Search results
1 – 6 of 6Today’s small enterprises are forced to rethink their business-as-usual management and shift toward corporate sustainability. The empirical paper responds to a crucial quest for…
Abstract
Purpose
Today’s small enterprises are forced to rethink their business-as-usual management and shift toward corporate sustainability. The empirical paper responds to a crucial quest for many modern leaders and entrepreneurs, specifically small business owners in emerging economies. This paper aims to answer what they can do to increase long-term financial performance and enhance stakeholder satisfaction, thereby contributing to long-term business sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a convenience sampling, data were collected from a sample of 280 business leaders and entrepreneurs of small enterprises across industries in an emerging economy of Thailand. This study used a sustainable leadership research framework. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis.
Findings
Seven valid and reliable leadership factors were uncovered as new underlying leadership constructs to examine business sustainability in small entrepreneurial enterprises in Thailand. Results from multiple regressions revealed two significantly positive factors or drivers (i.e. trusting, innovative team orientation and strong, shared vision) for enhanced two sustainability performance outcomes (i.e. financial performance and stakeholder satisfaction). The findings thus contribute to advance our limited knowledge about the contextualised constructs and possible theoretical development of the developing research realm.
Research limitations/implications
Successful small entrepreneurial organisations in Thailand and other emerging economies that wish to improve their business sustainability are suggested to adopt the essential leadership and management practices (i.e. trusting, innovative team and strong, shared vision). Future studies may examine data from a larger sample size and other countries to expand our limited understanding in different contexts.
Practical implications
The resulting practical insights can be used to guide business leaders, entrepreneurs, practitioners and policymakers towards making strategic priorities and investments for improved business competitiveness, resilience and sustainability in small entrepreneurial enterprises. Overall, this study may be a starting point for further investigation on developing entrepreneurial growth and business sustainability in small sustainable enterprises across emerging economies.
Originality/value
The paper responds to calls for more contextualised research studies in the evolving multidisciplinary field of entrepreneurial leadership and business sustainability, particularly in an emerging economy of Thailand. It also unveils the essential strategic leadership factors that positively drive business sustainability in small entrepreneurial firms. And, it empirically examines the effects of diverse strategic leadership factors and multiple sustainability performance outcomes in a single study. It further proposes an emergent leadership-performance model for entrepreneurial business sustainability in the context-specific study. Above all, it advances the currently limited empirical knowledge in the emerging research front towards more sustainable futures.
Details
Keywords
Suparak Suriyankietkaew and Pavinee Kungwanpongpun
This empirical study aims to identify the essential strategic leadership and management factors underlying sustainability in healthcare. It also examines which factors drive…
Abstract
Purpose
This empirical study aims to identify the essential strategic leadership and management factors underlying sustainability in healthcare. It also examines which factors drive sustainability performance outcomes (SPO) in health-care organizations, an analysis lacking to date. It provides a strategic leadership and management perspective toward sustainable healthcare, responding to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation adopted Sustainable Leadership as its research framework. Using a cross-sectional survey, 543 employees working in health-care and pharmaceutical companies in Thailand voluntarily provided responses. Factor analyses and structural equation modeling were employed.
Findings
The results revealed an emergent research model and identified 20 unidimensional strategic leadership and management factors toward sustainability in healthcare. The findings indicate significant positive effects on SPO in health-care organizations. Significant factors include human resource management/development, ethics, quality, environment and social responsibility, and stakeholder considerations.
Research limitations/implications
The study was conducted in one country. Future studies should examine these relationships in diverse contexts. In practice, health-care firms should foster significant strategic leadership and management practices to improve performance outcomes for sustainability in healthcare.
Originality/value
This paper is the first empirical, multidisciplinary study with a focus on strategic leadership, health-care management and organizational sustainability. It identifies a proxy for measuring the effects of essential strategic leadership and managerial factors for sustainability in pharmaceutical health-care companies. It advances our currently limited knowledge and provides managerial implications for improving performance outcomes toward sustainable healthcare.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to investigate a limited empirical study into the field of sustainable leadership (SL) and customer satisfaction. Hence, the quantitative effects and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate a limited empirical study into the field of sustainable leadership (SL) and customer satisfaction. Hence, the quantitative effects and relationships between SL and customer satisfaction were examined based on empirical analysis and evidence from Thailand. These relationships are of interest for studying long-term corporate success and sustainability in firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design was based on an empirical, quantitative approach using a cross-sectional survey. Convenience sampling was used, gaining responses from 440 business managers across various industries in Thailand. SL model was adopted as a theoretical framework.
