No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Sustainability Organizational Management Governance and Technological Innovation Leading to Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Economic Growth
Abstract
This study has the purpose to analyze the sustainability organizational management governance and technological innovation in their relationships and implications with entrepreneurship for sustainable economic growth and development. The study departs from the assumption that sustainable economic growth and development is required with theoretical and practical knowledge in sustainability management governance and technological innovation is required to move towards more sustainable production and consumption systems. The method used is the meta-analytical leading to the reflective and descriptive based on the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical literature review. The analysis concludes that the sustainability organizational management governance and technological innovation are relevant factors to have effects on to entrepreneurship for sustainable economic growth and development.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Businesses must do more than safeguard their financial interests to survive in today’s market. Sustainability, or long-term viability, requires consideration of society, the environment, and the global community. However, community-based businesses cannot use some of the current components of the sustainable business framework because they were created for large corporations. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are used in this study. First, quantitative methods were used to develop a conceptual model for the organization’s current needs using the PPT, the TOE, and an Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT). A simple random sampling method was used to gather the data, with a sample size of 14 villages. Using a five-point Likert scale, the researcher gathered data from 2,584 households and collected 627 valid responses. After that, descriptive statistics were used to describe the data (frequency distributions, percentages, averages, medians, and standard deviations), and PLS-SEM was used to investigate the interactions between variables and launch the conceptual model using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling. First and foremost, qualitative through Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA). There are two ways to create a congested SID and an uncluttered SID: the Affinity Relationship Table (ART), the mapping of the Inter-Relationship Diagram (IRD), and the system influence diagram. According to the study, sustainable community water supply businesses are the primary driver. The conceptual framework presented in this paper is consistent with the results of the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and the current constraints placed on community water supply businesses to thrive.
This study explores the crucial role of modern science parks in the creation, development, and management of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Thus, it has developed a conceptual framework for analysing the role that science parks could have in developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem. We interviewed several stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem oriented towards sustainable production. The study design comprises three levels of analysis: twenty-seven nodes, seven themes, and three aggregate dimensions. While a science park can play a key role in creating, developing, and managing an entrepreneurial ecosystem, we find that its success largely depends on the level of cooperation among the key stakeholders. This study provides new insights into (i) how we can better comprehend the emergence of linkages to develop entrepreneurial ecosystems and (ii) how science park managers and regional policymakers can better examine the role of key stakeholders in envisioning, configuring, and enabling regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. When studying science parks, it is important to use a holistic approach, focusing on the key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem – science parks and their stakeholders – and knowing how and when to intervene.
Professions are undergoing a significant change in how they integrate environmental and social objectives into their core values. This article examines the situation in which those working in the project management profession are expected to work under contradictory sustainability constraints. In this article, we investigate the tensions project managers experience when addressing sustainable objectives. Results show that when tensions arise over sustainable objectives (temporality of objectives, organizational barriers, and lack of control), they are addressed only when anchored to an economic one in the form of a business case for sustainability. We also find that when matching traditional project objectives with sustainable ones is not possible, practitioners enact a set of reactions characterized as greenwashing, it can’t be one person, no space for sustainability in my job, other actors involved, or pushing back, depending on the specific project context. Adopting the paradox theory lens, we provide an alternative approach to the business case for sustainability. The practical contribution of this article lies in suggesting the need to find strategies to embrace paradoxical situations and we provide some suggestions to illustrate this.
Green supply chain management is attracting attention as a way to decrease the adverse environmental effects of industries worldwide. GSCM practices are considered as environmentally friendly practices, which include water efficiency, energy efficiency, waste management, environment conservation, recycling and reuse, toxic substance management and hazardous and optimization of transportation. However, considering the context of an emerging economy, green supply chain management is still in its inception and has not been widely embraced yet. In this research, the researcher demonstrated the important and the impact of Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) dimensions, firm practices and supply chain practices on the supply chain practices and the green supply chain adoption and the Supplier Relationship Management and Customer Relationship Management. This research aims to develop and understand a framework for different drivers and barriers that affect the green supply chain adoption in the process as well as identifying the role of TOE dimensions in enhancing the process. In this research, the researcher tried to provide a critical review and identify gaps in the literature related to GSCM, its drivers and barriers, GSCM adoption, and the TOE dimensions, develop an appropriate research methodology to collect and analyze data to address the research question. Empirically examine how all of the variables of the research are statistically related which are Customer Relationship, Supplier Relationship, Supplier Selection, Internal collaboration, Top Management Support, Green Supply Chain Management, Coercive Pressure, Normative Pressure, Mimetic Pressure, Market Pressure, Green purchasing, Barrier for GSCM, and Drivers for GSCM using the statistical tools. Critically discuss findings of current research, compare them to prior findings within the literature, Highlight the theoretical contributions and practical implications of the study, and identify limitations and areas for future research. The deduction approach has been utilized in this research as well as the quantitative method using structured questionnaire has been collected from 405 respondents. The research indicated that there is significant relationship between the environmental, organizational, and Technological dimensions and firm practices and supply chain practices, there is significant relationship between drivers, barriers and firm practices and supply chain practices and the green supply chain adoption. There is significant relationship between Green Supply Chain Adoption and both Supplier Relationship Management and Customer Relationship Management.
