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Despite the recognized importance of knowledge management for small family firms, relatively little empirical research has been done so far to understand the mechanisms through which absorptive capacity (AC) assists their performance. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between absorptive capacity and performance in small family firms.

In this study, the authors theoretically argue and empirically validate that AC enables the creation of entrepreneurial, market and technology orientations in small family firms, which, in turn, lead to superior firm performance. They also tested the study’s hypotheses using mediation and multiple linear regression analyses on data collected from 272 small Indian family firms.

The study’s findings suggest indirect relationship between AC and performance. The strategic orientations provide a mechanism through which investments in small family firms’ AC results in firm performance.

This study offers crucial insights to practitioners and small firm managers regarding the use of knowledge-based capabilities in creating appropriate strategic postures, which, in turn, assist firm performance.

This study is among few research attempts in understanding the knowledge aspects of small family firms. The present research contributes to the existing literature by unravelling the relationship between knowledge management and small family firm performance. Also, by bringing in data from an under-studied context of an emerging economy, this study strengthens the theoretical applicability of knowledge management in different contexts.

Guided by the theory of dynamic capabilities and the knowledge-based view of an organization, the purpose of this paper is to examine the crucial role played by entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity in the relationship between strategic flexibility and firm performance, with a specific focus on small firms.

The study uses survey data collected from owners of 272 small businesses in India and follows the linear regression method to establish the link between strategic flexibility and firm performance. It hypothesizes that the strategic flexibility of a small firm impacts entrepreneurial orientation, and subsequently its performance, while absorptive capacity further enhances this relationship.

The conclusions drawn from the study provide empirical evidence on the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation in the relationship between strategic flexibility and firm performance. The findings also point out that the potential absorptive capacity of a firm strengthens the relationship between its strategic flexibility and entrepreneurial orientation.

The empirical findings of the study are limited to small firms from the automotive service industry.

The study contributes to the existing knowledge on managerial practice by pointing out the importance of strategic flexibility as a dynamic capability and illustrating its impact in the case of a small firm’s performance.

As yet, there is a dearth of empirical evidence derived from large samples of small firms. The study supplements available literature on dynamic capabilities and knowledge management.

While extant literature explores the influence of institutions on the national innovation system (NIS), most research has either focused on specific institutional aspects or treated institutions as a unified entity. This study aims to examine the effect of various institutional factors on a country’s NIS.

The conceptual model was empirically validated using regression analysis. The study sample comprised a total of 84 countries.

This study identifies and empirically validates a comprehensive set of institutional factors. It also highlights the significant institutional factors (including political stability, government effectiveness, ease of resolving insolvency and the rule of law) that can help improve a country’s NIS.

The research provides practical implications for organizations and policymakers seeking to understand and foster an innovative culture within the NIS. Policymakers are encouraged to develop a nurturing environment within the NIS by focusing on significant institutional factors. Organizations are encouraged to closely monitor developments in the NIS of a country to make informed strategic decisions at the business, corporate and international levels.

We investigate the effect of the adoption of formal board structure and board processes on firm performance in Colombian family firms, in a context where firms can choose specific aspects of board structure and processes. We deploy insights from the behavioral governance perspective to develop arguments about how family businesses may choose board elements based on their degree of control over the firm (absolute control or less), and its effect on firm performance.

We use an unbalanced data panel of 404 firm-year observations. The data was obtained from the annual financial and corporate governance reports of 62 Colombian stock-issuing firms for the period 2008–2014 – due to change in regulation, data could not be added beyond 2014. Panel data technique with random effects was used.

The results show that board structure is positively associated with financial performance, however, this relationship is negative in businesses where family has absolute control. We also found that there is a negative association between board processes and performance, but positive association in family-controlled businesses.

Our research contributes to research streams on effects of family control in firm choices and on the interactive effect of governance choices and institutional context and more generally how actors interact (rather than react) with their institutional context.

Business research has highlighted the importance of knowledge transfer and innovation in multinational firms for better performance outcomes. However, the existing body of literature is characterized by differentiated theories, antecedents and outcomes. This study aims to address this gap by adopting a systematic approach to analyze knowledge transfer and innovation literature from the perspective of multinational organizations.

