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Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are the live wire of construction industry in developing countries. These classes of establishments are most affected by economic contraction and turmoil, thus affecting their performance and survivability. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate and prioritize the survival determinants of construction consulting organization during economic contraction in Nigeria using quantity surveying firms as a focal point.

The study adopted the descriptive-survey design and quantitative data were collected through questionnaire purposely administered to quantity surveying firms in the Southwestern part of Nigeria. The data obtained from 99 quantity surveying firms on survival determinants were analysed using various statistical analysis such as mean score, standard deviation, Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, and so on. Principal component analysis was used to identify the principal components of survival determinants, while the factors were prioritized using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE).

The result of the analysis reveals eight factors that significantly determines the survival of firms during the period of economic contraction. Furthermore, the eight grouped factors were prioritized accordingly namely firm's innovation and diversification, ownership structure and networking, education level and management skills, and so on.

This study investigated the survival determinants of quantity surveying firms and prioritized it with the opinions of principal partners in quantity surveying establishments. As against obtaining large survey responses from all quantity surveyors in the study area that may not have practical experience of managing firms, the limited responses received provide valid basis to broaden the horizon of professionals and other stakeholders on the key determinants for firms to survive economic turmoil.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing information on prioritized factors that must be considered in an appropriate order by quantity surveying firms to survive economic contraction.

The primary objective of this study aims to intensively explore the environment of Indonesian regulations and laws related to the Islamic banking system and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) and unveil the restrictive laws and regulatory flaws that potentially hinder the Islamic banking institution and MSME industry in achieving financial inclusion and promoting sustainable growth.

This paper implements a qualitative method by implementing a multi-case study research strategy, both from the Islamic banking institutions and the MSME industries. The data were gathered primarily through an interview approach by adopting purposive uncontrolled quota sampling.

The findings of this paper reveal two essential issues: First, the regulatory imbalances and restrictions could demotivate and hinder the efforts of Islamic banks in providing access to finance for the MSME segment, hence, encumbering the achievement of the financial inclusion agenda from the Islamic banking industry. Second, the flaws in MSME registration and taxation might discourage the formal MSMEs from extending their business license and prevent the informal MSME units from registering their business. This issue would potentially lower their chance of accessing external financing from the formal financial institutions and participating in supportive government programmes due to the absence of proper legality.

Since this paper only observed six Islamic banks and 22 MSME units in urban and rural locations in Indonesia using a case study approach, the empirical findings and case discussions were limited to those respective Islamic banks and MSME participants.

By referring to the recommendations as presented in this paper, two critical policy implications could be expected from adopting the proposed recommendations, among others: By addressing the issues of the regulatory imbalance associated with the Islamic banking industry and introduce the deregulatory policies on profit and loss sharing (PLS) scheme implementation, this approach will motivate the Islamic banking industry in serving the MSME sector better and provide greater access to financial services, particularly in using the PLS financing schemes. By resolving the problems on MSME registration and taxation, this strategy will enhance the sustainability of the formal MSMEs’ operation and encourage the informal ones to register, hence, improving their inclusion into the formal financing services and government assistance programmes.

The present study attempts to address the literature shortcomings and helps to fill the gaps – both theoretical and empirical – by incorporating the multi-case study among Indonesian Islamic banks and MSMEs to extensively explore the Indonesia regulatory environment pertaining to the Islamic banking system (supply-side) and MSMEs (demand-side), and thoroughly investigates and reveals the restrictive laws and regulatory flaws that could potentially hinder the Islamic banking institutions and MSME industries in attaining financial inclusion and contributing to sustainable development.

This study aims to examine the positive impact of strategies on the viability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in times of crisis. Specifically, it investigates the influence of resource utilization as an initial survival strategy on innovation practices and SMEs’ performance. It further assesses the potential impact of government aid and partnerships on the relationship between resource utilization and innovation.

This study used a mixed-method approach that integrates phenomenology and quantitative research. This phenomenological study conducted in-depth interviews with 23 SME owners. Based on qualitative findings, a quantitative research design was developed, and this study surveyed 352 SMEs. Structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing.

Resource utilization as an initial survival strategy has a positive effect on increasing organizational innovation practices and ultimately affects business performance. Furthermore, government support and external partnerships significantly enhance the relationship between resource utilization and innovation.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a crisis for businesses but has provided many positive transformations. SME entrepreneurs should sustain their survival strategies and seize external support to enhance their potential. Due to the pandemic, various efforts have created innovations, honed business resiliency and increased competitiveness.

