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This paper aims to explore the relationship between owner-manager or leader’s ambidextrous leadership style and its effect on human resource management (HRM) practices, contextual ambidexterity and knowledge-intensive small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) strategic agility.

This study presents an in-depth qualitative case study analysis of two knowledge-intensive SMEs from India’s information technology and health-care products industry serving a range of global clients. Using the theoretical lenses of empowerment-focused HRM practices, ambidextrous leaders, contextual ambidexterity and strategic agility, semi-structured interview data of leaders, managers and employees of the case organizations were analysed. Through a two-staged analytical process, we abductively developed a novel conceptual framework at the intersection of the above theoretical lenses.

The findings suggest that the knowledge-intensive SME’s strategic agility, ambidexterity and empowerment-focussed HRM approach was influenced by the owner-manager or leader’s ambidextrous leadership style and their philosophy towards managing people and had a positive impact in creating a culture of trust, participation, risk-taking and openness, and led to delivering innovative products and services as well as several positive employee-level outcomes.

Recent literature reviews on HRM In SMEs highlight several gaps, including the impact of owner-manager or leader’s philosophy of managing people in shaping HRM practices and employee outcomes. This paper thus adds to the existing literature on HRM and knowledge-intensive SMEs.

The varying nature of the competitive environment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), contributing significantly to gross domestic product in most countries, has made their moving toward internationalization and global competition unavoidable in such a way that the life cycle of research in this area is experiencing a period of rapid growth. This study aims to evaluate the status of research on SME internationalization based on bibliographic records retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus.

Using a scientometric analysis, reviewing the important points and the boundaries of research on SME internationalization as well as practicing co-occurrence and burst detection analysis.

Through a rigorous examination of the crucial points and boundaries within the realm of SMEs internationalization research, coupled with an analysis of co-occurrence and burst detection techniques to detect contemporary hotbed topics, this study has uncovered that the predominant focus of current discourse centers around the areas of networks and networking, as well as internationalization models and entry into the global arena. Moreover, it gives insight that future investigations will shift toward enhancing SME internationalization performance, while simultaneously prioritizing the expeditiousness of their entrance into international markets. The insights garnered from this inquiry are expected to facilitate salient contributions to future literature in this area, thereby advancing our understanding of these complex phenomena.

The trend of the research in this field can be useful for enthusiasts. In this context, the life cycle of research on SME internationalization has been drawn that shows the period of research growth of publications is almost between 2005 and 2023, and the saturation will be approximately from 2023 to 2035. The top researching SME internationalization in the world have been occurred in the USA, England, Canada, Sweden countries and in Department of Management, Department of Marketing, School of Management, Faculty of Management Studies institutions. Also, most of the research has been published in Journal of International Business Studies, International Business Review and Strategic Management Journal.

This study accordingly provided a valuable perspective for future research in this line.

Exploration and exploitation have long been documented as prominent approaches to business management and organizational adaptation to external environment. Maintaining balance between these activities is a key to survival and prosperity. However, there is little direct evidence of the effect of such combined usage of both approaches on firm performance in times of crisis, especially within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this paper is to reveal the role of balanced ambidexterity in shaping firm performance during COVID-19 recession.

Based on a survey of 333 Russian SMEs, the authors test the proposed theoretical framework linking innovative ambidexterity to firm performance level and variability taking into account technological uncertainty.

The results show that innovative ambidexterity tends to increase level and decrease variability of performance outcomes, whereas technological uncertainty acts as a positive contingency for this impact.

The results provide an improved understanding of ambidexterity and organizational literatures by clarifying the contingent nature of the ambidexterity–firm performance relationship during COVID-19 recession.

This study investigates the direct influence of ambidextrous leadership on employees’ innovation behaviour, the mediating role of innovative self-efficacy and harmonious work passion, and the moderating role of Zhong-Yong thinking.

The authors conducted a series of questionnaire surveys to collect data in three time periods and from multiple sources; 332 supervisor–subordinate matched samples were obtained. The hypothesised relationships were tested using structural equation modelling and ProClin.

Ambidextrous leadership is positively associated with employees’ innovation behaviour, while innovative self-efficacy and harmonious work passion play mediating roles. The analysis further confirms that innovative self-efficacy and harmonious work passion play a chained double-mediating role between ambidextrous leadership and employees’ innovation behaviour, while Zhong-Yong thinking plays moderating roles between ambidextrous leadership and innovative self-efficacy and between ambidextrous leadership and harmonious work passion.

This study demonstrates the influence of ambidextrous leadership on employees’ innovation behaviour, specifically the role of ambidextrous leadership, and extends the relationship’s theoretical foundation. It is also expected to provide inspiration and serve as a reference for local Chinese management.

In a competitive environment, eHealth small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) barriers to survival differ from those of large enterprises. Empirical research on barriers to eHealth SMEs in less prosperous areas has been largely neglected. This study fills this gap by employing an integrated approach to analyze barriers to the development of eHealth SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

The authors collected data through semi-structured interviews and conducted thematic analysis to identify 16 barriers, which were used as inputs into total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) to build interrelationships among them and identify key barriers. Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) was then applied validate the TISM model and classify the 16 barriers into four categories.

This study makes significant contributions to theory by identifying new barriers and their interrelationships, distinguishing key barriers and classifying the barriers into four categories. The authors identify that transcultural problems are the key barrier and deserve particular attention. eHealth SMEs originating from regions with cultural value orientations, such as hierarchy and embeddedness, that differ from the UK’s affective autonomy orientation should strengthen their transcultural awareness when seeking to expand into UK markets.

