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This research aims to develop and test a conceptual model for shaping small and medium enterprise (SME) employees' avoidance behaviour towards using pirated software. The model specifies the components of morality, spirituality, emotional intelligence and ethical values that influence employees' avoidance behaviour towards using pirated software.

A conceptual framework was developed and tested on the basis of information technology and management literature by using data from 275 influential and active employees of SMEs. Data were collected via a survey and analysed through covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM).

In the context of SMEs, employees' avoidance behaviour towards using pirated software is motivated by significant moral antecedents. Moral equity and judgement significantly influence employees' avoidance behaviour towards using pirated software when moral emotion mediates such a relationship. In addition, individual spirituality significantly moderates the relationship between moral equity and moral emotion. Employees' emotional intelligence optimises the strength of the relationship between moral judgement and moral emotion. Employees' likelihood to engage in unethical behaviour decreases when they exhibit strong ethical values in the relationship between moral emotion and their behaviour towards using pirated software.

This study offers theoretical support for employees' avoidance behaviour towards using pirated software. The findings of this cross-sectional work have limited generalisability. Single-country data may not be generalised to SME employees in other countries. Thus, cross-country analysis and additional measures and antecedents must be developed and identified in the future.

Policymakers and managers should consciously review the proposed seven-component model that causes SME employees to avoid the use of pirated software. Ethical standards that lessen the use of pirated software can be improved if managers and policymakers understand the components of moral equity and judgement that influence moral emotions.

This study is the first to examine the specific antecedents of the ethical standards and avoidance behaviours of SME employees towards the use of pirated software. As such, it provides a foundation for further studies on this critical area and software piracy in the context of SMEs in an emerging economy, which is limited in current literature.

Examines the role of appraisals as a way of improving productivity and effectiveness within successful organizations. Identifies ways in which appraisals help both employers and employees. Suggests that there is room for improvement in most performance appraisals and discusses various ideas. Computer software is one of the ways in which performance appraisals can be dealt with more proficiently. This article evaluates the three leading software programs available currently and provides a comparison of the features. Concludes that the products do not solve all the problems encountered in performance appraisals, but do give structure to the process and make this sort of appraisal easier to conduct.

Despite extensive investigation of the Indian software industry, knowledge about small software firms is inadequate. This knowledge is important as many developing countries are contemplating the software industry as a means of national growth along the lines that India has taken. This paper provides a descriptive analysis of small software firms in India. It shows that small software firms that are located in software clusters; quality certified; low product oriented; and slightly larger tend to be more productive than others. Small software firms are defined as firms that have fewer software employees than the national median size. The paper used firm level data available in the Indian IT Software and Services Directory 2003, whose members contribute 95% of the industry revenue.

Software industry, one of the most knowledge-intensive industries, in Brazil has increased opportunities of evolution. Its competitive advantage relies on the efficiency of the organizational knowledge management, but the knowledge hiding, its antecedents and moderators are still understudied. This study seeks to identify a new antecedent to knowledge hiding, such the occupational stress.

The author focused on the moderating effect of social self-efficacy and emotional self-efficacy in the relationship between occupational stress and knowledge hiding in software industry in Brazil. The author collected data from 189 software industry Brazilian employees in 30 firms using a time-lagged research design.

This study demonstrated that employees with high levels of social self-efficacy (SSE) and emotional self-efficacy (ESE) or both have more tendency to engage on knowledge hiding behavior comparing to their colleagues with low SSE and ESE. This study showed that SSE and ESE related positively to rationalized hiding, evasive hiding and playing dumb.

The author’s main contribution relies on the finding related to the joint role of social self-efficacy and emotional self-efficacy on engaging employees under occupational stress conditions in knowledge hiding behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of an organization's human resource on its IT competence. The IT human resource is examined in terms of worker tenure and worker composition, and IT competence is defined in terms of IT‐business relationships, IT‐business knowledge, and IT infrastructure.

The study examines the activities of one organization's software development group over a three‐year period, 2004‐2006. The organization is a US‐based financial services firm, and data are drawn from archived software development project information.

The findings help to clarify how changes in the IT human resource influence a firm's IT competence. A model of organizational IT competence is developed and discussed, along with propositions for future study.

The propositions developed in this study provide direction for future IT value research, and are key to the understanding the development of a firm's IT competence.

The paper's findings will help organizations understand how employee turnover and the blending of employees and contract workers can impact the long‐term effectiveness of a firm's software development function.

Previous models of IT value suggest that IT competence is key in a firm's performance. However, those models do not address the changing nature of the IT human resource. The proposed model underlies that organizations can benefit from changes in worker tenure and composition (dimensions of the IT human resource) over time provided they understand and appropriately manage their impact on IT competence.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of strategic human resource management (HRM) practices and knowledge strategies on the performance of a sample of software companies in India.

The sample chosen for this study was software professionals in India; the software companies were chosen based on their listing in the NASSCOM annual report, with financial turnover as the basis for classification. In order to measure the tangible and intangible outcomes, instruments used in this study include financial and non-economic performance.

