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Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) associated with manufacturing often form complex ecosystems that are difficult to understand and manage. This is particularly common in developing economies. Whilst the role of manufacturing SMEs has grown in creating jobs and businesses in most industrialised nations, SMEs in developing economies are lagging. To enhance the understanding of local SME ecosystem complexities, this thesis engages 17 manufacturing SMEs and two incubators in Botswana. The research also explores four makerspaces and eight manufacturing SMEs in the United Kingdom (UK). Participants are engaged through semi-structured interviews and exploratory visualisations to construct rich knowledge on their local innovation ecosystem micro-level structures. Further, the qualitative data is analysed through thematic and visual network analysis techniques. Data from Botswana and the UK contexts provide the opportunity to perform a cross-case discussion between an industrialised and a developing economy. This thesis proposes a framework to enhance the understanding of manufacturing SMEs' innovation ecosystems and contribute to the scarce local SME ecosystem design literature. The 'Jigsaw ecosystem design framework' is built through exploratory case study projects in Botswana and the UK contexts. This framework is tested through a series of co-design workshops with 105 participants in Botswana and at a virtual conference. The thesis findings demonstrate that the framework is useful and applicable in enhancing the understanding of local manufacturing SME ecosystems, suggesting a continual learning process of ecosystem structures by all key stakeholders in local ecosystems. The thesis concludes by highlighting the potential for future research focused on developing the Jigsaw framework into a digital application that can capture local ecosystem configurations in real-time. This work may further enhance the continual learning of ecosystem configurations and support decision-making at the micro-levels of the local ecosystem. Further testing of the framework with diverse agents and contexts is proposed to increase its scope.

This thesis includes three empirical studies in earnings management using EU samples. A large number of studies on earnings management focus on listed and/or large firms, which leaves Small and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs), especially European SMEs, understudied. However, SMEs play a vital role in the development of the EU's economy. They are also more informationally opaque and less creditworthy compared to large enterprises, which could lead to more incentives in earnings management around debt financing. Existing literature that explores SME earnings management substantially focuses on firm-level determinants. Though bank finance is the dominant external source of finance for European SMEs, the banking effects on SME earnings management are rarely explored due to limited data availability. Thus, using unique matched data on SME-bank relationships in EU countries, the first study of the thesis investigates the external effectsfrom the banking market competition perspective. The main results show supporting evidence to the existence of a positive effect of bank market power on SME earnings management. The results also show that the positive effect is more pronounced for SMEs that are smaller-sized, more liquidity-constrained, or have fewer growth opportunities. The second study of the thesis focuses on another external aspect of earnings management determinants, which is country-level lending infrastructure. The comprehensive framework of country-level characteristics is derived from Berger and Udell (2006)1 which includes information, legal, social and regulatory environments. The results in this study show that SME earnings management is more prevalent in countries that have better credit information sharing, more effective legal systems, higher stock of social capital, and more stringent regulatory environments. After examining the external influence of bank market power and lending infrastructure on SME earnings management, the third study of the thesis explores the effects of SME earnings management at firm-level. Specifically, since financial constraint is one of the most serious problems faced by EU SMEs, the third study sheds light on the effect of SME earnings management on its cost of bank credit. In the setting of a less financially constrained SME sample, the main finding suggests that the SME's extent of earnings management is negatively associated with its cost of debt. In sum, the empirical evidence in this thesis jointly contributes to the current earnings management literature and related policy-making by expanding the understanding of the European SME earnings management behaviours and raising attention to enhance the quality of monitoring mechanisms.

