

The literature did not reveal any study which attempted to compare supply chain strategy, flexibility, and performance of SMEs in developed and developing countries. The current study fills this important gap in the literature.

Drawing on the “ISO 26000: 2010 – Guidance on social responsibility” handbook, this paper aims to investigate the extent to which Bangladeshi small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) are incorporating social responsibility (SR)/sustainability into their regular business activities. It is also aimed at providing insights into how Bangladeshi SME owner-managers perceive the concept of SR, and exploring the key drivers of and barriers to socially responsible and sustainable business practices.

A mixed-method research was carried out in two sequential phases. During the first phase, 110 printed questionnaires (59 of which were eventually used) were distributed among the owner-managers of the selected SMEs. The second phase involved seven in-depth semi-structured interviews.

The findings reconfirm the existence of the so called “attitude-behaviour” gap. The barriers that hinder the sustainable engagement of SMEs include corruption, a weak regulatory environment, inefficient or ill-suited government and external support and a lack of awareness of the environmental aspects of SR. In addition, this research reveals that Bangladeshi manufacturing SMEs do, to a certain degree, implement SR; only those few issues that suit the owner-managers’ personal motives are addressed, while many others (e.g. environmental issues) are neglected. Finally, it has been found that the business type and size, and the owner-managers’ educational attainments have no significant influence on the degree of adoption of socially responsible business practices by Bangladeshi manufacturing SMEs.

This paper develops a tool suited to meaningfully assess the socially responsible and sustainable business activities of SMEs. By using the four key elements identified in ISO 26000, namely, labour practices, the environment, consumer issues and community involvement and development, and by using an innovative and effective technique, a sustainability score and implementation level were calculated quantitatively for the selected SMEs. The tool developed here can be used to study the sustainability related issues faced by SMEs based in other low-income developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the issues on tax compliance. This study aims to examine the influence of patriotism and public governance on the sales tax compliance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to examine the interaction between patriotism and public governance on sales tax compliance.

This study was carried out by soliciting the opinions of owner-managers of SMEs in Jordan through a survey that was distributed by self-administered. This paper uses partial least squares structural equation modelling to investigate the influence of patriotism, public governance and the interaction of these two mechanisms on sales tax compliance for a sample of 385 SMEs.

This paper finds that patriotism and the public governance increase and improve the level of sales tax compliance. The findings also supported the interaction effect of patriotism on the relationship between public governance with sales tax compliance. Thus, all the hypothesised relationships were supported.

Tax authorities and policymakers in developing majority societies in developing countries and in other Arab countries, especially in Jordan, may use the results to focus their interest on the formulation of policies founded on the outcomes of the study to strengthen the compliance of eligible SMEs to further boost their sales collections.

Very few studies have examined the determinants of sales tax compliance, and there has been an absence of work that examines the influence of the patriotism and public governance on sales tax compliance. This paper, therefore, fills a gap in the literature by providing the first empirical evidence about the influence of patriotism and public governance on sales tax compliance of SMEs in developing countries. This study is the initial paper to examine the interaction between patriotism and public governance on sales tax compliance among SMEs in developing countries