Search results

This paper mainly explores the relationship between digital inclusive finance and financing constraints of technological-based SMEs, and how digital inclusive finance affects the financing constraints of technology-based SMEs. This paper empirically analyzes the relationship between them through the OLS model, and then further verifies the relationship between them through robust regression and heterogeneity analysis. At the same time, it uses the mechanism test to explore how digital inclusive finance affects the financing constraints of technology-based SMEs. This paper aims to address these issues.

This paper aims to explain the relationship between digital inclusive finance and financing constraints of technological-based SMEs. Technology-based SMEs always face the difficult problem of “financing difficulty” and “financing expensive” in the development process, which hinders the survival and development of enterprises to some extent. Digital inclusive finance development policy vigorously promoted by the state has alleviated the financing constraints of technology-based SMEs and brought opportunities for their development.

The results show that the role of digital inclusive finance in alleviating the financing constraints of technology-based SMEs, and incremental supplement and alleviating information asymmetry are the main reasons for digital inclusive finance to alleviate the financing constraints of technology-based SMEs. In view of the availability of digital inclusive financial data, this paper only uses the data from 2014 to 2019.

The authors’ research clearly found that the development of digital inclusive finance alleviates the financing of technology-based SMEs from the two aspects of “incremental supplement” and alleviating information asymmetry, so as to provide corresponding reference basis for the government to formulate a series of plans to support the development of technology-based SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the determinants of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) financing constraints and their impacts on investments in innovation. To explicate these factors, the authors use a general definition of innovation, distinguishing between product and process innovations, and highlight the role played by banking relationships.

On the basis of a literature review covering works specializing in innovation, financing constraints, and SME characteristics, a quantitative study is carried out in Spain, using a sample composed by 267 Spanish SMEs. Information was gathered by applying surveys addressed to the firm managers.

The findings reveal that financing constraints hinder innovation among Spanish SMEs functioning in hostile environments, though long-term banking relationships can moderate these financing constraints. The longer the duration of a firm’s banking relationship, the fewer financing constraints it faces, because the relationship significantly reduces information asymmetry.

To reduce financing constraints on their innovation, SMEs should establish long relationships and low debt concentration with their main bank. The more banks a firm works with, the greater its financing constraints. The findings have managerial implications, not just for firms but also for government policymakers and providers of consulting services.

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the factors that affect innovation, along with insights into which financing constraints limit innovation during a severe recession.

Este trabajo profundiza en los determinantes de las restricciones financieras en las PYMEs y su impacto en la inversion en innovación durante una época de crisis económica. Para explicar estos factores, se ha utilizado una definición general de innovación distinguiendo las innovaciones en productos y procesos, y considerando el papel desempeñado por las relaciones bancarias.

Sobre la base de la revisión de la literature donde se encuentran trabajos centrados en innovación, restricciones financieras y características en la PYME, llevamos a cabo un análisis cuantitativo en España usando una muestra de 267 empresas españolas. La información se recopila a través de una encuesta al gerente de la empresa.

Los resultados muestran que las restricciones financieras perjudican la innovación en las PYMEs que se encuentran en entornos hostiles, aunque es destacable que las relaciones bancarias de larga duración pueden atenuar estos efectos. Cuanto más sólida, en términos de tiempo, sea la relación con la entidad financiera principal, menores restricciones financieras tendrá la empresa puesto que esta relación disminuye significativamente los problemas de información asimétrica entre los agentes.

Para reducir los efectos perversos de las restricciones financieras sobre la innovación en la PYME, la empresa debería construir relaciones bancarias de larga duración y mantener una baja concentración de las deudas con el banco principal. Por otra parte, cuanto mayor es el número de bancos con el que la empresa trabaja mayores son las restricciones financieras a las que se enfrenta cuando se plantea inversions en innovación. Estos resultados tienen importantes implicaciones tanto para los empresarios, como para los agentes políticos dinamizadores de la economía y los consultores de empresas.

Este trabajo realiza un análisis en profundidad de los factores que afectan a la innovación en la PYME, junto con ideas sobre cómo las restricciones financieras están afectando a la innovación durante una crisis económica severa.

This paper aims to examine the influence of individual and combined effects of the mode focused on scientific and technological-based innovation (STI) and the mode based on learning by doing, by using and by interacting (DUI) on firms’ innovation performance and whether information technology (IT) moderates the relation between different innovation modes and firms’ innovation performance.

A conceptual model linking innovation modes, IT (including IT infrastructure and the frequency of IT usage) and firms’ innovation performance was developed, and the proposed hypotheses were tested empirically using World Bank’s micro survey data collected from manufacturing firms in an emerging market (China).