Digital technologies offer a potential solution to improve sustainability—economic, social, and environmental—of agri-food systems around the globe. While developed countries have led the innovation and adoption of digital agriculture, the potential impact in developing countries—including in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region—is massive. This article synthesizes existing evidence to review the potential and current contribution of digital technologies to the agri-food sectors in MENA. Digital agriculture shows promise in addressing the key challenges facing the agri-food sector across MENA countries. Improvements in primary production, supply chain and logistics performance, and optimized use of scarce natural resources (notably agricultural water) could be notable, if digital technologies can be implemented as envisioned. Available evidence shows that adoption of digital agriculture is at early stages, generally led by high-value agricultural production targeting domestic markets in Gulf countries and export markets in Mashreq countries. Economic sustainability appears the strongest force for current adoption, with less focus on social or environmental sustainability. Public policies should not only foster the adoption of digital technologies in MENA but also ensure equity of access, transparency of use, data protections, and labor protections. Policymakers should move beyond traditional, production-centric views to deliver also on social and environmental sustainability.
Research summary
Platform ecosystems have spurred new products and services, sparked innovation, and improved economic efficiency in various industries and technology sectors. A distinctive feature of the platform architecture is its modular and interdependent system of core and complementary components bound together by design rules and an overarching value proposition. Accordingly, we conceptualize platforms as meta‐organizations, or “organizations of organizations” that are less formal and less hierarchical structures than firms, and yet more closely coupled than traditional markets. To function successfully, however, platforms require coordination among multiple participants not all of whose interests are aligned. These organizational features of platforms raise many interesting and complex strategic challenges and hold implications for how platforms compete. In this paper, we discuss some of the most salient features of platform ecosystems as meta‐organizations, specifically in terms of the sources of authority or power in the ecosystem, the motivation and incentives a platform creates to attract participants, and its governance and coordination structures. We then consider how papers appearing in this special issue inform us about the effects of these features on platform competition along three distinct dimensions: (a) with traditional incumbents as platforms enter and establish themselves in new markets, (b) with other platforms to secure an advantageous market position, and (c) with the different participants on the platform to share the value that has been created jointly. We close by identifying some promising directions for future research.
Managerial summary
Platform ecosystems have spurred new products and services, sparked innovation, and improved economic efficiency in various industries and technology sectors. A distinctive feature of the platform architecture is its modular and interdependent system of core and complementary components bound together by design rules and an overarching value proposition. This makes platform ecosystems an organizational form on its own (a “meta‐organization”), neither possessing the hierarchical instruments of a firm, nor the largely uncoordinated decisionmaking of markets. Successful platform ecosystems require coordination among multiple participants with possibly conflicting interests. We discuss some of the most salient features of platform ecosystems as meta‐organizations, specifically in terms of the sources of authority or power in the ecosystem, the motivation and incentives a platform creates to attract participants, and its governance and coordination structures. These features affect how platform ecosystems compete: i) with a traditional incumbent, ii) with other platform ecosystems, and iii) between different participants of the same platform ecosystem. The articles published in this special issue speak to different aspects of platform competition from the perspective of organization design.
The main objective of this paper is to investigate the SMEs’ leader perspective about the basic factors influencing the transformation into digitalization by SMEs they lead, using technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) Model. The data were collected from 61 SMEs leaders in Oman, to achieve the study objective TOE model has been adopted. Internal consistency and data normality, and factor analysis were implemented. Structural equation modeling (SEM) used to test the proposed hypotheses. The outcomes of SEM indicate that TOE factors are significantly affects the ability of SMEs to digitalize their business process. The study findings come in the context of Omani definition of SMEs. More, no control was made for industry type to which SMEs participants are belong. Leaders of SMEs should frame strategies to simplify the digital transformation of their enterprises and attempt to provide organizational and technological facilities that will smooth their digitalization which will improve SMEs capabilities, as well as, increasing the international competitiveness of the SMEs. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is one of the first that investigated the digital transformation among SMEs from the leaders’ perspective in Oman.
Experienced entrepreneurs are typically considered to be wellsprings of both wealth creation and innovation. However, given that prior research has provided evidence of an inverse relationship between economic performance and innovation performance, innovation performance of experienced entrepreneurs requires greater scrutiny. In this study, we examine the question: under what conditions do serial entrepreneurs produce impactful innovations in their subsequent ventures? Using data on 334 VC-funded companies, our study suggests that the familiarity garnered by founders through their prior industry experience may limit the venture’s propensity to produce impactful innovation. Our findings contribute to the literature on serial entrepreneurship and innovation.
The study provides a new insight to extend traditional technology acceptance model (TAM) in to energy–augmented TAM (EA-TAM) model in order to analyze the micro and macro perspectives of green enterprise technology to ensure eco-friendly products. The critical review would enhance analytical abilities to understand the main determinants of the TAM model at both firms' and industry perspective. The study proposed micro and macro enterprise energy–augmented TAM models and found that microenterprise EA-TAM associated with green investment decision that increases the use of renewable energy demand to improve logistics performance, export capabilities, technology advancement, resource inputs, and competitiveness. These factors would largely support to green product innovation, which is fueled by green R&D expenditures. The green supply chain process would develop an attitude and behavioral intention toward the use of technology and green products, which ultimately would bond with green system use. The macro perspective of EA-TAM shows that green factors including green supplier selection, industrial green engineering, green procurement, green consumerism, green product recovery, and green innovation would increase green purchase decisions that convert into perceived ease of green products usage. The eco-product choice faced three compelling issues that could negatively affect the use of green products attitude and intentions, i.e., political constraints, carbon pricing, and consumer willingness-to-pay for public goods. The study concludes that the need for green policies is imperative to regulate firms and the industrial decision to go-for eco-friendly production. The use of renewable energy, carbon pricing and willingness-to-pay for public goods would be recommended for long-term sustainable development.