SMEs struggled with the crisis and responded by utilizing many retrenchment strategies. This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence of an emergency response that has resulted in fruitful impacts. The findings can be generalized to represent the behavior of SMEs, especially in emerging countries.

Taiwan’s hotel industry was adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to examine the effect of strategic choices by Taiwanese international tourist hotels before and during the pandemic environments.

A data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist methodology is used in this study to provide a mechanism to assess Taiwanese hotel strategy performance. Changes in the productivity and performance of Taiwanese international tourist hotels were analyzed in the periods before and during the pandemic to uncover insights useful should a similar crisis occur in the future. Panel data were obtained from the annual report of international tourist hotels published by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau from 2017–2020. Two groups of hotels were analyzed in this study: city hotels and scenic hotels.

The findings of this study reveal that chain hotels tended to perform better than independent hotels in both city and scenic areas during the global pandemic. Specifically, the crisis caused a substantial decline in productivity and profitability for international tourist hotels in Taipei City during the COVID-19 period. Compared to city hotels, findings also indicate that most international tourist hotels in scenic areas were able to maintain better productivity, including larger-sized scenic hotels.

The DEA-based analysis provides unique and valuable insights for hotel firm leaders on how to better identify and make strategic choices when responding to future crises.

This study aims to identify the enablers of supply chain resilience (SCR) through a literature review and expert panel input in the context of Pakistan and the post-pandemic era. This study also aims to categorize and rank the identified enablers using expert panel input.

A review of the extant literature was conducted to investigate and identify the factors that contribute to SCR. The relative ranking of the enablers was carried out by a group of industry and academic experts. The expert panel was convened to compare the main categories and each enabler in pairs and to score the enablers using triangular fuzzy numbers.

This study identified 16 critical SCR enablers. Using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP), these enablers were divided into three groups and analyzed. The results show that financial enablers, technology enablers and then social enablers are prioritized when it comes to SCR in emerging markets. The robustness of the ranking of enablers is tested through sensitivity analysis.

The results shall be helpful for policymakers and managers to understand the important enablers and also help allocate resources to important enablers. Managers will be able to formulate strategies to achieve SCR in an uncertain environment.

This is one of the first attempts to identify and rank the enablers of SCR in an emerging economy context.

There is an increasing awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the private equity (PE) environment. While many studies deal with the implementation of ESG in the field of PE, only little is known about how the subcategory venture capital. Therefore, this study aims to answer the questions: What are the motivations for venture capitalists to consider ESG in their investment decisions? How do they implement it and what are the barriers that hinder them?

An inductive study based on semi-structured interviews with 11 investors of venture capital firms (VCs) was conducted to explore the drivers, the barriers and the strategies to implement ESG in the investment decision-making.

All investors perceive that ESG will play a major role in investment decisions in the long term. VCs have seen benefits primarily in terms of performance and commercialization of startups that incorporate the ESG aspect. Limited partners are a driving force for change in this process. No standardized framework and lack of resources for implementation are mainly assumed as barriers.

Politics and industry might support particularly smaller VCs in their implementation by providing standardized frameworks. Owing to increasing awareness and interest of ESG criteria among VCs, startups should also address these criteria.

This paper contributes to the literature by examining how ESG is currently considered in VCs’ decisions and what challenges they face. Therefore, this research contributes to the understanding of the decision-making process among venture capitalists.

High failure rates characterise the experience of new entrepreneurial ventures in Nigeria and other emerging economies. Reliance on strategic tools such as entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is critical to the growth and survival of new ventures. This empirical study aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between EO and performance of new venture logistics firms in Nigeria. It further explores the contingent effects of social capital and marketing capabilities on the hypothesised direct relationships from a transport industry perspective.

Managers of 650 new venture logistics service providers in selected Nigerian cities were Web-surveyed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. Regression analysis was further performed. Common method variance and other validity checks were assessed.

The 469 valid responses showed a positive relationship between EO and new venture performance (NVP). Social capital and marketing capabilities positively moderate the direct relationship between EO and NVP. Managerial implications suggest that context-specific dynamics must be considered when making strategic EO decisions to aid firm growth and survival.