Academics acknowledged the positive correlation between Market Orientation (MO) Theory and business profitability at Small and Medium Enterprises. Marketing scholars emphasized on the magnitude of Integrating Inter-Functional Coordination in order to improve staff performance, as well as, to create superior customer value. However, the research identified a spotting gap in marketing literature that neglect the topic of Integrating Inter-Functional Coordination (IIFC) with the Market Orientation (MO) theory. Scholars defined the Integration of Inter-Functional Coordination as optimisation of dynamic capabilities such as staff engagement and knowledge sharing to improve performance of interdepartmental functions. In addition, academics posit that Information Technology such as Enterprise Social Media platforms crucially assist to improve staff capabilities through increasing engagement and knowledge sharing among staff. Consequently, the research developed a conceptual framework that aims to evaluate the impact of using Enterprise Social Media platforms to Integrate Inter-Functional Coordination through the inclusion of the indirect interactive moderated-mediation effect of staff capabilities. Online survey questionnaire designed and submitted to Information Technology SMEs at Gulf Cooperation Council area and which consists six countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain). Data gathered and screened from total of 684 respondents at ICT SMEs in GCC area. The research adopted Structural Equation Modelling with AMOS for data analysis in order to analyse complex interactions relationship between latent and observed variables at the framework. Four hypotheses are tested and results indicated a full significant indirect interactive moderated-mediation effect of optimizing staff capabilities through the impact of using enterprise social media platforms to integrate inter-Functional coordination. The research contributes to the knowledge of marketing literature through the information technology context with the inclusion of strategic management approach. Interestingly, a recent research identified that one of the main challenges facing the performance of the SMEs is due to the lack of optimisation of staff capabilities. This research presented a theoretical framework and finding that provides an optimization of staff capacities. Therefore, this research may present a second potential contribution to literatures of strategic management through the findings that lead to optimise staff capabilities.

There are a growing number of disruptions faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These disruptions originate from within the firms and from their surroundings on a day-today or intermittent basis. Previous studies have explored the concept of resilience to overcome these disruptions, either on an individual or organisational level. However, such studies have resulted in different definitions for the phenomenon, especially at the organisational level. Although organisational resilience has been defined differently in previous studies, earlier studies have overlooked the perception of organisational resilience from the standpoint of the owner-managers of small and medium enterprises operating in the food and drink industry. In addition, studies explicitly exploring the relationship between organisational resilience and dynamic capabilities (sensing, seizing and reconfiguration) are relatively scarce. Therefore, this study focused on exploring the perceptions of organisational resilience from the standpoint of the owner-managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in the food and drink industry. Also, dynamic capabilities play a role during the resilience process. This study adopted an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach, aimed at highlighting convergence and divergence in the owner-managers' narratives obtained from semi-structured interviews and further identify patterns. This qualitative study demonstrates the presence of three perceptions of organisational resilience, (i.e. the process-based, endurance-based or resource-based perceptions) and provides evidence that highlights the role of dynamic capabilities during the resilience process (which is enacted by the owner-managers by responding through two distinct response patterns consistent with their cognitive abilities) to achieve a survival, stable or growth resilience outcome.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the challenges facing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in raising external finance in Bangladesh. It critically reviews the theoretical backdrop of the financing behaviour. It also identifies the different financial support mechanisms available, investigates the effectiveness of these financial structures and identifies the significant constraints facing SMEs in raising formal finance. The study mainly investigates the SMEs perspective in terms of research objectives and sub-questions linked to the main research question. The study brings new insights into the area of ‘access to finance’ by using a unique random sample drawn from the Chamber of Commerce and Industries’ entire SME population list. Data needed to carry out this study is not publicly available in the context of Bangladesh. Therefore, a self-administrated questionnaire was employed to collect quantitative data from 264 SMEs during March - April 2019, mainly SME owners and managers, across Sylhet City and Sunamganj Town in Bangladesh. The primary data set was analysed using a number of statistical tests conducted to test hypotheses and to report on the respondent firms’ capital structures. The findings indicate that information asymmetries, interest rates, gender bias, collateral requirements and application procedures are some of the critical concerns of SMEs when raising external finance. The study suggests that financial development and the development of alternative financing products may improve SMEs’ access to finance in Bangladesh. Public policy must consider encouraging competition among banking sector, which may give rise diversifying products and increase lending to firms. Policies of the Bangladesh Bank should encourage financial institutions to provide non-financial support to SME borrowers. In contrast, SME owners and managers should focus on improving their financial literacy and establishing a better relationship with financial institutions which may improve their access to financial resources by reducing information asymmetry. The study makes an essential contribution to existing literature to filling research and knowledge gaps, given the most significant need of SME sector to understand firms’ financing constraints in terms of growth. Given the quantitative strategy employed in this study and the fact that research on SME financing is a relatively more recent topic of research, which expands over a wide range of disciplines the findings should be considered as empirical. More academic research is needed in this area to enable researchers to measure and track access to financial resources and the impact of finance on development outcomes.