Failure is not the outcome which entrepreneurs strive for when they start their businesses. However, thousands of entrepreneurs fail each year, experiencing painful and damaging consequences in their professional and private lives. Current knowledge on entrepreneurial failure is quite fragmentary. Our study thus aims at integrating knowledge on the effects of entrepreneurial failure. Departing from a systematic literature review, we develop a multilevel framework of entrepreneurial failure effects which categorizes those through: 1) the differentiation of their manifestations over time; 2) the directness of the link to the failure event; 3) the degree of impact on the entrepreneur who failed; 4) the level of long-term outcomes generated, and 5) the direction of long-term outcomes influence. Our findings reveal a broad scope of multilevel and two-sided impacts of entrepreneurial failure.
A New Normal environment for business has emerged in the years after the 2008 financial crisis based on changes in economic, technological, demographic and sociopolitical factors. This combination of changes has created a New Normal environment for firms around the world with major implications for managers, strategists, and entrepreneurs alike. It has resulted in an environment with new challenges and opportunities that are considerably different from what firms had to contend with in the years previous. In this paper, we present these main changes that characterize the current New Normal business environment and highlight some key implications for strategy and management. Then, we present the nine articles in this special issue dealing with different dimensions of this new environment for firms. Subsequently, we outline some future research questions that could help to advance our knowledge of the New Normal environment and its implications for firms and management theories. In examining the New Normal, it is important to be reminded that the world is indeed round and even small actions on one side of the globe can have a major impact on organizations on the other side of the globe.
Agriculture 4.0 is comprised of different already operational or developing technologies such as robotics, na-notechnology, synthetic protein, cellular agriculture, gene editing technology, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and machine learning, which may have pervasive effects on future agriculture and food systems and major transformative potential. These technologies underpin concepts such as vertical farming and food systems, digital agriculture, bioeconomy, circular agriculture, and aquaponics. In this perspective paper, we argue that more attention is needed for the inclusion and exclusion effects of Agriculture 4.0 technologies, and for reflection on how they relate to diverse transition pathways towards sustainable agricultural and food systems driven by mission-oriented innovation systems. This would require processes of responsible innovation, anticipating the potential impacts of Agriculture 4.0 through inclusive processes, and reflecting on and being responsive to emerging effects and where needed adjusting the direction and course of transition pathways.
Embracing green innovation is one of the most common elements for improving the firm's environmental performance. In a business environment with a high level of bureaucratic corruption, companies can easily neglect their environmental accountability. Therefore, strong motivations are needed to prompt or force companies to acknowledge their environmental responsibility. To discover which types of companies embrace green practices, this study explored the association between customer relationship orientation—as a part of the firms’ culture—and the adoption of green product and process innovation via a mediator, market-focused learning. Results from two surveys of 224 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Iran post-sanction (late-2016 and early 2017) showed that the adoption of green product and process innovation is higher among SMEs with customer-oriented corporate culture. In addition, this research verified that market-focused learning was an underlying mechanism through which customer-oriented corporate culture was related to the adoption of green product and process innovation. Accordingly, this study identified the extent to which companies’ building a “constant relationship with customers” was a suitable way to identify those companies’ going green and showing more environmental accountability in a bureaucratic corrupted environment.
Technological innovation is a vital method for enterprises to remain sustainably competitive. Highlighting the emerging information technology such as cloud computing, big data, and Internet of Things (IOT) provides grounds for options of technological innovation for service-orientated enterprises, how could the service-orientated enterprises make appropriate and effective decisions? This paper constructs the evaluation criteria system of a technological innovation scheme selection based on the four-dimensional model of service innovation and uses the hybrid multi-criteria decision model (MCDM) to make systematic selection. That is, to analyze the relationship between every dimension and criteria based on Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method, draw out the network diagram, calculate the weighted ratio of each indicator using the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method, and finally through integrating the modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (mVIKOR) method to order the enterprise innovation scheme. The result of this paper shows that Beacons technology is the best service innovation scheme, and the sequencing of each dimension’s weight is the new service delivery system, new client interface, new service concept, and technology choice. It also, combining with the research conclusion, gives out advice on enterprises’ technological innovation selection process.
The concept of food system has gained prominence in recent years amongst both scholars and policy-makers. Experts from diverse disciplines and backgrounds have in particular discussed the nature and origin of the “unsustainability” of our modern food systems. These efforts tend, however, to be framed within distinctive disciplinary narratives. In this paper we propose to explore these narratives and to shed light on the explicit -or implicit- epistemological assumptions, mental models, and disciplinary paradigms that underpin those. The analysis indicates that different views and interpretations prevail amongst experts about the nature of the “crisis”, and consequently about the research and priorities needed to “fix” the problem. We then explore how sustainability is included in these different narratives and the link to the question of healthy diets. The analysis reveals that the concept of sustainability, although widely used by all the different communities of practice, remains poorly defined, and applied in different ways and usually based on a relatively narrow interpretation. In so doing we argue that current attempts to equate or subsume healthy diets within sustainability in the context of food system may be misleading and need to be challenged. We stress that trade-offs between different dimensions of food system sustainability are unavoidable and need to be navigated in an explicit manner when developing or implementing sustainable food system initiatives. Building on this overall analysis, a framework structured around several entry points including outcomes, core activities, trade-offs and feedbacks is then proposed, which allows to identify key elements necessary to support the transition toward sustainable food systems.
