João J. M. Ferreira

Universidade da Beira Interior | UBI · Department of Management and Economics

This study seeks to provide a comprehensive and integrative review of the literature on digital entrepreneurship. Based on a systematic approach, this review portrays literature trends, integrates prevailing literature approaches, and suggests an agenda for future research on digital entrepreneurship. The strict research protocol employed led to th...

Drone parcel delivery is an emerging topic with drone suppliers and retailers concerned due to their challenges and implications. Despite the many advantages associated with the drone delivery service, there are still obstacles to its acceptance by consumers, which is why it is necessary to understand their motivations. This study aims to analyze c...

The innovation ecosystems in economies dependent on natural resources use these assets as fundamental capital to promote development and economic growth. Ensuring the lasting sustainability of these economies represents a difficult challenge, especially in a context of limited and irreplaceable natural capital. This study explores indicators of nat...

Purpose The literature identifies the need to understand better the role of universities’ entrepreneurial orientation (EO), even while this remains an unexplored field. This study seeks to overcome this shortcoming and put forward empirical evidence on the EO of universities and it examines the moderating effects of networks, knowledge and trust, m...

Family businesses are increasingly recognized for their significance in the global economy, constituting a growing portion of companies worldwide and elevating the importance of this topic on governmental agendas. Unique challenges confront family firms, intertwining business decisions with familial repercussions. Among these challenges, the succes...

The role of interorganizational alliances in the linkage between corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and SME performance has been mostly ignored in the literature. This study aims to address this gap by recognizing how interorganizational alliances can contribute to sustaining entrepreneurial activities of companies based on knowledge-based view. The s...

The literature demonstrates how Born Globals (BGs) make recourse to distinctive strategic intangible assets to accelerate their internationalisation processes while, nevertheless, broadly neglecting the role of International Entrepreneurial Culture (IEC) in generating and differentiating BGs despite its relevant role. This study examines the IEC as...

Purpose Based on the Natural resource-based view (NRBV), this study aims to analyze the association between the Sustainable Development Goals related to Gender Equality, Decent Work, Innovation, and Climatic Action in the Food Industry. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative study is adopted based on the 2019 World Bank Enterprise Survey micr...

This paper explores the impact of International Entrepreneurial Orientation (IEO) on the international performance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), with a focus on the post-COVID-19 era. IEO, treated as a subdimension of entrepreneurial orientation, is crucial for SMEs in global markets, especially given the challenges posed by the pan...

Although entrepreneurial failure (EF) is a fairly recent topic in entrepreneurship literature, the number of publications has been growing dynamically and particularly rapidly. Our systematic review maps and integrates the research on EF based on a multi-method approach to give structure and consistency to this fragmented field of research. The res...

Electric vehicles (EVs) and their battery recycling have recently garnered heightened attention from both firms and consumers, primarily driven by concerns related to environmental sustainability. However, consumers often grapple with uncertainties regarding the green valuation of EVs. Integrating blockchain traceability technology presents a promi...

A circular economy (CE) addresses the shift in economic systems from an unsustainable linear approach to a sustainable circular approach through start-ups and entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE). A single level of focus on CE research limits an understanding of the mechanisms fostering a transition towards CE. We conduct a systematic review of the macr...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine entrepreneurs’ learning before, during and after entrepreneurial failure and understand the relationship between learning and recovery from failure. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple case study was carried out based on entrepreneur interviews who have experienced the failure of thei...

Purpose This study aims to analyze the entrepreneurial intention (EI) manifested by potential entrepreneurs for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) and traditional markets, thereby tracing a comparative EI for both markets. The intention is to understand the vision of potential future entrepreneurs related to markets focused on the LGBT...

International entrepreneurship (IE) theory assumes that international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) and international networks provide foundations of early internationalisation. However, the doubt remains whether the five disaggregated dimensions of IEO play an equally relevant role in SMEs' early access to foreign markets, as well as whether I...

Purpose This research aims to shed light on the linkage between digital platforms and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance and consider the moderating effect of intellectual capital and environmental dynamism. Design/methodology/approach This study applies a quantitative approach using a sample of primary data from 508 managers an...

The aim of this study is threefold: firstly, to assess how the support provided by universities for academic collaboration with the industry may foster collaborative behaviour, based on academics’ perceptions of the benefits and costs of collaboration. Secondly, the research seeks to unravel the perceived benefits and costs of university-industry (...

Purpose The commercialization of research produced by universities constitutes a core facet of academic entrepreneurship (AE). Academic literature reveals the need to shed light on entrepreneurial processes in higher education institutions (HEIs). This study intends to fill this gap by researching the mechanisms for facilitating AE and the variable...

More than ever, universities and policymakers are paying attention to faculty members’ engagement in industries’ projects because university–industry collaboration (UIC) is seen as the key to economic development. However, the UIC differs from country to country, and researchers may have different motivations. This study explored the relationship b...