The results show that individually both STI mode of innovation and DUI mode of innovation have a significant positive effect on firms’ innovative performance, whereas the combined STI and DUI mode of innovation has a negative impact. IT infrastructure moderates the relation between STI (or STI and DUI) mode of innovation and firms’ innovation performance, while the frequency of IT usage has no moderating effects on the relationship between any kind of innovation modes and firms’ innovation performance.

Although some results are quite different from what is expected, these are insightful for both academics and policymakers. The use of cross-sectional data has its limitations. Therefore, future studies based on longitudinal data should be conducted. This study points toward the need to conduct the meta-analysis to better explain the existing inconsistencies in the findings of relevant quantitative studies.

This study provides firm managers with practical implications. The conclusions of this study imply that the impact of the combined STI and DUI mode of innovation is likely to be contextual, so firms should make contingent decisions on whether to engage in STI mode of innovation and DUI mode of innovation simultaneously according to their own organizational conditions. Moreover, face-to-face contacts are particularly important when a firm engages in DUI mode of innovation. In addition, the focus of IT strategy of firms engaged in STI mode of innovation should be on perfecting their IT infrastructure rather than increasing the frequency of IT usage.

This paper provides new evidence for the relation between business innovation modes and firms’ innovation performance, and it is one of the few empirical studies that focus on emerging markets. More importantly, this paper proposes a persuasive explanation framework for understanding the heterogeneous impacts of the combined STI and DUI mode of innovation on firms’ innovation performance. This is the first study that examines the moderating effect of IT on the relationship between business innovation modes and a firm’s innovation performance.

Innovative initiatives focusing on social and environmental impact often need help to secure traditional financial resources for their launch. Equity crowdfunding platforms (ECF) provide a potential funding source for these initiatives, particularly for technological inventors. This research paper aims to theorize how ECF campaigns attract investors to invest in technological initiatives with social and environmental value proposition impacts.

Using an inductive qualitative approach, the authors have gained insights, from 35 sustainable technological projects sponsored by a Chilean equity-crowdfunding platform, regarding the business model's transformation to achieve sustainable social and environmental impacts.

Findings show that disruptive technologies and sustainable aims are pivotal factors in successfully attracting investors to support sustainable technological initiatives through ECF platforms or campaigns. These factors led investors to actively engage with these projects and contribute to the value-creation process by transforming business models with social and environmental impacts and utilizing sustainable technology to enhance efficiency and optimize available resources.

Due to the nature of this research, researchers must test the proposed conceptual framework using longitudinal quantitative data from multiple ECF platforms, technological solutions and investors worldwide in future research to enhance the comprehension of this phenomenon.

The findings highlight the significant contribution of ECF platforms and technological portfolios toward creating sustainable impacts. It is a good signal for investors interested in investing in technological initiatives and addressing social and environmental challenges.

The contribution of disruptive technological projects from ECF platforms and ECF investors to tackle social and environmental challenges.

This research theorizes how ECF platforms tackle social challenges by encouraging investors to invest and participate with entrepreneurs in the co-creation process of sustainable technological solutions.

Drawing on the theoretical lens of the job demands-resources model, this study builds upon and tests a conceptual model that links customer prioritization, product complexity, business ties, job stress and customer service performance. Conceptualizing customer prioritization and product complexity as job demands and business ties as personal job resources, this research explicates the mediating process by which customer prioritization and product complexity affect customer service performance through job stress and its boundary conditions. The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical framework in which business ties moderates the mediated relations of customer prioritization and product complexity to customer service performance.

Structural equation modeling and a moderated mediation analysis were used on a unique multi-level, multi-respondent data set of 248 participants from 124 small and medium-sized enterprises in Turkey.

This study finds that both customer prioritization and product complexity increase job stress. In addition, this paper finds that business ties have a bitter-sweet nature as a personal resource and reverse the relation of customer prioritization to job stress while strengthening the negative direct relation of product complexity to job stress. Finally, this study finds that the indirect relation of customer prioritization to customer service performance through job stress is contingent on business ties. Specifically, this paper finds that high levels of business ties negate the indirect relation of customer prioritization to customer service performance while low levels of business ties exacerbate the negative effects of customer prioritization to customer service performance, channeled through job stress.

The findings demonstrate the critical role that personal networks play in reducing job stress and enhancing customer service performance for small and medium-sized enterprises that adopt customer-centric strategies such as customer prioritization. Nevertheless, the results suggest that the managers need to cognizant of the undesirable consequences of business ties may have on job stress when boundary-spanners handle a wide range of products/services that are technically complex. Accordingly, this study recommends small and medium-size enterprise managers and owners should be cautious in resource allocation to establish informal, personal ties with suppliers, competitors, customers and other market collaborators.