The world has great expectations for how the private sector, both companies and investors, can support the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In fact, it is generally believed that these goals cannot be achieved without strong support from the private sector. But will making the world a better place hurt financial returns? The answer is “No” if companies focus on the SDGs and their associated targets that benefit from strong performance on the material environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues that matter to investors. In this paper we map the 30 generic ESG issues identified by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) to the SDGs and their targets. We show that some SASB issues are more material for a given SDG than others. We also show that some SASB issues are more important to the SDGs in general than others. We also map the material ESG issues for each of SASB’s 79 industries to the SDGs and to their targets. For each sector, there are particular SDGs where it has high impact and for each SDG there are particular sectors that have a high impact on it, and some sectors are more important to the SDGs in aggregate than others. The same is true at the target level. This mapping can be used as a guide for both companies and investors who want to understand how value-creating ESG performance can contribute to the SDGs. This paper is divided into four parts. Part I explains the motivation for this study. Part II explains our methodology and Part III the results. Part IV concludes with a summary of our results and some reflections on how our mapping methodology can be improved.
Organizational innovation is increasingly mandatory for firms to overcome their competitors. Organizational innovation is especially relevant in today’s dynamic and turbulent environments, where other internal variables—such as technological assets, employee training, coordination of new management capabilities, and new flexible human resources and more adaptable organizational designs—must be encouraged to create value and competitive advantage. The purpose of our research is to analyse whether technological assets influence absorptive capacity (potential and realized absorptive capacity) and how absorptive capacity influences internal labour flexibility, organizational innovation and performance. We achieve these goals by analysing the interrelations among internal labour flexibility, organizational innovation and performance, using the theory of resources and capabilities. A quantitative study was carried out with data gathered by personal interview using a structured questionnaire. Relationships proposed in the theoretical model were estimated through a structural equation model, using a sample of 160 European technology companies. The results show that support for technology and improvement of technological skills and technological distinctive competencies promote improvement in organizational performance through their positive influence on the processes of potential and realized absorption capacity. Potential absorptive capacity influences realized absorptive capacity, which impacts not only internal labour flexibility but also organizational innovation and organizational performance. Further, internal labour flexibility influences organizational performance through organizational innovation. This issue is of particular interest when considering the dynamic nature of turbulent technological environments in which the organization operates. Technological assets thus identify new sources of flexibility and organizational innovation based on deeper contextual knowledge and tools that aid knowledge capacity in the company.
Institutions have a decisive impact on the prevalence and nature of entrepreneurship. To date, the impact of institutions on (productive) entrepreneurship and the effects of entrepreneurship on economic growth have largely been investigated in isolation. In this paper, we bring together institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth using a parsimonious growth model in a 3SLS specification. In our first stage, we regress multiple measures of entrepreneurial activity on institutional proxies that are known to correlate with more productive forms of entrepreneurial activity. Using the fitted values of this first-stage regression as our proxy for productive entrepreneurship, we can then estimate a panel growth regression following Islam (1995) in a second stage. The third stage then optimizes the estimation of the two equations simultaneously. Our results show that productive entrepreneurship contributes to economic growth. In our set of proxies for institutional quality, financial stability, small government, and perceived start-up skills are the most important predictors of such productive entrepreneurship.
In the era of globalisation and dynamic market, firms look for competitive advantage and survival using different sources and resources. Prior studies have indicated that Business Model Innovation (BMI) is a core driver for firm’s survival and superior performance especially in growing industries. However, the role of BMI has been discussed theoretically and exploratory while empirical studies are still lacking. Hence, this study examines the importance of BMI in SME performance and the mediating role of competitive advantage. Data were collected through structured questionnaires using a sample size of 303 manufacturing SMEs operating in the emerging market of Pakistan. Hypotheses were tested through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS.21. The results indicate that BMI has a significant positive impact on competitive advantage and SME performance. Competitive advantage partially mediates the relationship between BMI and SME performance. Firms are required to create an effective business model to acquire competitive advantage and superior financial performance. Implications for practice have been discussed.
Our most pressing societal problems such as enhancing health care, developing alternate energy, revitalizing cities, and advancing the economy are complex innovation eco-systems. Complex innovation eco-systems are the next frontier in technology and innovation management, and require a transformation in strategic and institutional management so that managers can muster the staying power to persist and learn far into the future. I develop a framework to explain how participants can strategize across an entire eco-system, deal with the profound ambiguity from complexity, and handle the very long cycle times of complex innovations. Transformed strategic and institutional management combines abductive learning routines with clock-time and event-time pacing to map a portfolio of value creating opportunities far into the future. Eco-system participants use learning events, which represent available knowledge, to hypothesize new value creating opportunities and new kinds of governance structures for specific collaborations, evaluate these opportunities and governance structures by trying them out to explore assumptions and surface new possibilities, and reframe them over time.
Entrepreneurial ecosystems command increasing attention from policy-makers, academics, and practitioners, yet the phenomenon itself remains under-theorized. Specifically, the conceptual similarities and differences of entrepreneurial ecosystems relative to, e.g., clusters, ‘knowledge clusters’, regional systems of innovation, and ‘innovative milieus’ remain unclear. Drawing on research on industrial districts and agglomerations, clusters, and systems of innovation, we suggest that entrepreneurial ecosystems differ from traditional clusters by their emphasis on the exploitation of digital affordances; by their organization around entrepreneurial opportunity discovery and pursuit; by their emphasis on business model innovation; by voluntary horizontal knowledge spillovers; and by cluster-external locus of entrepreneurial opportunities. We highlight how these distinctive characteristics set entrepreneurial ecosystems apart from other cluster types, propose a structural model of entrepreneurial ecosystems, summarize the papers in this special issue, and suggest promising avenues for future research.