Purpose –Gazelle companies are characterized by rapid growth in a short time. Identifying the determinants of this exponential expansion is important as these firms have a significant impact on the economy. They generate increased employment and investment by investors interested in new opportunities. Previous studies have failed to reach a consens...

Purpose This paper reviews the literature on the business models of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It seeks to examine the profile, conceptual and intellectual structure of the literature whilst leveraging the findings to suggest promising future paths to advance our knowledge on business models of SMEs. Design/methodology/approach The...

This study investigates the influence of internal corporate social responsibility (iCSR) aspects on employees' job satisfaction and organizational engagement through the lenses of social identity and social exchange theories. Based on a survey collected from 368 employees in 25 banks in Vietnam, the findings show the importance of each iCSR aspect...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive framework that identifies thematic clusters and their interconnections within Global Talent Management (GTM), global careers and talent management (TM). Design/methodology/approach In this paper, this study conducted a co-citation analysis using bibliographic data to unveil the intell...

Hospitals, as critical infrastructures, confront multifaceted challenges during crises, ranging from natural disasters to pandemics. Initially, these facilities must secure essential emergency support functions and, subsequently, expedite their recovery from any adverse impacts. Hospital resilience, influenced by numerous variables and assessed thr...

Despite the growing importance of implementing digital technologies in business contexts, empirical research relating to digital capabilities, innovation, and business performance still remains scarce, particularly relevant in these times of disruption. This study proposes a mediated-moderated framework to describe, according to the level of econom...

This study evaluates how the environment, the strategic posture, and the organizational structure contribute to the decline and performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Based on a sample of SME and through recourse to Altman’s Z-score model, we evaluate the situation of companies that declare they are facing difficulties in conjunc...

This study investigates the impact of pre-COVID-19 organizational ambidexterity, digital capabilities, and organizational resilience on firms’ innovation behavior post the second COVID-19 wave. Utilizing World Bank business surveys from 2019 and COVID follow-up surveys in 2020 and 2021 across 21 countries (8,928 firms), we employ partial least squa...

Purpose This study sought to develop an aggregated assessment of the literature on the resource-based view (RBV). The main aim was to map the RBV field based on a systematic literature review (SLR) of 226 academic articles published in refereed journals from 1994 to 2022. Design/methodology/approach Two bibliometric analysis methods were used: bib...

The COVID-19 crisis represented a major challenge in various social and economic sectors, and the sport context was no exception. Professional clubs had to deal with an intense organisational and operational environment, which is essential to apply their tangible and intangible assets to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage. This study aims t...

Entrepreneurship is an activity of recognized economic and social interest, leading scholars to examine contextual factors that justify variations between economies, and governments to configure more favourable conditions to entrepreneurial activity. In this sequence, this study aims to analyse the effect of reforms produced in the business environ...

While research on born-global firms has been subject to broad review, little is known about their dynamic capabilities and the connection of these firms with ambidexterity. To fill this void, we critically examine the extant dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity in born-global firms research from 1996 to 2022. We systematically review 74 articles...

Academic spinoffs have received great attention in recent years as a means of transferring the knowledge generated by the research activities of higher education institutions (HEIs). Despite the contribution identified by the literature, there remains a lack of empirical evidence substantiating how the creation of academic spinoffs is enabled by en...

Despite the great complexity and the challenges inherent to technological advances that require digital transformation (DT), there is still limited academic guidance for developing and leveraging capabilities during such transformations. However, there is recognition that being or becoming an entrepreneurial higher education institution (HEI) may p...

A literatura existente mostra que as Born Globals (BGs) recorrem frequentemente a ativos estratégicos intangíveis distintos, como forma de acelerar processos de internacionalização precoce, diversificarem e ampliarem a presença em mercados internacionais. No entanto, o papel da Cultura Empreendedora Internacional (CEI) nas BGs tem sido relativament...

Digital technology has produced deep changes in the business world. However, companies have a hard time understanding consumers’ changing needs and new consumption patterns, especially small and medium-sized enterprises that currently face growing challenges in an era characterized by a lack of time and information overload. New mechanisms must be...

The rapid growth in the widespread acceptance and usage of the Internet and the ease of creating online communities have brought advantages in terms of swift access to information alongside ethical problems interrelated with the dark side of the workings of these communities. Relevant research approaching ethics and the dark side of online communit...

Purpose This study aims to obtain insights based on empirical evidence that identify the key drivers and obstacles that lead companies to (re)/enter markets and distinguish the different paths SMEs take. This also provides deeper insights into internationalisation, success, failure and the potential for the re-internationalisation of the SMEs. Des...