As per the contingency approach, the fit between strategic HRM practices (staffing, general training, specific training, performance appraisal, performance feedback, reward and compensation and employee development) and knowledge strategy dimensions (consolidator, transformer and co-inventor) was observed and the results revealed that the moderation effect has had a positive impact on the firms’ performance.

Investment in specific developmental programs for high-potential employees and quick learners will make knowledge-intensive firms financially sound in the long run. Through an appropriate reward strategy, employees who are capable of lateral and innovative thinking at work can be engaged in consistently delivering quality projects, which will have a significant positive impact on overall project costs and the financial performance of the firm.

The proposed model in this study can enhance a firm’s performance, provided the firm adopts a specific knowledge strategy and coherently aligns it with strategic HRM practices to achieve a sustained competitive advantage.

Building on the self-determination theory (SDT), the purpose of this study is to empirically examine the influence of work meaningfulness (WM) on employees' involvement in playful work design (PWD) in the context of software development firms in Pakistan.

For the present study, a two-wave employee survey (online questionnaire) was used for data collection. The data were collected through an adopted questionnaire from employees working in software development firms in Pakistan. structural equation modeling and Hayes Process Macro of SPSS were used to analyze data collected from 305 respondents.

The findings of this study show that work meaningfulness and epistemic curiosity (EC) positively and significantly influence employee playful work design strategies. Moreover, the relationship between work meaningfulness and playful work design was partially mediated by employee epistemic curiosity. This mediating role of epistemic curiosity is strengthened by the presence of the perceived leader's autonomous support (LAS).

Employees improve their personal work experience through playful work design. Theoretically, this study contributes to the body of knowledge on the factors (work meaningfulness, epistemic curiosity and leader's autonomous support) that can influence employees' self-determination to design fun and competition into their work. This study contributes to the theory by introducing the antecedents (work meaningfulness and epistemic curiosity), of employee playful work design and explores the role of epistemic curiosity as a mediator and the leader's autonomous support as a moderator through SDT perspective.

For practitioners, this study pinpoints that software development firms can consider improving employees' perception of work meaningfulness, which can lead them to become epistemically curious to proactively design their work experience for their psychological need fulfillment, well-being and better functioning. Moreover, leader's autonomous support can support involvement in playful work design.

The current study is the first investigation in the Asian context to study the antecedents of playful work design and a critical boundary condition. This study extends the literature on the antecedents of employee playful work design and explores the role of epistemic curiosity as a mediator and the leader's autonomous support as a moderator specifically through a self-determination perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to broaden the link between workplace flexibility (WF) and job engagement (JE) while considering quality of work life (QWL) as mediator and the use of knowledge sharing (KS) as moderator. While numerous studies have focused solely on the importance of WF, QWL, KS and JE only exclusively, this study integrates them to delineate their association and to empirically assess the relationships. To advance an in-depth knowledge of these aspects, the study goes beyond the conventional findings.

In total, 378 employees from software firms in India participated in the questionnaire-based survey. It is a cross-sectional study. The proposed conceptual model and hypothesis were analyzed and tested by structural equation modeling and process macro. Drawing on the person environment (P-E) fit theory and social exchange theory, the authors discuss how QWL mediates and KS moderates the association between WF and JE.

Results indicate a positive association between WF and JE. Furthermore, it was found that QWL mediated and KS moderated this association.

Findings of the study will help the management to comprehend the significance QWL interventions in increasing their JE. This paper may encourage HR managers in the Information Technology (IT) industry to perceive the importance of KS. Moreover, the study accentuates flexible work options as essential phenomenon to positively impinge on the JE of employees in the IT sector.

The present study tries to enrich the extant research on WF and JE while it demonstrates the use of QWL interventions and KS as vital constructs that may significantly and positively influence JE.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the barriers that prevent workers in the software industry from experiencing flow in their work.

This study was conducted by using a qualitative critical incident technique-inspired questionnaire.

The findings suggest that workers in the software industry perceive that the most obvious obstacles to experiencing flow are related to work not presenting enough cognitive challenges and situational barriers related to the characteristics of the job (e.g. workdays having too many interruptions and distractions, timetables often being considered too tight for creative exploration and problem solving and having negative user experiences with development tools).

The findings provide insights into flow barriers, specifically barriers that prevent workers in the software industry from experiencing flow.

With the rapid growth of e‐commerce, governmental and corporate agencies are taking extra precautions when it comes to protecting information. The development of e‐security as a discipline has enabled organisations to discover a wider array of similarities between attacks occurring across their security environment and develop appropriate countermeasures. To further improve the security of information, there is a need for conceptualising the interrelationships between e‐security and the major elements involved in changing a company's infrastructure. Organisations should act in an ethical manner, especially when it comes to e‐security and e‐privacy policies, procedures, and practices. The consequential theory of utilitarianism is used and applied to a conceptual model to help explain how organisations may develop better secured information in an information‐sharing and globally networked environment.