Purpose: Female entrepreneurship is a growing segment in the context of developing countries and has the potential to become a driving force for economic development. However, research suggests that females are less inclined towards entrepreneurship when compared to their male counterparts. This fact is related to a complex mix of causes such as the belief that entrepreneurship is a male domain, certain conditions within the economic and social environment and a general lack of confidence with regards to succeeding in such activities. Barriers to female entrepreneurship are prevalent in the patriarchal Arab World. This study aims to measure the perceptions of female Jordanian business students with regards to the socio-cultural barriers to entrepreneurship. It also looks at the conduciveness of the education they are receiving in terms of new venture creation.
Design/methodology: A sample of two hundred fifty-four female business students from two universities in Jordan were asked to evaluate various factors within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including the business education they are currently receiving. A factor analysis has been performed to show which relevant elements may prevent young women from engaging with entrepreneurial activities. Yet, a comparison of perceptions about the educational system has been also presented to understand how a supportive educational environment may affect the previous analysis.
Findings: The results indicated that a strong supportive education system to some extent may reduce the perception of potential barriers for entrepreneurship but the overall impact can be limited. Conversely, an educational system lacking a supportive environment and concrete initiatives can deeply affect and worsen the fears of engaging in entrepreneurship amongst female students.
Originality/value: The role of women in the Arab World is quite marked and the reluctance of women to take a more decisive engagement in entrepreneurship may be reinforced by conservative, societal traditions. A supportive education system has the potential to act as a catalyst to encourage active female participation in the entrepreneurial domain, thus helping to spur economic development in the region
The interest in management innovation (MI) is growing and the conviction about its significant role in boosting an enterprise’s competitive advantage and performance has recently gained ground. The studies on MI and its relationships with enterprise performance, which are relatively scarce in literature, indicate the complexity of these relationships. This inspired us to propose the management innovation construct and its operationalisation, which allowed for the empirical verification of the relationships between management innovation and enterprise performance. Simultaneously, we adopted the hypothesis on the mediating role of pro-innovation organisational culture. The aim of this article, therefore, is to study the relationships between MI and enterprise performance as well as to determine what role is played by pro-innovation organisational culture in these relationships. In order to do that, we conducted a survey of 301 companies based in Poland. Our research results confirmed the existence of relationships between management innovation and enterprise performance in the survey sample, although they were not very strong. Additionally, the hypothesis about the mediating role of organisational culture was also partially supported. The results of our study enrich the knowledge about the role of MI in stimulating enterprise performance and the role of pro-innovation organisational culture. We also discuss the implications for further research and management practice.
Succeeding in the modern business world is a multi-faceted endeavor that involves numerous parts. By implementing effective strategies, companies can strive toward achieving a competitive advantage.
Digital Entrepreneurship and Global Innovation is a pivotal reference source for the latest academic material on strategic entrepreneurship initiatives to facilitate organizational growth and success, focusing on the role of digital technologies in business environments. Highlighting theoretical frameworks, industry perspectives, and emerging methodologies, this book is ideally designed for professionals, practitioners, upper-level students, and researchers involved in the field of entrepreneurship.
Business model innovation has seen a recent surge in academic research and business practice. Changes to business models are recognised as a fundamental approach to realise innovations for sustainability. However little is known about the successful adoption of sustainable business models (SBMs). The purpose of this paper is to develop a unified theoretical perspective for understanding business model innovations that lead to better organizational economic, environmental and social performance. The paper examines bodies of literature on business model innovation, sustainability innovation, networks theory, stakeholder theory and product-service systems. We develop five propositions that support the creation of SBMs in a unified perspective which lays a foundation to support organizations to investigate and experiment with alternative new business models. This article contributes to the emerging field of SBMs, which embed economic, environmental and social flows of value that are created, delivered and captured in a value network. It highlights gaps for addressing the challenges of business model innovation for sustainability and suggests avenues for future research.
Digital business model research spans the disciplines of information systems, marketing and entrepreneurship. Despite the growing research in the area there is a lack of understanding of how digital entrepreneurs identify business opportunities and conceptualize those in a business model. The literature on business models lacks consistent terminology and specification of critical components. Through an explorative study of digital entrepreneurs we examine how entrepreneurs identify business opportunities and how they translate them into a workable business idea. Although entrepreneurs typically have difficulty explaining their business model components we identified that critical features in our simplicity framework include three main modules, transaction/matching, marketing and back-office components, and simplicity in terms of value proposition, conceptualization approach and usability. This research proposes that a parsimonious view of digital business models, aligned with the lean start-up idea, makes sense for theory development and in terms of usefulness for entrepreneurs.
Increased environmental and social responsibility awareness, while producing unique opportunities for sustainability-oriented innovations, has generated important challenges for companies. The path to sustainability requires corporate strategies that guarantee profitability, managing simultaneously environmental and social responsibilities. An attempt is made to provide an understanding of sustainable development thinking in business, discussing how the combination of the transition management, adaptive planning and sociotechnical approaches can contribute towards an effective implementation of sustainability-oriented innovations in business context. The article proposes a conceptual model, which incorporates this contribution, developed through a four-year action-research project carried out within a large Brazilian energy company – Petrobras. The authors argue that the adoption of the proposed model by other large firms operating in different societal sectors might trigger organisational changes related to current corporate practices of technological innovation management.