This study focuses on understanding the features that identify and characterise knowledge spillovers in Business Intelligence (BI) organisations from a strategic entrepreneurial perspective. Thus, we carried out exploratory qualitative research through recourse to case studies involving twenty professionals holding leadership roles in BI organisati...

The purpose of this research is to provide researchers and leaders with a reliable and up-to-date comparison between a single-item and a multi-item trust scale, enabling effective assessment of team members’ trust in their leaders. The aim of the study is to investigate whether a single-question scale is as reliable as a multi-item questionnaire in...

Purpose: This study reviews the literature on collaborative consumption (CC), depicting the main theoretical lineages of the CC approach while leveraging the findings to suggest promising paths for advancing the literature. Design/methodology/approach: This review is based on a bibliometric approach. The strict research protocol employed led to th...

There is an ongoing scholarly debate regarding the compatibility of sustained high levels of firm-level growth with today's environmental sustainability goals, which include targets for limiting carbon emissions and avoiding further biodiversity loss. In this study, we aim to explore this issue through a quantitative analysis of the relationship be...

This study aims to analyse the research involving the evolution and development of digital transformation and the new combinations in tourism development. To this end, a systematic literature review was conducted in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, which gathered 167 studies published between 1997 and 2023, representing the final sample ana...

Ethical leadership can lead to preparing the ground for employee voice, highlighting employees' creativity, and encouraging knowledge-sharing behavior in the organization. Thus, this study examines the impact of ethical leadership on organizational identity with the mediating role of employee voice in digital startups. However, previous studies inv...

Purpose In a context each day more global, a new paradigm has emerged – open innovation (OI) – which may be understood as an innovation strategy in which organizations use internal and external knowledge to leverage their business value, thus maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. This article aims to contribute to understanding this phen...

This research uses signaling theory to combine the perspective of investment results with existing venture capital (VC) standards and reexamines the factors that influence the attractiveness of innovative internet tech startups to VC from the perspective of equal opportunity startups. Taking the financing status of 310 startups in China's sharing e...

One of the major global challenges that most affect the world economies are geopolitical risks triggered by tensions arising from exploiting natural resources. This paper attempts to study the influences of global governance indicators (voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, the rule of law, government effe...

Purpose Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), this paper aims to analyse the relevance of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies and participation in global value chains (GVC) and the effects of the complementarity between both in the adoption of circular economy (CE) actions by small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Design/methodology/approach T...

Although there is a common consensus about what an entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) is, the question of how EE dynamics interact with technology and social change remains unclear. In this introductory article to our Special Issue on the role of EE in technological and social challenges, we systematically review the corpus of literature in this field...

Despite its growing relevance, research on strategic entrepreneurship has been dispersed and fragmented. This study attempts to fill this gap and analyze the state-of-the-art of strategic entrepreneurship, identifying, and systematizing the main themes found in the literature and pointing to future research paths that researchers in the future can...

Despite progress in recognising the popularity of explaining a university’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO), the literature still lacks clear and systematic means of evaluating and measuring university EO. This study seeks to assess the different ways of measuring university EO and develop recommendations for future research to address this gap. B...

Second-life batteries are those taken away from electric vehicles when they do not have sufficient energy and power density to propel electric vehicles. However, second-life batteries are still powerful enough for motionless applications, thus becoming a low-cost and environmental-friendly source of energy storage before being treated as recycled m...

The concept of circular economy (CE) has been a topic of interest for researchers, managers, and policy makers. It is recognised as the latest attempt to balance industrial development, environmental health, and economic growth. Although academic literature in this field has been gradually developing, it is limited in its analysis in terms of econo...

Purpose: Engaging in international business (IB) is a particular challenge to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), representing a condition to ensure growth and longevity. Due to their limitations of tangible resources, these companies make use of their levels of knowledge and capabilities to reach new markets. This study seeks to ascertain the...

Purpose The health sector is increasingly dynamic and complex, in which (strategic) change has become a constant in the sector's adaptation to different challenges. This study aims to meet the need to understand which trends in the literature on strategic change in the health sector and which elements comprise it. Design/methodology/approach To ad...

Purpose-This study holds the objective of evaluating the impact of formal (e.g. ease of doing business score, start-up procedures to register a business, property rights) and informal (e.g. school life expectancy, collaboration between companies and human capital) institutions on the economic performance of countries in conjunction with the mediati...

Purpose This study aims to predict the dark side of knowledge management risk to innovation in Portuguese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It examines the spinner innovation model factors of knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, private knowledge, public knowledge and innovation in uncertain environments. Design/methodology/approach The auth...

By introducing digital technologies, Industry 4.0 may be transforming the traditional systems of the manufacturing industries, which are often blamed for high environmental degradation and social inequalities. Due to their power, size, and scope, manufacturing multinational enterprises (MNEs) are considered by other organizations as best practice r...

