Disruptive digital innovation (DDI) often creates hypercompetitive market environment that forces firms to be agile to survive and remain competitive. Whereas most studies have focused on larger ...firms' effort to be agile, few have looked at how small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) respond to DDI. The study attempts to answer the research question of how SMEs achieve agility to respond to DDI. Drawing on a case study of an innovative SME, our study develops a framework on agility based on the processes of mitigating organizational rigidity, developing innovative capabilities, and balancing the tension of organizational ambidexterity. Specifically, our findings show that for SMEs, mitigating organizational rigidity is enabled by the mechanism of achieving boundary openness while developing innovative capability is enabled by the mechanism of achieving organizational adaptability. At the same time, given the inherent challenges of resource constraints, SMEs also need to balance the tension of organizational ambidexterity.
Despite the proliferation of HRM research, only a small fraction explores the context of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Where HRM in SMEs has received attention, the literature base ...remains fragmented and variable, comprising a plurality of definitions, explanations, and methods. To advance understanding, this paper uses a quarter‐century systematic review drawing on an evidence base of 137 peer‐reviewed articles. A cumulative framework is presented capturing key developments and synthesizing existing areas of research focus. Analysis of limitations and knowledge‐gaps finds a failure to differentiate across various types of SMEs, limited appreciation of SME characteristics and contextual conditions, and a dominance of managerial perspectives. An agenda for future research on HRM in SMEs is outlined with respect to definitional parameters, HR practices, HRM–performance, key determinants, and presenting issues. The paper concludes that SMEs offer a unique, fruitful, and timely context for investigations of HRM.
•This study aims to determine the antecedents and performances of adopting big data analytics among medium-sized enterprises.•Firms are lagging far behind in the usage of big data analytics.•Data ...were gathered from 171 manufacturing firms in Iran using partial least squares approach.•The finding confirms understating the drivers of big data analytics adoption in SMEs.
Big data analytics (BDA) adoption is a game-changer in the current industrial environment for precision decision-making and optimal performance. Nonetheless, the determinants or consequences of its adoption in small and medium enterprises remain unclear, hence the objective of this study. Data analysis of 171 Iranian small and medium manufacturing firms revealed that complexity, uncertainty and insecurity, trialability, observability, top management support, organizational readiness, and external support affect significantly on BDA adoption. The findings confirm the strong impact of BDA adoption in small to medium-sized enterprises, marketing and financial, performance enhancement. Understanding the drivers of BDA adoption helps managers to employ appropriate initiatives that are vital for effective implementation. The results enable BDA service providers to attract and diffuse BDA in small to medium-sized enterprises.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can adopt and use social media (SM) for communicating information with stakeholders with minimal cost. The ability to access and share information influences ...the SMEs' performance, but there is little scholarship on the association between the adoption of social media and SMEs' performance. This research aims to investigate the effects of technology-organizational-environmental (TOE) factors on the adoption of SM and SMEs’ performance in developing countries.
This study employed the TOE framework as determinants affecting the adoption of social media and SMEs' performance. The paper used a closed-ended questionnaire to gather data, through an online survey, from randomly selected respondents from SMEs operating in Pakistan. Partial-least-squares-structural-equation-modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for the path analysis of 423 responses from SMEs' owners, executives, and managers. The present study also explores the mediating role of SM between TOE characteristics and SMEs’ performance.
The findings revealed a direct positive relationship between TOE constructs, the adoption of SM, and SMEs' performance. Full mediation was found between technological factors and SMEs performance, and partial mediation was found between organizational and environmental factors and SMEs’ performance. Complementary mediation among the variables was also examined.
This paper has implications for practitioners and researchers interested in investigating social media adoption in SMEs. It builds an empirical, multi-dimensional hypothesized model, including several determinants that may influence the adoption of social media.
•Investigates the effects of technology-organizational-environmental factors on the adoption of social media and SMEs' performance.•Most SMEs adopted social media (SM) to reduce fears of being left behind by market fluctuations.•Forthcoming technologies may become increasingly similar, with organizations wishing to adopt distinctive platforms.
In this paper we explore how small and medium-sized enterprises () engage in external knowledge sourcing, a form of inbound open innovation. We draw upon a sample of 1,411 and empirically ...conceptualize a typology of strategic types of external knowledge sourcing, namely minimal, supply-chain, technology-oriented, application-oriented, and full-scope sourcing. Each strategy reflects the nature of external interactions and is linked to a distinct mixture of four internal practices for managing innovation. Both full-scope and application-oriented sourcing offer performance benefits and are associated with a stronger focus on managing innovation. However, they differ in their managerial focus on strategic and operational aspects.
Following calls to capture the consequences of family involvement in the business, this article empirically investigates the mediating role of board processes (i.e., effort norms, use of knowledge ...and skills, and cognitive conflicts) and board (control and strategy) tasks in the relationship between family involvement and firm performance in small and medium-sized companies. To address this purpose, we developed a theoretical model using family business and corporate governance literature. We collected data from one sample of small and medium-sized enterprises, and we applied structural equation modeling to validate and test constructs and relationships. Our results show that (a) family involvement in the business has a positive impact on effort norms and use of knowledge and skills, and a negative one on cognitive conflicts, (b) board processes have generally a positive influence on board tasks performance, and (c) board strategy task performance positively influences firm financial performance, while board control tasks do not have a significant impact. Results have implications for both research and practice.
Technological innovations often lead to redesigns in the business models of established companies, requiring them to incorporate new external knowledge into internal activities. Against this ...background, this study integrates the concepts of business model design, absorptive capacity, and innovation strategy into a novel research model, which analyzes the redesign of established business models in response to the emergence of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0, also known as the Industrial Internet of Things, constitutes a contemporary research context that is highly relevant for corporate practice but scarcely regarded in management literature until now. The article contains an analysis of data from 221 German industrial enterprises, conducted through structural equation modeling, with separate data for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises. First, the results indicate that the acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation of knowledge from the environment enable companies to engage in both exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies. Furthermore, the paper includes an evaluation of the role of exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies that reflects in efficiency-centered and novelty-centered business model designs. The distinct characteristics differentiating SMEs from large enterprises are also explained. The implications of absorptive capacity on innovation strategies, which influence the redesign of extant business models, are discussed from a research and managerial perspective.
This article summarises and synthesises the evidence on SME innovation, exporting and growth, paying particular attention to internal and external (eco-system) enablers, and for the interplay between ...innovation and exporting in SME growth. We highlight those areas for which the evidence base is secure and where the evidence base remains limited, and develop policy suggestions and an agenda for further research.