Technology and digitalization are increasingly core subjects for researchers across disciplines, from economics and management to engineering and the humanities. Digital innovations, such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and various digital technology-based platforms, are influencing business venturing and changing the ways that extend beyond entrepreneurship and innovation practices to influence culture, politics and society. Social media platforms and digital communications have even restructured social relations. Yet little research has fully addressed the profound relationship between technology, entrepreneurship/innovation and social change. To correct this oversight, this Special Issue in Technovation is devoted to publishing original research that enriches our knowledge about the nature of digital technology and its influence on entrepreneurship and innovation in digital economies. We elaborate the emerging new business models, their antecedents, and their economic and social consequences. The issue also highlights key emerging research areas of digital technology-based entrepreneurship/innovation and articulates an agenda for future scholarship.
Green innovations are being deployed in manufacturing industries to promote organisational sustainability by embracing sustainable development practices (SDPs). However, little is known about how corporate green innovation (CGI) is influenced by the knowledge management process (KMP). To fill this gap, we have developed a multidimensional framework based on the resource‐based view (RBV) theory that provides a foundation for sculpturing the process by which KMP was observed to capture and sustain CGI through SDPs. Data were collected from 393 respondents of large‐ and medium‐sized manufacturing corporations in Pakistan and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). This study provides several key findings. First, KMP dimensions (acquisition, dissemination and application) significantly improve the SDPs' dimensions (environment, economic and social). Second, SDP dimensions play a significant role in achieving CGI. Third, the implementation of SDPs partially mediates the relationship between the KMP and CGI. Furthermore, the fsQCA results signify the robustness of all integrated constructs. Our results demonstrate that investing in and adopting the latest technologies and sustainable practices are not only valuable for long‐term success but the soft concerns such as managing organisational knowledge are also vital in the current knowledge‐based economy. Finally, in light of our findings, theoretical and managerial implications, with propositions for future studies, have been provided at the end of the paper.
Purpose
Over the last few decades, more emphasis has been placed on those innovations that can reconcile economic, social and environmental goals in order to achieve a “win-win-win” situation. This paper aims to systematise the scientific literature on Sustainable Innovation as a broad field in order to identify the most relevant scholars and their significant contributions as well as existing lines of research. Finally, future research directions are suggested.
Design/methodology/approach
A novel methodology, the Systematic Literature Network Analysis, has been applied. By using a dynamic approach to the traditional Systematic Literature Review, the present review investigates the creation, transfer, and development of knowledge throughout the epistemic community of Sustainable Innovation.
Findings
Starting from a sample of 1,108 articles, the critical assessment of the results detected five main themes: (1) “the role of Regulation, Market and Technology”; (2) “Eco-Innovation determinants and firm specific factors and the debate between corporate environmental performance and corporate financial performance”; (3) “Green innovation and internal and external drivers”; (4) “The strategic determinants of green (non-green) innovation”; (5) “The interplay between policy, regulations and the green innovation”.
Practical implications
From a practitioner's perspective, this study provides an objective view on the current internal, external drivers and strategic determinants of sustainability-oriented innovations and relevant studies that can guide managers in their decision-making processes and enhance sustainable innovation performance.
Originality/value
This study is a first attempt to unveil the evolution of knowledge in the field of sustainable innovation by utilizing bibliometric tools.
Striving to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries are increasingly embracing a sustainable financing mechanism via green bond financing. Green bonds have attracted the attention of the industrial sector and policymakers, however, the impact of green bond financing on environmental and social sustainability has not been yet been confirmed. There is no empirical evidence on how this financial product can contribute to achieving the goals set out in Agenda 2030. In this study, we empirically analyze the impact of green bond financing on environmental and social sustainability by considering the S&P 500 Global Green Bond Index and S&P 500 Environmental and Social Responsibility Index, from 1st October 2010 to 31st July 2020 using a combination of Quantile-on-Quantile Regression and Wavelet Multiscale Decomposition approaches. Our results reveal that green financing mechanisms might have gradual negative transformational impacts on environmental and social responsibility. Furthermore, we attempt to design a policy framework to address the relevant SDG objectives.
Purpose
This paper examines the status and evolution of green innovation research from 1948 to 2018.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a systematic review of 293 peer-reviewed scholarly articles, the authors classify journal outlets, publication trends, research methods (research type, approach, design), themes/topics focus, country and regional distribution and theoretical perspectives, identifying main trends. They apply mixed methodologies, integrating both content and descriptive analyses.
Findings
Results reveal the following critical conclusions: (1) publication trends disclose a steady growth of interest in green innovation research in the last decade (2011–2018), with most of the articles appearing in top-ranked journal outlets; (2) empirical studies involving quantitative surveys dominate the field over other methods like experiments, case studies (qualitative) and conceptual models; (3) research themes/topics are multi-perspectives, covering management and strategic dimension of green innovation (e.g. green innovation integration and adoption strategy; collaboration and networking in green innovation; green innovation management systems, green supply chain management, etc.), performance (financial, non-financial and both), drivers/antecedents and consumer green behavior; however, the “management and strategy” papers are by far higher; (4) studies are preponderately multi-country focused, concentrated in Europe and Australasia, with a low concentration in emerging markets like Africa and South America; And (5) the field lacks the adoption and development of novel theories. So far, the research fields principally focus on the “Porter hypothesis” and resource-based view in terms of the theory-driven studies. Based on these findings, knowledge gaps are identified, as are limitations and actionable agenda for future research.
Originality/value
As the first systematic review to adopt a comprehensive, holistic approach in synthesizing and summarizing research vis-à-vis the phenomenon of green innovation, the study offers practitioners and researchers an insightful understanding of the relevant issues that have been investigated on green innovation, thereby anchoring the evolutions for further sustainable-oriented research and improvement in management practices.