This research employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches in investigating the drivers and barriers of different types of innovations in the British and Omani small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It follows the existing British Surveys on SMEs and develops a new dataset for the Omani SMEs. Although the Omani data sample is currently small, the framework can be used for future studies to establish larger data samples. An important contribution of this study is the design of the research that allows the findings relating to innovation among British SMES to be used to draw implications for innovation among Omani SMEs. This research also contributes to the literature as it fills the gap of limited empirical studies that compare both the drivers and barriers of different types of innovation in SMEs, in a developed and a developing economy, in a single thesis. Investigating both the determinants and deterrents of innovation in SMEs is important to have a full understanding and insights on how to enhance SMEs' ability to innovate and respond to disruptions and challenges. Unlike all the previous studies, this study separates services innovation from product innovation, to make it clear that product innovation means goods innovation, and investigates the effect of different variables on product and service innovations separately. This thesis asks the following four questions. What are the key specific firm characteristics that impact innovation outcomes in the British and the Omani SMEs? What are the key firm behavioural elements that matter for the British and the Omani SMEs in deciding on whether to innovate or not? What are the key specific business environment factors that influence the choice of innovation in the British and the Omani SMEs? What are the barriers that may prevent the British and the Omani SMEs from innovating and how to overcome them? The first three questions are raised to understand the relationship of the firm characteristics, firm behaviour and the business environment with the innovation of products, services, processes and marketing methods at SMEs level in the UK and Oman. The fourth question is raised to identify the barriers to innovation in the British and Omani SMEs and propose suggestions to overcome them. This research analyses three datasets, the Cambridge Centre for Business Research (CBR) SME Dataset 1997, the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) Dataset 2015 and the online Omani SMEs Survey 2018. These are used to test the products, services, operational processes, organisational or managerial processes, and marketing methods models at the firm level. It also uses the datasets to find out the barriers to innovation in the British and Omani SMEs. It employs three estimators: the probit, the logit, and the multi-variate probit to have a clear view of the effect of firm characteristics, firm behaviour and business environment factors on different types of innovation in the British and the Omani SMEs. For the Omani sample, the investigated direct relationship between the explanatory variables and the innovation outcomes showed quite sizable variables are insignificant. These are exports, family-owned businesses, firm age, executive founders, access to new exports markets, access to external finance, access to ICT, access to skilled labour and unskilled labour markets out of twenty-five tested explanatory variables. However, when additional tests were carried out, it is found that an indirect relationship between the explanatory variables and the innovation outcomes exist through the firm behaviour and business environment factors. The British SMEs in the 1990s primarily innovated their products, followed by their processes and services. The marketing methods innovation was the least practised type of innovation by the British SMEs during that period. This finding reflects the British economy in the 1990s, as it was highly industrialised and starting to move towards a knowledge-based economy. Later, the British SMEs in the 2010s shifted their focus as they became more processes and services innovation-oriented, followed by marketing methods innovation. Product innovation is the least practised kind of innovation in the meantime. This finding also reflects the transfer of the British economy to the crypto- economy that requires innovative process solutions to protect privacy, sensitive information and wealth. The situation with the Omani SMEs now is somewhere between the British SMEs in the 1990s and the British SMEs in the 2010s. This finding reflects the Omani economy's diversification initiatives aiming to leapfrog from a natural resources-based economy to a knowledge-based economy. The Omani SMEs are mostly service-oriented, followed by marketing methods and incremental product innovations. The processes innovations are the least practised among the different types of innovations at the firm level. The results show that two common and key firm characteristics drive innovation in the British and the Omani SMEs: the 'firm size' and the 'updated equipment & high technology.' The 'firm age' matters for innovation with the British SMEs in and after the 1990s. There are also two common and key firm behaviour elements: the 'R&D' and the 'capacity for expansion.' The 3 presence of competition, access to local business networks, access to external R&D and government support are the four common and key business environment factors that drive innovation at the firm level. The results also show that the common and key barriers to innovation in the British and the Omani SMEs are the bureaucratic hurdles of laws and regulations, the rigidities in organisational culture, the financial constraints and lack of proper finance vehicles devoted for innovation purposes. They may be prevented internally by adopting the culture of innovation, starting with the executive founders or both female and male entrepreneurs who may play a significant role in inspiring the team to innovate. The external barriers may be reduced by activating the wellharmonised entrepreneurship ecosystem that aims for economic transformation through innovative solutions. This research uses cross-sectional datasets; hence there is an issue of causality and endogeneity which is difficult to be treated given that 5 innovation models are investigated with 25 explanatory variables. It would be useful to investigate the innovation model using panel data in future research. The panel dataset will enable the researcher to perform binary choice models for panel data such as the pooled estimation, the random effect, and the fixed effects. Also, it will enable the researcher to see the changes that happened in the SMEs over multiple years. Besides, this research did not cover the sectoral analysis as the models were already exhausted enough with explanatory variables. Therefore, it will be interesting to do an in-depth sectoral analysis with fewer explanatory variables in the model. Moreover, it will be interesting to perform clusters analysis to evaluate the behaviour and performance of the SMEs in each cluster.