This study follows “preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses” (PRISMA) guidelines for conducting a systematic literature review. The study adopts a systematic approach for analyzing the literature using School of thought (S), Contexts (C), Methodologies (M), Triggers (T), Barriers (B), Facilitators (F) and Outcomes (O) framework (SCM-TBFO framework) devised for holistic literature review. The study analyzes 75 articles from reputed journals from 2000 to 2022.

In general, knowledge transfer and innovation in multinationals is a relatively new area and is evolving rapidly. There are many opportunities to study the various perspectives that are included in the SCM-TBFO framework. The key schools of thought included the evolutionary theory of innovation, institutional theory and internationalization theory. The studies had differing settings or contexts, including China, Europe, the USA and Taiwan. Further, key methodologies that were used included regression, case studies, structural equation modeling (SEM) and theoretical studies. Knowledge transfer and innovation triggers included competitive advantage, competitive pressure, constant requirements for better products and services, foreign direct investment (FDI) and globalization. Knowledge transfer and innovation facilitators were categorized into strategy-related facilitators, organization culture and orientation-related facilitators, and resource-related facilitators. Knowledge transfer and innovation barriers included autonomy, international knowledge dispersion, risk of knowledge leakage, search breadth, ambiguity and institutional voids. Key outcomes of knowledge transfer and innovation in multinationals included financial performance, innovation performance, knowledge flow, transfer effectiveness, patents and new product development.

By synthesizing the literature, the study aims to provide an overview of the current state of research on knowledge transfer and innovation in multinationals. The study develops a holistic model for fostering knowledge transfer and innovation in multinationals. The proposed novel framework can also be applied to perform a holistic assessment of the current literature in various research domains. Further, the study suggests future theory development and research agendas. The study also provides implications for practitioners using the framework to achieve more desirable outcomes.

The behavioural decision-making process of individuals highlights the importance of investors’ sentiment and their correlation with the real economy. This paper aims to contribute to the literature of behavioural finance by examining the influence of contextual factors on investment decision-making.

Using a questionnaire, a total of 445 valid responses were collected from March to May 2021 through online sources. The current study uses a technique of Fuzzy-analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to assign relative weights to various contextual factors influencing investment decision-making. Harman’s single factor test was used to check common method bias.

Results of the study reveal that accounting information, self-image/firm-image coincidence, and neutral information as the top-ranked factors in influencing investment decisions, whereas advocate recommendation and personal financial needs emerged as less important factors in influencing investment decisions.

The current study collects data from Indian stock market investors, which may limit the generalization of the study to India only. Moreover, this study is cross-sectional in nature, and there are numerous factors that are not part of the study but might significantly influence the investors’ decision-making process.

The research has implications for both academicians working in the area of behavioural finance and practitioners’ who are active in stock markets, more specifically dealing with retail investors and in the domain of personal finance. Also, the current study will accommodate different groups, i.e. policy makers, financial advisors, investors, investment professionals, etc. in carrying out their professional work.

The current study will provide a comprehensive overview of individual investor behaviour. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is one of its kind to use the Fuzzy-AHP technique for evaluating the relative ranks of contextual factors influencing investment decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better method for quality management to maintain an essential level of quality in different fields like product quality, service quality, air quality, etc.

In this paper, a hybrid adaptive time-variant fuzzy time series (FTS) model with genetic algorithm (GA) has been applied to predict the air pollution index. Fuzzification of data is optimized by GAs. Heuristic value selection algorithm is used for selecting the window size. Two algorithms are proposed for forecasting. First algorithm is used in training phase to compute forecasted values according to the heuristic value selection algorithm. Thus, obtained sequence of heuristics is used for second algorithm in which forecasted values are selected with the help of defined rules.

The proposed model is able to predict AQI more accurately when an appropriate heuristic value is chosen for the FTS model. It is tested and evaluated on real time air pollution data of two popular tourism cities of India. In the experimental results, it is observed that the proposed model performs better than the existing models.

