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This study examines the interconnected effects of formal, informal, environmental and skill-based institutional barriers on firm performance. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region has implemented various reforms and policy initiatives to support small businesses yet are unsuccessful as formal institutional framework and governance remains a challenge.

The authors employ a sample of 3,515 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the ECOWAS and a two-stage instrumental variable approach to control for endogeneity. Additionally, the authors check for robustness using various measures of firm performance such as profitability, productivity and export intensity.

The authors confirm that formal institutions are insignificant for firm profitability and productivity, whilst reducing informal, environmental and skill-based institutional barriers are associated with firm performance. However, when barriers to informal, environmental and skill-based institutions are at the lowest, formal institutions are associated with firm performance.

The major limitation lies in the policy implications. Informal institutions come into play when formal institutions are weak. However, informal practices must be addressed in the form of formal enforcement. This leads to a conundrum.

Policymakers should continue to market-supporting institutions and a conducive business environment to complement the formal institutional framework.

This study provides new empirical evidence on how institutional quality affects firm performance by examining whether other institutional factors, such as the informal, environmental and skill-based institutional barriers, can moderate this effect.

Virtual and augmented reality solutions in medicine are generally applied in communication, training, simulation and therapy. However, like most new digital developments, these technologies face a large number of institutional barriers that are inherent to the medical sector.

Following Richard Scott's view on institutions and organizations, a multiple case study is used to analyze regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive institutional pillars in the medical industry.

The results of the study demonstrate that (1) the regulatory pillar inhibits the advancement of new technologies in the approach to treatment, regulation of patient data, educational processes for medical staff, and information and financial flows; (2) the number of barriers increases based on the solution's level of disruption and the number of variable conventional procedures; (3) trust between participants in the medical industry plays an important role in introducing new technologies; (4) new participants need to address certain pillars depending on the area of application.

The authors discuss top-down and bottom-up approaches for overcoming institutional barriers when implementing augmented and virtual reality solutions for companies focusing on the medical market.

This paper focuses on social innovation dynamics in extreme contexts where institutional volatility is deeply rooted and enduring. In other words, the authors focus their discussion on the challenges that social innovators are facing in their endeavor of solving wicked social problems within an extreme institutional environment. This research is guided by the following question: How does an extreme institutional environment influence social innovation processes?

This qualitative research builds on the unique case of the Palestinian non-governmental organization (NGO) sector, a rarely studied context in organizational studies. The authors combine archival sources with 24 semi-structured interviews with Palestinian NGOs.

The authors theorize three barriers that hinder social innovation in such contexts: institutional trap, effectiveness trap and sustainability trap. The authors also theorize five mechanisms through which these barriers influence each other dynamically: mingling, surviving, undermining, binding and reinforcing. Taken together, these barriers and mechanisms shed light on social innovation processes taking place within extreme institutional environments.

The main limitation of this study is the methodological design, based on an extreme single case-study which, on a bunch of features, is quite unique in the world. The authors argue that the results are all the same transferable to other relatively similar contexts.

By theorizing the institutional barriers to social innovation in an extreme institutional context, the research thus sheds light on how social innovation could be sustained and stimulated in Palestine and other contexts that face similar institutional challenges.

From an engaged scholarship perspective, studying Palestine cannot be more relevant than today considering the turmoil in which Palestinians are. The research thus provides a deeper understanding of organizational and institutional dynamics with crucial social repercussions.

The social innovation literature has overemphasized success stories to the detriment of the struggles that hinder social innovations in extreme institutional environments. By focusing on the barriers that social innovators experience in these contexts, the authors provide novel empirical insight. Furthermore, this study enriches the understanding of the institutional dynamics of social innovations by proposing a process model that elucidates how an extreme institutional context can influence social innovations.

This paper aims to explore the barriers that constrain the venture capital (VC) financing in Iran based on the institutional theory.

To answer the question, “How institutional barriers constrain the VC financing in Iran?”, 31 detailed interviews were conducted, and the interviewed data were analysed by using the grounded theory method.