This action research study explores various solutions to address problems faced by the researcher’s business in Nigeria and possibly other businesses mostly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country over the years arising from ineffective government fiscal and monetary policies. Successive governments in Nigeria have made efforts to create conducive environments for SMEs to contribute adequately to growth and development of the economy. Several studies have shown that despite government’s best efforts, SMEs still face significant challenges especially those outside their control (external to the SMEs) and occasioned by government policy decisions. These challenges militate against their survival and contribution to the country’s economic growth. One of the early findings of this research is that government policy framework in general plays a central role in such SME challenges. The aim of this research is to explore the root causes of these external challenges within the context of government fiscal and monetary policy framework development by working closely with stakeholders, engaging them in an action research context, identifying underlying causes of these problems, making relevant recommendations and taking appropriate action through active engagement with policy decision makers for enactment of changes. The study adopted an action research methodology with a qualitative approach to data collection at the initial stage of engagement with SMEs. A multi-site and coalition based AR approach (Fuller-Rowell, 2009) was used for engagement between SMEs, their umbrella organisations and selected government parastatals, ministries, departments and agencies. The study involved a number of participants, mainly SMEs and their umbrella organisations. The study analysed their concerns and engaged government agencies and policy makers with those findings. The initial research stage starts with first level interviews for qualitative data collection involving 19 participants using in-depth one-on-one interviews. Apart from data collection, a critical aim of this phase is to enlist their eventual participation in an action research. During this phase, one group interactive discussion was facilitated by an SME umbrella organisation for some participants. Further interviews were held with principal officers of umbrella organisations and data collected from these three stages were used to engage policy makers in various government ministries, agencies and departments. The engagements with government agencies provided opportunity for more in-depth analysis, deeper reflectivity, sense-making and critique of the findings. Following these engagements, the research articulated key issues for consideration and enactment which became the springboard for active participation of SME umbrella organisations in government fiscal, monetary and other policy making process for the benefit of SMEs. The study noted four critical inhibitors to growth and development of SMEs in Nigeria and concluded that these are symptoms of more deeply rooted problems of inconsistent and unstable policy environment. The first inhibitor is poor and inadequate infrastructure availability for businesses, secondly inadequate financing and lack of access to finance and thirdly prevalence of multiple regulatory agencies. Finally, high incidence of multiple taxation, multiple levies, duties and charges inhibit SME growth. Although inconsistent and unstable policy environment was also identified as a key theme, the research concluded that this critical inhibitor contributes significantly to the existence and negative impact of the previous four on growth and development of SMEs in Nigeria. The challenges of inadequate infrastructure, poor access to finance, prevalence of multiple regulatory agencies, incidence of multiple taxation, etc. can be attributed to poor and inconsistent fiscal and monetary policy development initiatives by government. Although the research focuses on fiscal and monetary policy issues, the importance of addressing the problem of inadequate infrastructure became central during the research. The research explored policy development framework and identified participatory policy development approach as a possible way to achieve positive outcomes for SMEs. The resulting AR focus contributed positively to engagement between SME operators, SME umbrella organisations and policy makers within government agencies participating in the research. This group transformed into a useful platform for engagement among members and with stakeholders, reflection and sense making between various stakeholders. This engagement process partly influenced the following key actions by policy makers; (i) enactment of extensive participatory policy development approach with government co-opting SME umbrella organisations and embarking on SME Clinics in all states across the country seeking wider consultations and input from the stakeholders; (ii) Adopting an integrated policy development approach recommended and canvassed through the research participants following extensive engagement and reflexivity with key government agencies.