JEL classification: L20 L26 M20 O32 A B S T R A C T SME inbound open innovation has primarily received attention for new product development, overlooking the fact that SMEs may also pursue process or, simultaneously, product and process innovation. We posit that different technological innovation typologies (product vs process) are related to distinct search strategies. Focusing on 3,867 innovative SMEs, results indicate that inbound open innovation is not only related to internal resources of innovation but also to the type of technological innovation chosen by firms. Our results disentangle a rather more complex and comprehensive view of SME inbound open innovation that prevents the fragmentation of results. It is not just about being more or less innovative, but about how SMEs innovate differently, developing distinct internal and external activities.
This empirical study analyses and evaluates six electricity generation megaprojects in South Africa, undertaken to facilitate an understanding of how project governance, scale and scope, influence the development performance of such types of projects in a sub-Saharan context (recognising the inference limitations). Three case-studies, Medupi, Kusile and Ingula, are significantly larger and have been problematical to build for the country's national electricity utility, Eskom. The three smaller case-studies, Avon, Dedisa and Sere, were all successfully commissioned and serve as a counterfactual for this analysis. The fieldwork involved 32 interviews with knowledgeable experts from at least one project.
Green innovation (GI) literature over the past decades has evolved and expanded, because of its widespread and essential applications along with the environmental awareness and service delivery of green products and applications. The aim of this article is to provide GI methods from a comprehensive overview, analyze articles and bibliographic information through a systematic literature review (SLR). In this study, 178 articles on GI between 2007 and 2019 were selected and reviewed. After reviewing the articles, the outcome was that in the field of GI articles on topics such as Benefits of GI implementation had the highest share. The articles were divided on the basis of study area, the sector of industries had more than one industry and the largest share was of manufacturing industries. In the Section of research method, the mathematical modeling has had the most use in the articles reviewed. The results of the study showed that the Journal of Cleaner Production, Business Strategy and the Environment had the highest number of publications on GI. Clustering of articles was done using the Cite space tool and the articles were cited using the CiteNetexplor tool and the density mapping of the co-authoring network of researchers was done by using VOS viewer software. In addition, some future research opportunities were suggested and discussed in this article. Universities, organizations, those involved in companies can benefit from these useful reviews and conduct research.
Bioscience advances present important opportunities for economic development and sustainable intensification of African agriculture. In the global North, the private sector invests heavily in applied research, whereas in Africa the public sector shoulders the burden of developing research capacity. This article explores whether public science agencies should assume an expanded role to approach bioscience capacity using a system lens – developing capability for innovation within the whole system. The article identifies the types of intervention, beyond skills development, research infrastructure and funding that could enhance the potential of bioscience as an innovation driver. Following a summary of trends, a model of the system capacities required for bioscience impact and innovation is proposed and used to analyse a case study from East Africa. The results suggest that a fundamental rethink of the role of public science agencies within the wider biosciences landscape is required, necessitating complementary investments and a more complex network of partnerships across public and private sectors.
There is an increasing demand for alternative and sustainable protein sources, such as vegetables, insects and microorganisms, that can meet the nutritional and sensory pleasantness needs of consumers. This emergent interest for novel protein sources, allied with "green" and cost-effective processing technologies, such as high hydrostatic pressure, ohmic heating and pulsed electric fields, can be used as strategies to improve the consumption of proteins from sustainable sources without compromising food security. In addition to their nutritional value, these novel proteins present several technological-functional properties that can be used to create various protein systems in different scales (i.e., macro, micro and nano scale), which can be tailored for a specific application in innovative food products. However, in order for these novel protein sources to be broadly used in future food products, their fate in the human gastrointestinal tract (e.g., digestion and bioavailability) must be assessed, as well as their safety for consumers must be clearly demonstrated. In particular, these proteins may become novel allergens triggering adverse reactions and, therefore, a comprehensive allergenicity risk assessment is needed. This review presents an overview of the most promising alternative protein sources, their application in the production of innovative food systems, as well as their potential effects on human health. In addition, new insights on sustainable processing strategies are given.
The current study examines the role of knowledge management (KM) in green innovation and corporate
sustainable development (CSD) activities. The researcher collected data from lower, middle and upper-level
managers of small, medium and large-sized manufacturing and services firms located in Pakistan. The data was
analyzed through structural equation modelling (SEM) to investigate how KM processes, namely knowledge
creation, acquisition, sharing and application, impact on green technology and green management innovation and
environment, social and economic aspects of sustainability. As per the results, KM significantly impacts on green
innovation and CSD activities. Green innovation also indicated significant positive impact on CSD. The
dimensional analysis indicated that with the exception of knowledge creation and acquisition, which indicated an
insignificant impact on social sustainability, all the paths indicated significant results. Moreover, KM is found as
equally important for all sizes manufacturing and services firms.
In this paper, we first develop an original theory in which, based on their individual skills and the quality of their business, entrepreneurs can keep their original business (and thus remain novice entrepreneurs), start and keep a new business in the same or another sector along their current business (therefore becoming portfolio entrepreneurs), transfer or shut their original business down to either start a new one (turning themselves into serial entrepreneurs), or enter the labor market as wage workers. We then use the insights from our theory to develop three main hypotheses that are finally tested for a 10-year panel dataset (2001 to 2010) of more than 4000 Vietnamese manufacturing firms. We estimate an occupational choice model and a survival model and find that (i) a greater endowment of human capital is associated with a higher likelihood of a business owner to become a serial or a portfolio entrepreneur; (ii) a higher quality of the new business is associated to a higher likelihood that it is run by any type of habitual entrepreneur. Particularly, high entrepreneurial skills together with a high-quality business positively influence the likelihood of an individual to be serial or portfolio entrepreneur; (iii) ceteris paribus, firms run by serial or portfolio entrepreneurs tend to stay in business longer, although high-quality ones run by novice entrepreneurs endowed with high entrepreneurial skills are those with the lowest probability to leave the market.
