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Digital technologies are essential tools that Service-based firms can integrate into their business to transform their operations. However, in the emerging countries' perspective, research on the application of digital orientation among Service-based firms is less researched. This poses questions to scholars why the adoption of digital orientation is quite low among developing economies. The purpose of this article is to examine the impediments to digital orientation among Service-based firms in emerging and developing countries. Inspired by a resource-based view, a survey using a structured questionnaire was administered to 466 respondents (management and employees) of Service-based firms via a convenience sampling method in Ghana. Findings revealed that the knowledge gap, cost burden, and upgrading of technology positively and significantly create the gap in digital orientation among Service-based firms. The authors admonished that Service-based firms should 'be orient' on the use of digital technologies through appropriate training programs to enhance its adoption. The study again recommends practitioners of Service-based firms cultivate the habit of investing in human and technical capacities to optimize the benefits of the evolution of digital technologies. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

This study empirically investigates the causal relationship that exist between innovators and internal ecosystem factors driving technological innovation among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the European region using the linear equation model. Our analysis is based on firm-level panel data from the European Innovation Survey conducted by the European Union from 2011–2018 with 296 SMEs across Europe. The results show that, human resources, research systems, financial support, firm investments, linkages, and employment impact was positively related to technological innovation performance. However, the outcome of an innovation-free environment and sales impacts as contextual factors had an insignificant influence on SMEs’ innovation performance. The results imply that effective human resource approach coupled with good governmental policies are important factors that can increase SMEs’ innovation performance. Based on this study results, SMEs’ managers can provide effective and sustainable policies that would provide both direct and support roles on the main drivers of regional and economic development. The outcome of this research indicates that firms need to pay greater attention to external factors such as governmental policies governing SMEs, considering customers’ needs, product specification and ensuring that they deliver quality product to satisfy consumers. © 2022 K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management.

This paper aims at investigating the various factors driving technological and non-technological innovations in the manufacturing and service sectors in Ghana. We argue that numerous previous studies have shown that digitalization, firms' collaborations, access to finance, engaging in research and development and certain firm characteristic such as age, size and ownership influence firms' aptitude and incentives to be innovative. However, in the context of developing countries like Ghana, we do not know whether these same determinants also have positive effects on stimulating innovations at the firm-level. Using a sample of 549 firms sourced from the World Bank Enterprises Survey conducted between 2007 and 2013, this study finds that the adoption of digitalization promotes non-technological (organizational) innovations than technological innovations. We also find that firms' innovation collaboration with consultants and universities rather exert no impact on technological and non-technological innovations. Our finding show that internal R&D enhance technological innovations and not non-technological innovations. The main practical implications of the study are that attempts to boosting firm-level and developing countries innovation potentials should mainly focus on improving internal R&D and innovation support activities, expanding access to finance, and upgrading Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to enhance digitalization.

The idea of entrepreneurial university seeks to boost the transfer of academic knowledge to firms and foster socio-economic development. The main objective of this paper is to examine the various determinants that influence universities knowledge transfer activities. To fulfil this objective, we draw our dataset from the higher education and business survey (HESA-BCI) conducted across the United Kingdom in the 2017/18 academic year and the partial least square structural equation was used. The Results demonstrated that funding, patents, and rewards all have significant influence on universities spin off creation. The results also showed that patents played a significant mediating role towards universities spin off creation. Findings of this study contribute to validating the important factors that promotes entrepreneurial activities at universities as well as contributing to knowledge transfer activities. The findings have positive implications for researchers, academic entrepreneurs, and university management aiming to exploit and commercialise university knowledge.