To remain competitive in the ongoing rapid transformation in the industry, technology-based small firms (TBSFs) have been establishing partnerships with universities for knowledge transfer to complement their limitations in terms of knowledge, skill and investment. This thesis is concerned with the transfer of knowledge between universities and TBSFs in fostering innovation and understanding the implications of social capital throughout the process. Reviewing previous work, particularly on the topics of knowledge transfer, innovation and social capital shows a clear gap in the literature. There is a lack of a holistic approach that integrates these topics to understand the implications of knowledge transfer and social capital for the fostering of innovation, considering the multiple dimensions of social capital and the subjective view of innovation. And this is particularly limited in the context of partnerships between universities and TBSFs. To address this gap, this study explores how social capital influences the transfer of knowledge in fostering innovation through partnerships between universities and TBSFs in the UK. The study adopts a multi-method qualitative approach, with four case studies of university partnerships with TBSFs through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme. The case studies consist of 13 interviews with the main stakeholders in the partnerships (KTP Associate, Academic Supervisor and Business Supervisor). The second method adopted is the expert interview. A total of 27 expert interviews were conducted, allowing an in-depth understanding to be provided of the implications of knowledge transfer and social capital for the fostering of innovation. Analysis of the findings has highlighted that social capital is significant in facilitating the transfer of knowledge to foster innovation. The study discusses the nature of the interrelation among the dimensions of social capital in promoting the transfer of knowledge to foster different types of innovation, namely product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation and organisational innovation, as well as new reputations for TBSFs. The study acknowledges the importance of developing and sustaining social capital among the partners through the whole process of partnership. Regular communication through formal, informal and online platform channels encourages bi-directional interactions between partners and supports the development of strong relationships between them. The study also highlights the importance and fruitfulness of proximity, informal hierarchies, prior ties and networks with a diversity of skills and knowledge in promoting knowledge transfer to foster innovation. In terms of relational capital, the study highlights the importance of friendship-based and professional relationships in encouraging openness to knowledge transfer. Trust, primarily based on the proven performance and capabilities of the academics, is also significant in facilitating the transfer of knowledge. Commitment, reciprocity, compromise and respect are also found to be necessary for the transfer of knowledge within these partnerships. In terms of cognitive capital, a shared understanding, transparency, shared innovation mindset, shared interests outside the project, common institutional background, cultural fit and, finally, open communication policy help to facilitate the transfer of knowledge in fostering innovation outcomes. This study makes two contributions. Firstly, it provides a holistic view of the implications for knowledge transfer and social capital in fostering innovation within the context of partnerships between universities and TBSFs. The study provides a conceptual framework that illustrates the theoretical interactions between knowledge transfer, innovation and social capital. The framework represents the multidimensionality of social capital in influencing the transfer of knowledge to foster innovation. It provides a shift in the standard view in the social capital literature, from structuralist perspectives to a relational and cognitive perspective. Secondly, in terms of a practical contribution, the research develops a list of recommendations to benefit future partnerships between universities and TBSFs. The recommendations are based on the challenges faced by the stakeholders during the development of innovation outcomes. The lists of recommendation mainly provide understanding to assist the diverse stakeholders within these partnerships. The use of the expert interviews as an additional method generates new insight into the recommendations.

Main Focus: This study aimed to investigate the factors that affect B2B e-commerce adoption by the RMG export SMEs in the developing country context of Bangladesh. All over the world, e-commerce has considerably transformed ways of conducting business. A great deal of evidence shows, however, that SMEs in developing countries are lagging behind their counterparts in developed countries. This research will guide manufacturing SMEs in developing countries, such as Bangladeshi RMG export SMEs, in the adoption of B2B e-commerce. Data Collection Techniques: This research undertaken, using an interpretive paradigm for collecting data from the selected RMG export SMEs, large RMG export organisations and experts associated with the RMG export business. The principal data collection tools and techniques used were open-ended semi-structured questions through face-to-face