This study aims to analyse the efficiency of sports clubs belonging to the Academic Federation of University Sports and the influence the organisational structure holds over their performance standards. First, we included 92 clubs that registered points in the University Club. The analysis was carried out using the two-stage data envelopment analys...

Entrepreneurship is the engine of economic, cultural, and social development. In a reality where equal opportunities between men and women in business are not yet verifiable, we would benefit from an adequate understanding of female entrepreneurship's impact. This chapter explores the concept of female entrepreneurship in a systematic literature re...

Purpose Microfoundations have received increasing attention in several management disciplines. This study aims to outline the uniqueness of microfoundations research in innovation, look at where it comes from and where it is going and provide rich opportunities for future work. Design/methodology/approach To advance research in this area, this stu...

This study analyses the potential influences of entrepreneurial framework conditions on the economic growth of OECD countries. We correspondingly divided these countries into groups according to their income level (high-and upper-middle income economies) with the data, structured into an unbalanced dynamic longitudinal panel (2000-2020), obtained f...

The Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EE) articulate concepts from various streams of literature and are formed by multiple stakeholders and relate to different levels of analysis. Although the literature shows a growing relevance on the theme of EE, most studies reveal to be conceptual, and the existence of empirical studies with quantitative methodolog...

This chapter aims to explore in-depth some examples of smart city innovations through a case study. We follow a qualitative research methodology, studying the reality of an academic spin-off, which operates in the area of Information, Communication and Electronic Technologies (ICTE), developing national and European R&D+I projects, through Triple H...

Purpose The purpose of this study is use a bibliometric analysis to explore the relational nature of knowledge creation in WFM in operations. Companies live under constant pressure to find the best ways to plan their workforce, and the workforce emangement (WFM) is one of the biggest challenges faced by managers. Relevant research on WFM in operati...

As key players in innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, Higher Education Institutions (HEI) assume a position as catalysts in creating and disseminating knowledge with repercussions in the societal, economic, political and innovation environments. In this scenario, HEI are facing the need to balance the performance of their traditional mission...

The Entrepreneurial University constitutes a phenomenon that highlights the prominent roles played by academic organizations as aggregators of capabilities, enabling the establishing of bridges between innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. This research therefore sets out to analyze the relationship between the Total Early Stage Entrepreneuria...

Green growth has emerged in recent years to respond to environmental problems caused by climate change and the scarcity of resources. However, today's green growth involves environmental, social and financial dimensions. In this context, many countries are currently seeking green growth for their economic development through the efficient use of th...

Purpose This study is dedicated to critically analysing research addressing human resource management (HRM) and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) with the purpose of driving development in the field of human resources (HR) at the strategic and managerial level. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review (SLR) was conduct...

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been gaining relevance in the academic, business, and political worlds, the relationship between CSR and performance remains unclear. This study provides a better understanding of the relationship between companies' financial performance and CSR activities. In other words, can the allocation of com...

Purpose Adopting the research concept of socioemotional wealth (SEW) as applied to family firm leaders, this study aims to analyse the literature on succession and corporate governance processes in family firms in keeping with this still developing concept and thereby not only contributing to advancing knowledge on this field but also proposing a c...

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are constrained by scarce resources, yet they are under strong pressure to maintain a competitive position in global markets, especially during crises such as the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this context, electronic commerce (hereafter e-commerce) platforms combining artificial intellige...

This study develops a comprehensive overview of the literature on sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The primary aim is to map the research on SE in SMEs by conducting a systematic literature review of 206 articles published in refereed academic journals from 1987 to 2022. Two bibliometric analysis metho...

Society 5.0 is an extremely popular idea in current socioeconomic contexts. The transition process of evolving into this superintelligent society envisioned by the Japanese government is still ongoing, but this paradigm has already had an impact through recent changes in societies’ perspectives and ambitions. The academic contributions on this topi...

Based on the mixed model unified technology acceptance and utilization theory (UTAUT) and spinner innovation model (SPINNER), a theoretical model is suggested to explain the determinant of behavioral intention to predict innovation in the context of a financial sector firm. A questionnaire was developed to collect primary data, which was subsequent...

Digital technologies are transforming entrepreneurial activities and increasingly impacting the strategies of small businesses, which, given their size, may find it more difficult to withstand such digital challenges. Our study aims to investigate the influence of knowledge strategies and the maturity of digital affordances on the performance of sm...

While there is a large body of literature on the benefits of open innovation, little is known about the knowledge flows and the interrelationship of the purposeful and serendipitous spillover of knowledge flows that deliver value from international open innovation (IOI) collaborations. This study examines these knowledge flows occurring from IOI an...

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is a critical tool for fostering innovative behaviour and obtaining competitive advantage in firms. This study examines various organizational factors that are critical for building an internal environment in a firm conducive to CE. It utilizes the Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI) for identifyi...