There exist several institutional barriers (formal and informal) in different stages of the VC investment process in Iran. Major formal institutional deficiencies include lack of appropriate financial regulations, inefficacy in tax, labour, property rights, financial disclosure, bankruptcy, investor’s protection laws and regulations, lack of credit rating/scoring system, inefficacy in small and medium-sized enterprise-supporting policies and capital market underdevelopment. Moreover, there exist some informal institutional barriers such as culture of capitalism disapproval, culture of secrecy, individualistic customs and weakness of managerial skills that constrain VC activities in Iran.

The research findings imply that the government’s role should change from “establishment of government-sponsored VC funds” to “enforcement of institutional reforms that lead to an appropriate framework for VC investment”.

This paper has made three key contributions. First, it has provided comprehensive insights into how institutional barriers constrain the VC investment in a developing country. Second, a new stage-wise model is proposed for analysing the VC investment process. Third, existing knowledge about the role of both formal and informal institutions in the VC investment is extended.

This study aims to explore the barriers and motivations to integrating environmental performance into balanced scorecards (BSCs).

This research adopted a qualitative case study approach with semi-structured interviews within an Australian public health service organisation. Secondary document analysis was performed using annual reports, strategic plans and website data.

The internal barriers creating resistance to incorporating environmental performance dimensions into the BSC include the existing role of environmental disclosure, insufficient sustainability BSC knowledge, lack of BSC champion support, organisational culture and limited environmental commitment practices. Solutions revealed to support decisions to integrate environmental performance in the BSC include recruiting sustainability expertise, articulating financial motivations and recognising external pressures.

The findings provide suggested actions for other organisations facing similar challenges regarding integrating environmental performance into a BSC.

In the current business environment, organisations face growing pressure to consider environmental performance in their BSCs. This study provides insights into the potential problems that prevent or delay the integration of environmental issues into BSCs.

This study provides evidence on how institutional and external factors influence barriers and motivations to embed environmental performance measures into a BSC. This study demonstrates how health-care organisations can effectively overcome barriers by modifying specific institutional artefacts. This is an important contribution to the body of knowledge because there is limited empirical research regarding integrating environmental issues into a public sector BSC that projects key organisational commitment indicators.

This study, a systematic review, focuses on the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) originating in developing countries. It critically analyses, evaluates and synthesises studies featuring formal and informal institutions, embedded in social and business networks, as a marketing solution for institutional voids. The review shows that current international marketing studies downplay the role of informal institutions in the internationalisation of SMEs. Thus, the authors set a new research agenda for advancing the institutional theory to account for the impact of informal institutions and networks on firm internationalisation.

This review followed five structured stages, including framing the research questions, identifying relevant studies, assessing their quality, summarising the evidence and interpreting the findings. Based on the systematic approach, 434 papers (374 from Web of Science, 60 from Scopus) were generated. Following that, the authors applied the qualitative inclusion/exclusion criteria, which yielded 63 papers. Their analysis involved three authors, with the fourth author focusing on ensuring quality in the analysis.

The study findings invite a different line of theorising market structures and processes focusing on the role of networks as an alternative to formal institutional systems. The outcome of our review suggests that there is scope for developing the institutional theory that account for the role of informal institutions and networks.

Based on the analysis, we call for new theorisation, in the international marketing literature, which accounts for informal networking amongst internationalising SMEs in the light of institutional voids. Thus, the authors promote novel participatory, bottom to top understanding of relationship between institutions and enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of institutional environment on the international performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how this relationship is influenced by network competence.

This study uses a quantitative approach. In total, 119 internationally operating Finnish SMEs from five industry sectors are sampled via a cross-sectional survey. Data are analysed through regression modelling.

The international performance of SMEs is influenced directly and indirectly by institutional drivers. The results show that network competence mediates the positive relationship between institutional drivers and international performance.

Network capability development can help SMEs leverage more or less favourable institutional environments for successful internationalisation. Perceived institutional drivers directly result in higher performance, but the effect can be partially mediated by dynamic capabilities. The limitations of the study include its single-country context and the cross-sectional nature of the data.