interviews, as well as document analysis. Conceptual Framework: A conceptual framework developed to gather different factors associated with e-commerce adoption as defined in the research question: "What are the factors affecting the adoption of Business-to-Business (B2B) Electronic Commerce (E-commerce) by Ready-Made Garments (RMG) export SMEs in Bangladesh?". Data collected from the interviews were analysed to gather deeper insights into the findings based on the elements of the TOE framework and CATWOE analysis. The elements of data include: 1) The nature and characteristics of the business; 2) The use of ICT and web applications by the company; 3) Senior management’s perceptions of B2B e-commerce adoption; 4) The factors that affect and influence B2B e-commerce adoption; 5) Identification of government initiatives for the adoption of B2B e-commerce, and 6) Suggestions to ease the adoption of B2B e-commerce by the RMG export SMEs in Bangladesh. Principal Findings: Several factors have been identified that have a negative impact on the adoption of B2B e-commerce by the RMG export SMEs in Bangladesh. These mentioned below- A lack of senior management knowledge about the global scope and benefits of B2B e-commerce for organisations; a lack of financial ability in the organisations and more comprehensive investment for adopting technology; a lack of financial support from financial institutions; a lack of quality B2B e-commerce software; a lack of combination of IT skilled human resources with RMG business knowledge; a lack of support from business partners and their readiness to take part in B2B e-commerce; a lack of support from government and BGMEA to improve ICT infrastructure in the RMG sector; the complexity of legal issues related to online transactions; political instability and uncertainty; language and communication problems when using the internet. Also, there are some of the other factors identified in this research that will influence the adoption decision of B2B e-commerce by the RMG export SMEs in Bangladesh. These are as follows, access to new markets; the sourcing of raw materials; improving communication with clients and better marketing opportunities; the availability of a third-party website for B2B e-commerce; support from the government and BGMEA. Contribution to Knowledge: This study makes a theoretical contribution to this research area by combining the TOE framework with a CATWOE analysis of the factors identified for a broader perspective of B2B e-commerce adoption. That has, until now, been absent from the current literature of B2B e-commerce adoption in the context of SMEs. Also, this study provides a conceptual framework to guide government of Bangladesh, BGMEA, RMG export SMEs, software developer and other associated stakeholders in creating a system so that RMG export SMEs can efficiently adopt B2B e-commerce without massive changes to their businesses. This conceptual framework can potentially be used in the context of manufacturing industries of different developing countries.

Affordance actualization (AA) is a process through which organizations realize their IT potentials. The extant IS literature on affordances has mainly focused on theorizing the existence and perception of affordances; the actualization process remains understudied and undertheorized. To address this gap, this research investigates the process of affordance actualization and unpacks the mechanisms that explain how and why affordance actualization has evolved in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) context. Critical realist philosophical assumptions were adopted to identify and analyse the causal paths through which technology affordances are successfully realized. Three case studies were carried out in Saudi Arabian SMEs through two phases: exploratory and explanatory. The data collection methods comprised semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and a review of organizational documentation. Findings from the case studies were used to develop a mechanism-based explanation of the affordance actualization process to address the question: ‘How does affordance actualization occur in SMEs?' The theory of affordance actualization and the theory of workarounds were integrated to account for various actualization actions and outcomes. Three types of actualization actions were identified: planned actions; workarounds; and assessments and alterations. The actualization actions, enacted at the individual level, collectively contribute to produce actualization outcomes at the organizational level. These outcomes correspond to the actualization actions and broadly involve enabling organizational changes and goals. This research contributes to the IS literature on affordances in two ways. First, the research develops a SME-specific AA process that demonstrates the two-level dynamics of actualization actions and outcomes. Second, the research identifies four sets of contextual conditions that contingently determine the outcomes of the affordance actualization process for SMEs. These conditions are classified according to their influence on AA process, including: restraining conditions; enabling conditions; stimulating conditions; and releasing conditions. The findings from this research also provide practical implications for SME managers and practitioners to succeed in actualizing technology affordances through improving affordance potency and locality and reducing affordance dependency.