Findings
It is evident in this study that 16 out of 23 SL practices are significantly associated with enhanced customer satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses provide evidence that strong and shared vision, innovation, staff engagement and high quality are significantly and positively expected to increase customer satisfaction. In short, the four practices are the key predictors of and drivers for superior customer satisfaction in firms.
Research limitations/implications
One important implication is that business owners, leaders and managers from Thailand and other emerging Asia-Pacific economies should adopt these significant practices to improve superior customer satisfaction, thereby contributing to enhanced sustainable enterprises in the long run. Since the existing study is the first investigation into studying the relationships and their effects, it needs replication and cross-validation.
Originality/value
Overall findings are of empirical and practical significance to expand limited knowledge in the field, with scanty empirical research to date. It offers research insights into the relationships between SL practices and customer satisfaction. Hence, it is of empirical and practical significance. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.
Details
Keywords
Suparak Suriyankietkaew and Gayle C. Avery
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the leadership and management practices that positively affect stakeholder satisfaction, an under-studied area important for both…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the leadership and management practices that positively affect stakeholder satisfaction, an under-studied area important for both academic researchers and leaders. Relationships between 23 leadership and management practices and overall stakeholder satisfaction (OSS) were examined.
Design/methodology/approach
Avery and Bergsteiner ' s (2010, 2011a) sustainable leadership (SL) model provided the theoretical framework for a cross-sectional survey research design used to gather empirical data from 439 managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand.
Findings
Results show all SL practices except financial market orientation were significantly related to OSS, and the more an organisation adopts significant SL practices, the higher the OSS is likely to be. The particular SL practices that positively predicted enhanced OSS were amicable labour relations, staff retention, strong and shared vision, strategic and systemic innovation, and high staff engagement and quality.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should further examine relationships between SL practices and a range of organisational performance outcomes in different contexts, as well as the relationship between SL practices and sustainable human resource management (SHRM), and between SHRM and stakeholder satisfaction.
Practical implications
The findings provide guidance on which SL practices to adopt for managers of SMEs in Thailand and possibly in other countries, who wish to improve their stakeholder satisfaction and sustain their business success.
Social implications
Policy makers may gain insights into practices that drive performance in SMEs, a strong force in many economies.
Originality/value
This study extends current knowledge of leadership and management practices that positively predict enhanced stakeholder satisfaction, an area in which empirical evidence has to date been largely lacking.
Details
Keywords
Suparak Suriyankietkaew and Gayle C. Avery
Given previous findings that employee satisfaction contributes to firm performance and sustainability, this study examined the relationships between 23 leadership/management…
Abstract
Purpose
Given previous findings that employee satisfaction contributes to firm performance and sustainability, this study examined the relationships between 23 leadership/management practices on employee satisfaction. It identified specific practices with significant effects on employee satisfaction. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a theoretical framework and questionnaire derived from Avery and Bergsteiner's Sustainable Leadership Model, data were collected from 1,152 employees in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Bangkok, Thailand.
Findings
Overall, adopting sustainable leadership (SL) practices was related significantly to employee satisfaction, consistent with Avery and Bergsteiner's model. Twenty of the 23 SL practices were linked to enhanced employee satisfaction, the exceptions being independence from the financial markets, self-management and environmental responsibility. Specific SL practices predicted enhanced employee satisfaction more than others, the strongest predictor being high staff engagement. Other practices associated with employee satisfaction were: valuing employees, ethical behaviour, considered organizational change, a strong and shared vision, an enabling culture, and quality in products and services.
Research limitations/implications
Considerable scope exists for future research into the relationships between individual and bundles of SL practices with employee satisfaction in different national, industry and other contexts. Further limitations are discussed in the paper.
Practical implications
Managers of SMEs in Thailand and possibly in other contexts should consider adopting the SL practices shown to significantly enhance employee satisfaction and in doing so help sustain their business success.
Originality/value
This study pioneered research into a gap in the literature about the SL and management practices that positively predict enhanced employee satisfaction, an area of importance to both leadership practice and research.
Details