The present work is an attempt to investigate the adoption of Sustainable Supply Chain Management practices amongst manufacturing and process based organizations in India and its impact on firm performance encompassing all three dimensions of sustainability. Sustainable Supply Chain Management practices conceived in the present study include Environmental Management Practices, Socially Inclusive Practices for Employees, Socially Inclusive Practices for Community, Operations Practices, and Supply Chain Integration which were treated as exogenous variables. Firm performance considered in this study includes five dimensions, namely Environmental Performance, Employee-centred Social Performance, Community-centred Social Performance, Operations Performance, and Competitiveness, which were regarded as endogenous variables. The analysis was carried out with the help of structural equation modeling considering natural logarithm of manpower as a control variable. It is found that the construct environmental management practices does not have any significant association with operations performance, nor does it result in competitiveness. However, when jointly mediated through both environmental performance and operations performance, environmental management practices lead to competitiveness. Socially inclusive practices for community have significant negative association with competitiveness, when only direct relationship is considered. However, its indirect relationship with competitiveness shows significant positive association when mediated through community-centred social performance. The resultant total effect between socially inclusive practices for community and competitiveness turns out to be insignificant. Further, operations performance fully mediates the relationship between operations practices and competitiveness. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed.
Increased awareness on sustainability has influenced business organizations to improve their environmental performance and efficiency. In this context, eco-innovation implementation is positioned as a target for organizations to be more sustainable in order to reduce negative externalities and reach governments’ green requirements and consumers’ demands. The aim of this paper is to provide a critical review of literature on eco-innovation performance indicators. This study identifies the 30 firm performance indicators most cited by researchers and classifies them into four different green innovation types, i.e. product, process, organizational and marketing. A substantial gap has been found throughout the literature on this issue as studies do not include a complete combination of the key performance indicators across the four types of eco-innovation. This information is necessary to obtain an accurate measurement of eco-innovation level and it is useful to companies and stakeholders for performance evaluation. Moreover, understanding which performance indicators are more suitable for measuring the level of environmental innovation affords governments the possibility to draft policies that encourage companies to be more sustainable and firms to implement green practices in a more efficient way.
Decades of rapid economic development in China have led to a growing public awareness of the importance of environmental protection. In addition to government regulation, public attention of companies is an important legitimacy-granting institution with the potential to influence corporate behaviour, as firms with high levels of public attention potentially bear more cost for pollution and other environmentally concerning actions. Using public web search volume data as a proxy for public attention to individual firms, this study explored the effects of public attention on the environmental performance of firms in high-polluting industries. We found that firms exposed to higher levels of public attention had better environmental performance, especially state-owned firms. This association was strengthened for firms located in cites with high environmental pressure or low economic development pressure. These results can help inform further efforts to promote and sustain environmentally friendly corporate practices in China.
Although founders are responsible for soliciting venture capital (VC) funding, their influence over VC syndicate formation has largely been neglected in the extant literature. This article fills this gap by comparing serial and novice entrepreneurs. Using the information asymmetry argument as our guiding framework, we argue that when potential investors face diminished information asymmetry, entrepreneurs are more likely to form VC syndicates that are more beneficial to ventures—providing entrepreneurs with greater and more diverse resources and to some extent reducing entrepreneurs’ loss of control. Enriched by qualitative evidence from fieldwork, a quantitative analysis of 351 ventures shows general support for our argument and reveals unexpected nuances.
This study intends to clarify the understanding of the role of the contingency factors (i.e. long-term orientation, competitiveness and uncertainty) in the relation between sustainability practices (sustainability exploitation and sustainability exploration) and organizational performance. Using empirical data based on a large-scale survey among European organizations, this paper utilizes the regression analysis to gain insight into the relationship between sustainability practices and organizational performance. In general, the results support the contingency view of the relationship between sustainability practices and performance rather than relying upon “universal” view of sustainability practices. Particularly, the results show that in moderate environmental contexts (moderate competitiveness and uncertainty) sustainability exploitation practices seem to be a predominant predictor of organizational performance. Further, it appears that sustainability exploration practices are the most important predictor of innovation performance, especially when organizations are faced with high levels of competitiveness, uncertainty and long-term orientation. In contrast, sustainability exploitation practices seem to dominate in explaining the effects on quality performance. In this regard, we can argue that organizations with similar characteristics (capabilities, performance, and activity) may develop different and customised approaches for managing the interface between business and natural environment.
The innovation and firm performance relationship remains a puzzle, as all types of innovation are not equally beneficial. Besides, better-managed firms can perform better. Integrating these two strands of literature, we examine whether managerial practices explain this relationship using data from UK firms during 1992–2014. We find that firms which focus on R&D activities jointly with better managerial practices benefit favourably. During the post-crisis period, higher intangibles are only beneficial when combined with R&D activity. Also firms with better managerial practices and innovative activities exhibit a positive effect of higher leverage. Finally, an inverse U-shaped result supports the Schumpeterian theory of creative destruction.
This study aims to propose and to validate a research model on project sustainability management. Moreover, it investigates the relation between project sustainability management and project success. The methodological approach is a survey-based research, using structural equation modelling to validate the research model. The hypotheses were tested based on a field study involving 222 projects distributed among eight industries and two countries. The results show a low degree of commitment to social and environment aspects of the surveyed projects. The structural model proposed shows a significant and positive relation between project sustainability management and project success and in reducing the social and environmental negative impact.