Interest in the careers of women is still highly relevant and remains an often-discussed topic amongst both scholars and practitioners. Despite several decades of legislative re-form and government intervention which go aside of considerable efforts from advocacy groups, women remain significantly under-represented in the higher echelons of organisations in Germany. This situation leads to a remarkable paradox: a high number of well-trained and educated women that do not achieve the same career success as men but are often labelled as a hidden and under-utilised resource within organisations and our society. Hence, a central proposition underpinning this research is rather than describing obstacles women face, research should focus on factors that help women to get ahead (Baskerville Watkins & Smith, 2014; Shaw & Leberman, 2015). Authors have already identified plenty of obstacles that women face at work. In particular, prior research suggests that women suffer in terms of corporate policies, limited training and career development activities, as well as gender stereotypes, promotional practices, and compensation (Garcia-Retamero & Lopez-Zafra, 2009; Hoobler, Lemmon, & Wayne, 2014; Oakley, 2000). Thus, the aim of this doctoral study was to identify and measure factors that help women in Germany to succeed. Building on that idea, commentators have realised that successful individuals have employed tactics and strategies to aid their advancement (Orpen, 1994; Pazy, 1988; Rasdi, Garavan, & Ismail, 2011). Moreover, career processes are politically-charged and to succeed, women need to influence key stakeholders and negotiate political structures responsible for career decisions in order to overcome male privilege in the workplace. However, little is known so far in relation to how “ ... women may success-fully steer through the political quagmire that often surrounds them at work” (Baskerville Watkins & Smith, 2014, p. 207). Thus, this study underlines the importance of political skill for females' careers which reflects the ability to identify and use powerful alliances at work, as well as to behave astutely and strategically in order to succeed (Ferris, Davidson, & Perrewe, 2005). Furthermore, there is still a need for research that helps to understand the mechanism of political skill. In particular, this study tries to shed some light on our understanding of why and how political skill affects career success due to the incorporation of the intervening variables of perceived organisational support and career self-efficacy. This empirical study starts with a comprehensive review of literature to develop the pro-posed conceptual model and hypotheses. Based on a post-positivist stance and a survey method, data was collected from career-oriented women living in Germany. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling to assess model fit and test the hypotheses. The results of the study show the more frequently females ́ engage in political behaviour, the higher the influence on subjective and objective career success. Nevertheless, even though a direct effect of career self-efficacy towards women's career success occur, the assumed moderating effect has to be rejected. Finally, the study explores the importance of perceived organisational support to women's career development. Perceived organisational support was found to mediate the relationship between political skill and subjective well as objective career success. The results suggest that enhancing political behaviour offers implications for individuals and organisations. One can conclude that women benefit from applying political skill to support their career success. In particular, this research should encourage women to train their political tactics. Moreover, women can benefit from high self-efficacy beliefs too, even though no moderation effects were identified in this study. Self-efficacy beliefs can also be enhanced by training and coaching sessions. Furthermore, the study reveals that political skill will increase women's perceptions of organisational support and commitment, which seems to influence their career success positively. Thus, this research should also motivate organisations to provide training not only for women, but also for all employees to increase their awareness of possible unconscious bias and stereotypes. To conclude, this study contributes to the literature on females career success, particularly in Germany. It can also assist women, organisations and HRD practitioners in developing awareness, but also in designing programmes for individuals and organisations.

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and employment in every economy. However, in transition economies (TEs) they often struggle to approach the market effectively. This study extends theoretical understanding of the interface between entrepreneurship and marketing. The study identifies Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) as key to the success of these SMEs. It proposes a synthesis of the two concepts, and the practices they describe, as a basis for better understanding and improving SME approach to market in economies experiencing the disruption of transition. The overall aim of the study is to assist SMEs in approaching the market more effectively, especially in TEs. Its specific objectives are threefold. First, to identify the antecedent behaviours that underlie EO. Second, to scope the components that interlink the concepts of EO and EM. Third, to propose marketing strategies that are especially applicable to SMEs in general and, in particular, to SMEs operating in a TE context. These objectives are informed by phenomenologically oriented analysis of twenty-nine (n29) semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs who manage or own an SME in Saudi Arabia in various sectors including SME consultants. Their reports of their lived experience suggest seven antecedents of EO ordered according to their perceived importance. In addition, two elements that interlink EO and EM are identified; these are human capital and access to market information. Thus, and contrary to previous academic practice, this study treats EO and EM as essentially interrelated nature and explores how market engagement is more effective when SMEs embrace both in their practice. Finally, the study evaluates different marketing strategies and tools generated at the EO-EM interface, that can be most effective for SMEs in TEs. The study concludes with managerial implications, suggestions for policy makers and directions for further research.