The management and prediction of air quality have become essential in our day-to-day life because air quality affects not only the health of human beings but also the health of monuments. This research predicts the air quality index (AQI) of a place.

The proposed method is an improved version of the adaptive time-variant FTS model. Further, a nature-inspired algorithm has been integrated for the selection and optimization of fuzzy intervals.

There exists insufficient literature on classification and taxonomy of tea leaves supply chain (TLSC), so the purpose of this paper is to study the existing TLSCs and classify them accordingly. Apart from this, the paper also focuses on identification of key decisions issues in the supply chains (SC) and developing a TLSC decision framework for the state of Assam in India.

The paper is based on a two-year detailed study on TLSC in Assam which encompasses 22 Tea Estates, 41 Small Tea Gardens (STGs) and a Research Institute (Tocklai Tea Research Institute). Secondary data were collected from relevant websites of various government organizations of India, company’s websites, annual reports, official statements from the companies, tea market reports, annual reports of the Indian Tea Association, the Tea Board of India, Tea Research Institute and published reports, etc.

The “point of origin” of TLSC is a tea garden, “point of consumption” is considered as a tea factory and green tea leaves (GTLs) forms the basic raw material. This SC includes mainly three players: Tea leaves growers, manufacturers of made tea and tea leaves agents. This study identifies the three types of TLSCs existing in Assam: TLSC1, TLSC2 and TLSC3. Among them, only TLSC1 is both responsive as well as an efficient chain, while the rest are only responsive chains. Later two SCs can be made efficient with the proposed TLSC4.

There is an insufficient literature on classification and taxonomy of TLSC, therefore the study (considerably the classification and taxonomy of TLSC) was developed from the primary data which were collected from the 22 Tea Estates and 41 STGs of four districts of Assam, because of limited time (two years). The study should have involved more tea estates and small tea gardens for better classification and taxonomy.

The proposed model suggests that small tea growers may create a co-operative whereby smaller tea gardens (STGs) (members of the co-operative) unite to act as a single large garden, set up their own co-operative factory and recruit permanent tea plucking laborers. This up-gradation of TLSC2 and TLSC3 to TLSC4 may enable a group of STGs to work in a manner similar to a Tea Estate.

To the best of authors’ knowledge this is one of the first studies to classify the TLSC in Assam.

Technology transfer becoming an important area especially in developing and less developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to address issue of supply chains’ benchmarking based upon their capability to mange technology transfer critical barriers mitigation efforts toward making technology transfer process implementation successful.

The present paper is based on two research stages. Initially, extensive literature review has been made to identify critical barriers. In total, 20 technology transfer critical barriers have been identified from literature review and categorized in to six criteria. In second stage, analytics hierarchy process has been utilized to rank the critical barriers of technology transfer in supply chain and provide a benchmarking framework.

Political barriers (PB) have been analyzed most significant criteria of critical barriers to technology transfer followed by socio-cultural barriers (SO) and economic barriers (EB). “Political instability,” “Difficulty in transfer and diffusion,” “Too expensive,” “Inappropriate/incompetent technology and resource wastage in technologies imported,” “Inactive role of SC members and resistance to change” and “Management attitude” have been found most hindering barrier in their respective category/criterion of technology transfer barriers.

Scope of the present study has been limited to propose framework to benchmark supply chains by analyzing 20 critical barriers of technology transfer grouped in to six dimensions using analytical hierarchy approach based on “ratings provided by experts,” which may be biased.

Benchmarking process has been proposed to calculate value of total of overall weights to a particular supply chain named as “Technology Transfer Barriers Mitigation Index (TTBMI)” useful to present capability of supply chains to manage technology transfer barriers by a single numeric value. From “provider” developed county’s view point, present benchmarking framework may be further applied to compare developing countries’ ability to absorb and diffuse new technology.

Benchmarking procedure has been dealt with using well-established methodology- analytical hierarchy process toward providing single numeric value index (TTBMI) indicating ability of supply chains to manage/mitigate technology transfer barriers.