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The attention of scholars and policy makers towards the topic of innovation has consistently increased, especially in recent years. This is justified by the fact that innovation undoubtedly plays, today, a crucial role in driving a country’s economic growth, improving productivity and, more generally, enhancing overall societal well-being.

When the discourse around innovation focuses on its economic dimension, the strong intertwinement with entrepreneurship emerges. In line with this, focusing on research on innovation in organisations and, especially, innovation in relation to the figure of the entrepreneur is considered, plenty of studies have been carried on, over time, in many disciplines, analysing the role of the entrepreneur in relation to innovation from various different angles. However, especially when management studies are considered, we can notice a poor consideration of the role played by the gender of the entrepreneur. In line with this consideration, by means of a systematic literature review, this chapter aims to fill this literature gap focusing on the intertwinement that can be envisaged, in management studies, among the issues of entrepreneurship and innovation in the case of women-owned firms.

Purpose: Since its inception in 1987, the literature on the VUCA that represents the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature of the business environment has progressively increased. This study systematically evaluates the vast literature on the VUCA world. Since review-based studies have been criticised as biased, this study uniquely amalgamates bibliometric analysis with content analysis, thereby taking a research triangulation discourse.

Need of the Study: This study was conducted to consolidate the literature about the VUCA environment and uncover the foundational and emerging themes for future research agendas.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This study conducts a performance analysis and science mapping of 193 carefully selected articles (using PRISMA) published in various sources during 2012–2023. Articles for the study were procured from the SCOPUS database. While performance analysis focused on analysing publication and citation evolution, thematic evolution, leading publications, country publication analysis, and most relevant authors and sources. On the other hand, science mapping revealed conceptual structures (keyword plus co-occurrence analysis and thematic maps) and intellectual structures (co-authorship analysis). VOSviewer and Biblioshiny (R-tool for comprehensive science mapping) were used for this study’s choice of application.

Findings: This chapter concludes with future research agendas using content analysis of the ‘scope for the future research’ section of selected publications and bibliographic coupling (to unearth emerging themes).

Practical Implications: The work presented in this chapter will help the researchers gain a structured conceptual, intellectual, and social understanding of the vast literature on the VUCA environment.

Why is it that, despite repeated claims that digital-content firms and internet-based businesses can internationalize everywhere almost instantly, many seem unable to profitably expand outside their home markets? Why have emerging market firms (EMNEs) caught up with established developed-country multinationals (DMNEs) so much faster than expected? In this chapter, the author argues that the clue to these two puzzles lies in the realization that, contrary to the dominant view in the international business (IB) literature that focuses only on the intangibles exploited by DMNEs and assumes that these firms are free to unilaterally decide on their mode of entry and operation, doing business in a foreign country is only possible if intangibles are bundled with complementary local resources, usually held by local firms. Taking into account these complementary local resources and their owners makes it clear that DMNEs are not always free to choose their entry mode but must enlist the cooperation of local resource owners. The need of digital-content and internet-based firms for local complementary resources also explains why they sometimes experience problems when expanding abroad. Lastly, control of complementary local resources provides EMNEs with a home advantage against DMNEs competing with them in their home market. The author shows how EMNEs can capitalize on this advantage to obtain the intangibles they lack and need. The fact that these advantages are available on efficient global markets, while complementary local resources are not, explains the surprising speed of EMNE catch-up.

The versatility of customer relationship management (CRM) systems has kept these technologies popular over the years. These solutions have been integrated into organizations of all sizes, from large corporations to small- and medium-sized enterprises. Similarly, CRM systems have also found applications in all types of industries and business sectors. All this has been the driving force behind the proliferation of CRM solutions around the world. In this chapter, the author not only reflects on the impact and democratization of CRM systems on business management and marketing strategies but also explores how these technologies can determine the company's income. In particular, the author presents an experiment that analyzes the extent to which the volume of annual investment in CRM solutions can be used to predict annual net income in a sample of companies. Using time series analysis and applying the autoregressive integrated moving average modeling technique, the researcher examines a sample of 10 companies from different industries, and countries, over a 20-year period. The results show the efficiency of the predictive models developed in nine of the 10 companies analyzed. The findings of this study allow us to conclude that there seems to be an association between the investments made in CRM solutions and the income of the companies that invest in these technologies.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained great attention among regulators, stock market authorities, and firms' stakeholders for many decades. In this chapter, we first review the main regulations, standards, and laws issued by UAE federal authorities namely the Company Commercial Law of 2015, the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX) disclosure guidance of 2019, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, and UAE CSR platform. Second, we present a summary of the empirical research on CSR issues in UAE context, namely in the following four fields: (1) CSR determinants both at the micro and macro levels, (2) CSR measures in the three pillars (environmental, social, and governance), (3) the impact of CSR policy and practices on financial performance/market value, (4) and the role of some mediating/moderating variables such as leadership and board gender diversity. Results show greater compliance to CSR standards among different industries and institutions but heterogenous empirical findings in the four explored fields. While there is crucial alignment with both social and environmental standards as evidenced by numerous empirical studies, additional efforts should be deployed to highlight the governance pillar through firms' discretionary reporting. Our survey provides useful directives and outcomes as it portrays both legal aspects coupled with some empirical evidence of CSR issues in the UAE context. Our study helps corporations to comply with local standards on sustainability reporting and highlights the potential economic benefits and advantages for firms adopting CSR strategy. Furthermore, it can be considered as the cornerstone for regulatory bodies in the United Arab Emirates when issuing/enhancing new standards/rules on CSR practices.