SMEs should take their home countries’ institutional environments into account, but for long-term success, they should develop the ability to manage their business networks. A conducive institutional environment may help develop competence, which in turn can enable more successful internationalisation in terms of scale, scope and satisfaction.

Decision-makers may benefit from knowing that, in addition to capabilities, an institutionally conducive environment that drives domestic SMEs towards international markets may be an antecedent of successful internationalisation in the SME sector.

This is one of the few studies to illustrate how network capabilities can mediate the influence of institutional factors on entrepreneurial internationalisation. It combines institutional theory and the dynamic capabilities view to explain successful SME internationalisation.

Technology sector is the pivotal element for innovation and economic development of any country. Hence, the present article explores past researches looking into challenges faced by immigrant women entrepreneurs in technology sector and their corresponding response strategies.

This study employs a systematic literature review (SLR) technique to collate all the relevant literature looking into the challenges and strategies from immigrant women entrepreneur's perspective and provide a comprehensive picture. Overall, 49 research articles are included in this SLR.

Findings indicate that immigrant status further escalates the human, financial and network disadvantages faced by women who want to start a technology-based venture.

This paper contributes to the literature by categorizing the barriers and strategies on a 3 × 2 matrix reflecting the origins of the barrier or strategy (taking place at the individual, firm or institutional level) versus the type of the barrier or strategy (arising from being an immigrant woman and being a woman in the technology sector). After underlining the dearth of studies in the literature about the complex phenomenon of immigrant WEs in the technology sector, the paper points out several neglected themes for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how female entrepreneurs navigate complex and challenging institutional environments. It draws on institutional theory and the concept of response strategies to institutional pressures to explore the institutional barriers that female entrepreneurs encounter and highlights the strategies women employ to overcome them.

This paper builds on a case study of female entrepreneurs engaged in food processing in Tanzania. It draws on semi-structured interviews with nine female entrepreneurs, one focus group discussion with six female entrepreneurs and two semi-structured interviews with representatives from women’s business associations (WBAs).

This paper reveals a repertoire of active strategies enacted by women entrepreneurs, including advocacy through WBAs, bootstrapping, semi-informal operations, co-location of home and business, spouse involvement in the business, downplay of gender identity, reliance on persistence and passion and networking through WBAs. While these strategies involve various degrees of agency, the findings indicate that collective efforts through WBAs offer women the most promise in terms of influencing institutional structures.

While there is a growing body of literature examining how institutions influence female entrepreneurs, there is a dearth of knowledge on how women experience institutional complexities and actively react to institutional barriers, complexities and contradictions. This paper shows the value of analytical attention to female entrepreneurs’ agency by highlighting women’s active responses and documenting a repertoire of strategies.

It has been observed that the students attending the bachelor’s degree programmes offered by the Faculty of Engineering Technology (FET) at the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) take extraordinarily longer period to complete their degrees. The purpose of this paper is to identify the institutional barrier, student-related personal barrier and psychological barrier behind the prolonged duration of completion of the said degrees.

A well-developed questionnaire was administered among a selected sample of graduates who were awarded the Bachelor of Technology (Engineering) and Bachelor of Industrial Studies degrees within the past ten years.

Results indicate that institutional barriers such as poor academic counselling and guidance; laboratory sessions being inappropriate/not sufficient to understand the course material; inadequate facilities, such as library resources, and lack of laboratory facilities at the regional centres have contributed immensely to the lengthy duration taken to complete the degrees. Personal factors such as work-related challenges, travelling time and cost of commuting to the main centre located in Colombo and inability to spend the required time expected of the programme have played major roles in the prolonged completion. Results indicate that the cost of tuition is not a major barrier for on-time completion. Psychological barriers such as possessing a limited repertoire of study strategies, lack of understanding of open and distance learning (ODL) methods and deficiency of continuous motivation had a tremendous impact on the delayed graduation. A high satisfaction rate was observed regarding the ODL tools that were used within the programmes and the formative and summative evaluation criteria. Approximately 75 per cent of the sample approved of the five remedies suggested.

Findings of this study provide insight for shortening the duration of the bachelor’s degree programmes offered by the FET at the OUSL.