By employing an integrated approach to analyze barriers that impede the development of eHealth SMEs in a less prosperous area of the UK, this study raises entrepreneurs’ awareness of running businesses in places with different cultural value orientations.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between absorptive capacity, relational capital and interorganizational relationship performance and examine the moderating effect of contractual governance on this relationship.

This study used a quantitative design, analyzing data collected through a survey questionnaire. The sampling frame consisted of 111 cross-industry, small and medium-sized manufacturers in Malaysia. The research model was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results show that interorganizational relationship performance is positively influenced by relational capital and absorptive capacity. While absorptive capacity has a positive effect on relational capital, this study finds empirical evidence that contractual governance weakens the effect of absorptive capacity on relational capital. Furthermore, this study also examines the hitherto under-researched moderating effect of contractual government on absorptive capacity and relational capital and their relationship with interorganizational relationship performance.

This study provides insights into the interorganizational relationship among SMEs and explains the nature of knowledge management in this context. This study shows the potential role of absorptive capacity in building close cross-border interorganizational relationships.

Intangible capital (IC) is an important factor for economic growth and firm performance. The role IC has played has become even more crucial in recent decades, possibly influencing debt capacity and default risk assessment. This paper studies how entrepreneurial and employee-based IC affects financial leverage.

Employer–employee unbalanced panel data provided by Statistics Finland that refer to Finnish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are used. Intangibles are measured with an expenditure-based method. Employee-based IC and entrepreneurial knowledge are used to explain debt financing in SMEs.

The findings imply that IC-intensive firms have less debt capacity due to weak pledgeability and asymmetric information between borrower and lender. Entrepreneurs with managerial or financial knowledge increase the firm's debt capacity compared to other entrepreneurs, especially in knowledge-intensive services (KIS). One explanation is that the entrepreneurs are more competent in negotiating with lenders as the entrepreneurs possess better financial skills. Entrepreneurs with technical knowledge decrease the firm's debt capacity in all industries.

While some earlier research focused on the IC–financial leverage relationship, hardly any study has looked at entrepreneurial IC. This paper provides new insights by including entrepreneurial IC alongside employee-based IC.

This paper aims to propose a framework that combines the triple helix model with competitive strategies concepts to capture and guide any innovation-led national development strategies.

This paper adopted a methodological framework based on existing methods and guidelines, the most commonly reported approach for developing a methodological framework. The review of fundamental approaches to achieving fast and sustained economic development, triple helix model and competitive strategies helped develop the methodological framework. The framework was validated and tested using the case studies approach on Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

Kuwait aims to create an innovative environment to benefit from the innovation strategies anchored by the East Asian miracle economies and how they used the triple helix actors at different developmental stages. First, Kuwait’s research institutes and universities need to design interactive programs and activities with industry and community to help innovate solutions to current and prospective challenges. Second, the government needs to provide a competitive business environment and effective policies. Thirdly, the Kuwait industry must be encouraged to innovate and infuse modern technology practices.

Developing countries are trying to use science, technology and innovation as an effective strategy for achieving sustained economic growth. However, since each country has its unique conditions, learning from other success stories proved difficult if not structured in a framework designed to serve a specific purpose such as the one the authors propose in this paper.

Open innovation (OI), by now one of the major concepts for the analysis of innovation, is seen as a methodology for collaboratively designing and implementing solutions by engaging stakeholders in an iterative and inclusive service design process. This paper aims to empirically investigate OI capacities, defined as a cooperative, knowledge-sharing innovation ecosystem, and to explore how it can lead to improved performance of firms in Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Southeastern European (SEE) countries.

The study builds on the World Bank/European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD’s) Business Environment Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) dataset for 2009, 2013 and 2019. Primarily, the research model was estimated using log-transformed ordinary least squares (OLS). Taking into consideration that this method might produce substantial bias, yielding misleading inferences, this study is fitting Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood estimators with robust standard errors and instrumental variable/generalized method of moments estimation (IV/GMM) approach for comparative results. Secondarily, the research model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) to investigate the relationship between five OI capacities and firm performance.

The findings indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between most OI capacities and firm performance, except for innovation, which did not show a statistically significant relationship with firm performance. Specifically, research and development (R&D), knowledge and coopetition are statistically significant and positively associated with firm performance, whereas transformation is statistically significant but negatively associated with firm performance. The IV/GMM estimations’ findings support the view that the firm performance is significantly affected by OI capacities, together with some control variables such as size, age, foreign ownership and year dummy to have a significant impact on firm performance.

This paper fills an identified gap in the literature by investigating the impact of OI on firm performance executed in the specific CEE and SEE country context.

The link between SME performance, growth and development is well established; however, the characteristics of SMEs that allow firms to be successful in the long run in an underdeveloped country context, i.e. Pakistan, are still unclear. This paper aims to bridge this gap by identifying the SMEs’ characteristics that set them apart from their rivals and become successful.

This study uses Storey’s development framework to identify the SMEs’ characteristics. Data is gathered using the case study method from SMEs with a metropolitan context in Pakistan. A narrative methodological framework was used during the data gathering and analysing stages.

Findings of this study indicate that the prosperity of SMEs in Pakistan is dependent on a combination of characteristics, including entrepreneurial characteristics of owner–managers, knowledge of business operating models, social networks and relationship building and innovation in business style. Additionally, other factors such as governance structure, strategic planning of market diversification and export characteristics also influence the prosperity of an SME. These findings may have several important implications for key stakeholders, including entrepreneurs, SMEs and policymakers in the government.

This research provides evidence about factors that can help an SME to become successful in uncertain situations surrounding a business environment. Theoretically, the contribution of this research is that it demonstrates that entrepreneurial characteristics and the effective leadership style of owner–managers can help SMEs achieve prosperity in external unforeseeable situations.