Stimulating innovation has been key in addressing policy challenges facing small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the Visegrad countries. Innovational activities among firms within the Visegrad countries have given firms a competitive advantage. Understanding some factors that influence process and product innovation and their impact are very necessary for deciding on the innovation strategy that leads to successful innovation. The study assesses some external factors that SMEs within Visegrad countries find most detrimental to their innovative activity using document analysis. Twenty-five articles were reviewed from the web of science, Scopus, and Google scholar databases, thus, from 2006 to 2020. The articles revealed the innovation types of SMEs in the Visegrad countries and external factors influencing innovation the most. The document analysis results show that external factors such as spatial and locational, markets for firms’ product, public policy, society, and environmental factors are very important for SMEs product and process innovation outcomes. Again, the study not only gives insights into the SME's innovation literature but rather a wake-up call to SME's practitioners and stakeholders on the need to ensure sustainable SME's given the swift growth of innovation across the globe. Limitation and future research directions are presented at the end of the paper. © 2021, Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. All rights reserved.

In contemporary business, social media has become pervasive, most importantly, for social networking, content sharing, and online transaction. Given its reliability, consistency, and prompt features, social media unlocks a wide range of avenues for businesses such as digital marketing. Interestingly, marketing (or advertising content) that occurs via social media is known as social media marketing (SMM). Undoubtedly, social media marketing has made it possible for businesses to reach their targeted consumers easily, effectively, and instantly. Besides that, extant literature has shown that SMM also faces several challenges regarding its usage and adaptability in the business environment. Hence, the essence of this article is to review some empirical findings from previous related works on challenges faced by firms in less digitalized economies. We reviewed thirty empirical articles from reputable scientific databases (WoS, Scopus, EHRIPLUS, EBSCO, Google Scholar, etc.) and found that; cost of internet accessibility, social media expertise, and marketing/identity risk were major barriers inhibiting the usage of social media firms in less digitalized economies, particularly in the African and Asian continents. The managerial contribution of this paper is that it would inform SME owners, Entrepreneurs, and other industry players to outline or know the identifiable challenges of social media usage in the business operation and how strategic decisions can be taken in its adoption/applicability particularly on SMEs in developing countries in the future. The limitations and future research directions are presented in the concluding part of the paper. © 2021, Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical understanding of the motivations and benefits of social media usage by small and medium financial enterprises with an empirical study from an emerging economy such as Ghana. Based on previous studies, the current study hypothesizes that customer-firm relationship, financial expectation, firm's visibility and growth, and market share expectation drive social media usage intensity in the financial industry. Quantitative data was gathered from management and staff of SMEs, specifically, financial institution outlets (having social media channels i.e., Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, Linkedln, etc.) was used to investigate the proposed conceptual framework. Using structural Equation Modelling, the research showed that customer-firm relationship, financial expectation, firm's visibility and growth, and market share expectation are positively associated with social media usage intensity within the financial sector. Moreover, it was discovered that financial firms that offer physical products only were equally employing social media networks for marketing communication purposes based on cost-effective motives. At the same time, we found that SMEs are more likely to consider 'market share expectation' as a key motivation for social media adoption by the financial industry. The findings from this study have provided some solutions to potential research issues specific to strategic management practices. Limitations and future research directions are discussed in the concluding remarks.

The main purpose of this present study is to elucidate the potential factors that have sustained the small and medium enterprises in the tourism sector in a developing nation like Ghana. Having considering the developmental contributions from the SMEs in the tourism sector to the nation, is it extremely important to dissect this course. The sustainability of SMEs in the tourism sector has always become an issue of discussion. It is of this course that the researchers took the step. A questionnaire of 102 responses was therefore received from the employees of the selected SMEs in the central of the country out of the 120 administered. A quantitative approach method was therefore deployed for the study. The selec-tion of the respondents for the data collection was by non-probability sampling technique specifically convenience sampling. A PLS-SEM software version ADANCO 2.0 version to use in data analysis. Consequently, the present study is beneficial to both industry players or policymakers in the sector of tourism among SMEs and has a valuable contribution to the literature by adding more knowledge positively to the positive factors contributing to the sustainability of tourism in developing na-tions using Ghana. © the authors, 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Cocoa production dominates the agriculture sector in Ghana and plays a crucial role in the domestic economy and the world economy. However, over the past decade cocoa production in Ghana has been baffled with low productivity prompting successive governments and stakeholders to come up with policies and initiatives to improve production. However, despite these numerous policies, Ghana continuous to have the lowest average yield in relation to international comparisons. This study used the Structural Equation Model (SEM) and data for this study was sourced from 90 cocoa farmers in Juaboso, Bia West and Bibiani districts in the Western region of Ghana using semi structured questionnaires and the simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The Structural Equation Model results have also demonstrated that the most significant factors (policies) affecting cocoa productivity in the study area were the fertilizer subsidies offered by the government and the extension services provided by the ministry of agriculture in collaboration with the Ghana COCOBOD. However, the CODAPEC mass spraying exercise didn't contribute significance to cocoa productivity.