This study directly responds to the contingency approach recommendation of past studies (Anwar et al., 2022; Van Stel et al., 2021; Covin and Wales, 2019) using the logistics service and emerging economy context. It also introduces social capital and marketing capabilities as moderators.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the construction industry, it is still unclear from prior studies about adequately positioning the quality assurance (QA) for the post-pandemic era and future pandemics, especially cross-border construction logistics and supply chain (Cb-CLSC). Thus, this study aims to develop a managerial framework to position the QA of Cb-CLSC during pandemics and post-pandemics by taking lessons from how COVID-19 has impacted the existing QA systems and has been managed successfully.

This is achieved pragmatically through an embedded mixed-method design involving a literature review, survey and interview from experts within the Hong Kong SAR–Mainland China links, typically known as the world’s factory. The design is further integrated with the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach.

The study revealed 10 critical managerial practices (MPs) to position the QA to be adequate for the post-pandemic and during future pandemics, with the top three including “strict observance of government regulations (MP1)”, “planning ahead the period of quality assurance with the quarantine days in host countries (MP6)” and “modification of contract to cater for uncertainties (MP4)”. This attained a relatively good percentage agreement of 53% between the industry and academia. However, the top four MPs regarded as very effective include “implementing digital collaborative inspections with subcontractors and trades (MP8)”, “implementing a digital centralized document and issue management system (MP7)”, “strict observance to government regulations, including vaccination of workers, social distancing, use of prescribed nose masks, etc. (MP1)” and “planning ahead the period of quality assurance with the quarantine days in host countries (MP6)”. Two underlying components of the MPs were revealed as policy-process (PP)-related practices and people-technology-process (PTP)-related practices, and these can be modelled into a managerial framework capable of effectively positioning the QA to be adequate during pandemics through to the post-pandemic era.

The findings of this study depicted significant theoretical and practical contributions to the proactive management of QA activities during pandemics through to the post-pandemic era. It could empower organisations to pay attention to smartly and innovatively balancing people, processes, pandemic policy and technology to inform decisions to effectively position the QA for the post-pandemic era and survive the risks of future pandemics.

The study contributes to the body of knowledge in that it develops a managerial framework to position the QA of Cb-CLSC during pandemics and post-pandemics by taking lessons from how COVID-19 has impacted the existing QA systems and has been managed successfully. It is original research with invaluable primary data in the form of surveys and interviews from experts within the Hong Kong SAR–Mainland China links, typically known as the world’s factory.

Optimal application and commitment toward financial management practices enhance organization performance. This study aims to assess the influence of financial management practices on organizational performance of small- and medium-scale enterprises.

Data were collected from 45 small-sized and 72 medium-sized firms. Data supported the hypothesized relationships. Construct reliability and validity were established through confirmatory factor analysis. The conceptual model and hypotheses were evaluated by using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that working capital significantly influenced organizational performance. Capital budget management significantly influenced organizational performance. A non-significant influence of asset management on organizational performance was observed.

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s SMEs focus and cross-sectional data.

The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers for stakeholders and decision-makers of SMEs in the development of well-articulated and proactive financial management systems to ensure competitiveness, sustainability, viability and financial competences.

The study adds to the corpus of literature by evidencing empirically that financial management practices significantly influenced SMEs’ performance.

The institutional context in which family firms operate influences their behaviour and performance, yet literature reviews seldom analyse family firms on a regional basis. To fill this gap, this review aims to present research on family entrepreneurship in the transition economies of the Visegrád countries (V4). In this particular group of European economies, the current formal institutions have largely evolved along Western European lines. However, the transformation of informal institutions appears to be still in its infancy.

In order to identify the most representative authors, the methodologies used, the main research topics and to establish a future research agenda, the authors selected, through a systematic process, 112 papers from the Web of Science up to the year 2022. The authors performed a bibliographic analysis using clustering algorithms, complemented by a traditional literature review.

The performance of family firms in transition economies has been the subject of very little research. The results allowed the authors to identify four main areas of research: governance, innovation, sustainability, competitive advantage and considering the influence of the region's characteristics on family business behaviour.

Studies from transition economies can contribute to a broader understanding of family firms in terms of the impact of the institutional environment (especially the influence of sociological changes and specific historical experiences of family members) on their long-term planning, socioemotional wealth (SEW) protection and ethics. In light of recent events, research from the region may also contribute to the understanding of how and to what extent “familiness” influences crisis management or socially responsible behaviour in family firms.