This paper offers a deeper perspective of the relations of customer prioritization and product complexity to job stress and customer service performance. This study also specifies business ties as a personal coping resource, which decreases the undesirable consequences when used in small and medium enterprises that adopt customer-centric strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a contemporary resource‐based taxonomy of manufacturing micro, small, and medium‐sized enterprises (MSMEs) and to relate the findings to other small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) taxonomies and to resource‐based theory.

Cluster analysis of 186 Swedish manufacturing MSMEs. The cluster analysis is based on resources and capabilities. The cluster variables were identified through case studies and a literature review of contemporary studies in resource‐based theory.

The cluster analysis resulted in identification of six different clusters: Ikeas, conservatives, technocrats, marketeers, craftsmen, and nomads. The results are related to other SME taxonomies and the usefulness of going beyond the one‐dimensional scale of entrepreneurs and non‐entrepreneurs is discussed.

Classifications of firms, for example the Miles and Snow typology, have been used successfully in numerous studies. Also, the resource‐based view of the firm has had a great impact on business research and there has been increasing interest in MSMEs. However, there are very few contemporary resource‐based taxonomies of MSMEs.

This study aims to investigate the influence of various risk factors, specifically investment risk, legal risk and technology risk, on the decision of investors to invest in equity crowdfunding ventures in Malaysia.

A total of 169 valid responses out of a total of 195 questionnaires were distributed to individuals with prior knowledge of equity crowdfunding. The data from the responses are used to test the relationships using structural equation modeling partial least squares (SEM-PLS).

Investigation into the influence of risk factors on the willingness to support equity crowdfunding shows that investment risk and legal risk significantly influence the decision to support equity crowdfunding ventures, but technology risk does not. However, while the influence of investment risk is negative, legal risk is found to have a positive influence.

This study is important as, to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically test the relationship between the various risks inherent in equity crowdfunding investments and the decision to invest. The study is also important to entrepreneurs and start-ups as it provides evidence that while the equity crowdfunding investment community follows the norms of investment, i.e. lower risk is preferred, stricter laws and regulations governing equity crowdfunding may not be needed or may only be relevant in countries where there are more retail, unsophisticated investors.

This paper hypothesized that perceived relative advantage and perceived compatibility would have a positive effect on merchants' intention to accept payments via P2P mobile payment services, while perceived financial risks and perceived costs would have a negative effect. The study also explored the differences in gender, age and experience.

The proposed model is based on the valence framework, where positive utility is represented by relative advantage and perceived compatibility, while negative utility is represented by perceived risks and perceived costs. The data for this study were collected from small business owners (merchants) at the largest public market in the Center Department of Mirebalais, Haiti, using a purposive sampling method.

The results of a structural equation modeling on a sample of 339 merchants only confirmed the effect of both perceived comparative advantage and perceived compatibility. Furthermore, the multigroup analysis revealed that the perceived comparative advantage is stronger for female merchants, older age groups and merchants who frequently used P2P m-payment for the transfer of remittances. Perceived compatibility is stronger for male merchants, younger age groups and merchants who occasionally used P2P m-payment for the transfer of remittances.

This study was conducted in the economic context of Haiti, where P2P m-payments are commonly used for transferring remittances. Since there are limited studies that examine P2P m-payment acceptance from the perspective of merchants, this study offers valuable insights.

Low- and medium-technology sectors' (LMTs) role in modern economies has been overshadowed by the argument relating knowledge creation to R&D and thus to high-tech industries. Nevertheless, whereas a broader definition of innovation has enabled LMTs to emerge as innovative environments, a blind reliance on non-R&D-based indicators may be harmful too by neglecting LMTs' contribution to the development of cutting-edge, R&D-based knowledge. This paper aims to provide answers to the following questions: do LMTs innovate? Do they induce high-tech innovations across other sectors? Do networks have an impact on LMTs' innovation commitment? Can LMTs' innovation commitment be related to a better performance?

The research method used in this work was based on a case study approach using in-depth face-to-face interviews with representatives from two footwear companies and one technology supplier.

Collaboration with relevant stakeholders along the footwear value chain proved fundamental to the creation of innovation opportunities for all parties involved. Both footwear companies have embraced innovation strategies, allowing them to take over new functions along the value chain and build successful international paths. These strategies involved active participation in cutting-edge, high-tech knowledge prompting innovation at higher-tech companies too.

The paper fails to establish a clear causative relationship between companies' performance and their R&DI commitment. In addition, due to the number of companies involved in the study, the findings cannot be simply extrapolated to the whole Portuguese footwear sector.

The paper highlights the commitment to innovation in a traditional sector and explores an underresearched topic – that of LMTs' involvement in R&D activities.