This paper examines firms use of external consultants and commercial labs as an essential source of knowledge for innovation performance and activities in the IT and other information service firms. Consultants are essential conduits to transfer knowledge, technologies and innovations to firms and other economic agents. Using data from the Eurostat Community Innovations Survey conducted between 2012 and 2014 and the doubly robust estimation methodology, this study, as expected, found a positive and statistically significant relationship between product and process innovations, intramural R&D, engagement in R&D, market introduction of innovations, engagement in other preparation influenced firms to rely on the services of external consultants. The results of the propensity-score matching also show that on average, firms that relied on the services of consultants were 61% more likely to improve their product innovations and 62% organizational innovations than those firms that didn't use them. The results are important for firm managers who are aiming to be innovative and can serve as a practical guide on how to improve firm-level innovation potentials and activities., S využitím údajů z průzkumu Eurostat Community Innovations Survey provedeného v letech 2012 až 2014 a dvojnásobně robustní metodiky odhadu zjistila tato studie podle očekávání pozitivní a statisticky významný vztah mezi inovacemi produktů a procesů, intramurálním výzkumem a vývojem, zapojením do výzkumu a vývoje, zavedením inovací na trh , zapojení do další přípravy ovlivnilo firmy, aby se spoléhaly na služby externích konzultantů.

There is the need for firms to engage in R&D collaborations with different partners because these collaborations enable them to acquire new knowledge and technologies thereby increasing their innovation capabilities. These innovative collaborations are known to increase firm’s innovative performance, but the extent of the increase is not known. The main objective of this paper is to empirically examine the mediating role of firm’s R&D collaborations and its influence on their innovative performance. To fulfil this objective, we used the Structural Equation Model and firm-level data from the Eurostat Community Innovation Survey (2010-2012). Our results have demonstrated that firms R&D collaborations was a statistically significant determinant that played a full mediating role in contributing to increase firm’s innovation performance by 27%. Our results have demonstrated that firm’s innovation collaborations rather had a weaker effect on their innovation performance. Additionally, knowledge sources also influenced firm’s collaborations, it had a stronger effect. Conversely, knowledge sources were not statistically significant in influencing firm’s innovation performance, it rather had an unsubstantial effect on innovation performance. © 2020, Hrvatsko Drustvo Ekonomista. All rights reserved.

There is a need for firms to know the factors driving their process innovation. Knowledge of these determinants will help firms to withstand the tough market competitions from their rivals leading to growth and increased productivity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants probable to influence firms process innovations. We focused on the automobile industries in the Czech Republic using data from the Eurostat Community Innovations Survey (CIS) conducted between 2012-2014 and the Structural Equation Model. Our results have shown that the main driving factors probable to contribute to process innovation in these industries were innovation expenditures, collaborations with different partners, engaging in research and development and innovation financial support. Contrary to the literature, we found out that firm’s competition in international markets didn’t have any influence on their process innovations. Practical implications are also provided for policymakers and management of these industries. © 2020, Bulgarska Akademiya na Naukite. All rights reserved.