The success of a small firm depends on the decisions it makes relating to buying and selling. This study therefore investigates the logic used by a small firm owner-manager when determining such important decisions, through the scope provided by four interlinked papers. A review of sales related literature resulted in the development of a new construct of overall sales failure and instrument that measures elements that simultaneously and explicitly impact sales failure, thus enabling distance from failure to be established. Furthermore, it identified the significant impact of firm size in respect of sales. With the dyadic nature of buyer-seller relationships, and small firms reported as using different processes to their larger counterparts, attention is therefore directed at the decision-making logic used by small firm owner-managers. Consideration is given to the impact of effectuation logic on buying intentions. A conceptual model that seeks to explain the predilection of a small firm owner-manager to select trusted suppliers from within personal and business networks, and to engage on flexible terms is presented. It suggests that supplier relationship decisions made using effectuation logic may enable wider choice of suppliers than the formal processes of large firms. Empirical qualitative work to test the propositions made within the model, is reported herein. A qualitative study into such use of effectual logic by micro firm owner managers that operate in the UK Telecommunication market, finds that they do indeed utilise effectual means to develop personal relationships with trusted suppliers. This use of effectual buying also appears to positively promote the use of effectual selling, which enables the micro firm to match, in real time, what they have or can access from suppliers with what is required by customers. This appears to be an iterative process, the output of effectual selling leading to a further need for effectual buying, which while initially reducing uncertainty, can in the longer term increase it. Effectual logic would also, in additional to firm size, have additional intersectional, relational context aspects. Findings from a longitudinal study into a Key Account Management relationship between a small firm within the food industry and a major UK grocer suggest effectual logic may positively moderate the ability of a small supplier to enter into such a relationship. However, once within it, applying effectual logic may negatively impact success by increasing the potential for failure to co-create value, leading to suboptimal products and impacting buyer confidence and trust. Consequent attempts to recoup resources expended through the sale of rejected products to other customers appears to then fail and further damage the firm’s customer relationships, creating a cascading cycle of failure, depleted resources and the need for more effectual logic to acquire more. This study therefore makes a contribution to knowledge, specifically, whilst extant literature has hitherto identified use of effectual decision-making logic as an antecedent to positive outcomes, this study has identified negative consequences from such use by owner-managers of small firms, when determining buying and selling decisions. It does this as follows. First it identifies that owner-managers of small firms do indeed use effectual logic when determining buying and selling decisions, such use of effectual buying enabling the firm to overcome resource restriction and offer a wider range of products/services than it could otherwise provide. Second, such use of effectual buying facilitates, or even necessitates, effectual selling, which enables a small firm to offer a wider range of products/services to more customers, than it would otherwise be able to service, potentially also enabling a small firm to overcome resource restrictions and enter into Key Account Management relationships with larger customers. Third, such use of effectual selling, however, also holds the potential to negatively impact trust, an underpinning requirement for buyer−seller relationships. Fourth, because lack of trust is an antecedent to sales failure, each sales failure negatively impacts resources, creating a requirement for more effectual selling. Fifth, this leads to a cycle of cascading sales failure, such sales failure creating, rather than reducing, uncertainty. It also makes a contribution to practice. Specifically, the final topology has been translated into a qualitative self-assessment tool, which has been adopted by some members of the Sales Performance Association (SPA), used by SPA members’ clients, as it provides a comprehensive framework that can be used to help the client identify areas of real or potential sales failure and therefore determine a scope of remedial work.

Talent management has seen an increasing interest in the last decade as organisations face critical challenges to acquire and retain talented individuals who contributes to their success and create sustainable competitive advantage. However, talent management challenges have become more significant due to the rapid growth of small and medium sized enterprises. Rather than fiercely competing with multi-national companies to attract talent, SMEs have tended to develop talent internally and focus on retaining them. Also, while the prime focus is on the development of human capital, organisations often neglect the socio-cultural context in which decisions are made. Thus, in order for talent management to be effective, organisations need to address the broader national context when implementing such practices. Wasta, the practice of favouritism based on family and tribal relations has been widely used in Jordan to secure jobs, pay rises and other benefits. Research at the macro-level was conducted to understand the impact of cultural and institutional environmental on talent management in an internal context. This research contributes empirically to the literature of talent management by examining practices influenced by a national context and utilised in SMEs that differ from those processes adopted by large and multinational companies. Therefore, this thesis aims to examine the influence of micro and macro-environmental factors on strategic talent management within SMEs in Jordan. As talent management focusses exclusively on the organisational level, this research extends beyond organisational level by applying a multidimensional model, integrating factors at the macro level (Wasta), micro level (the talent management process) and strategic talent management performance. A mixed method research (confirmatory and explanatory) design was utilised to address the specified research questions. A quantitative method was employed to test and confirm the hypothesis developed throughout the study. A qualitative method was used to explain the relationships between variables and explain the institutional factors that affect the strategic talent management process. Due to serious challenges with data collection in Jordan, convenience and snowball sampling were applied as the most appropriate sampling techniques. Data was collected from the manufacturing and ICT sectors as the sectors with the largest number of SMEs in Jordan. Based on a total of 250 surveys, the outcomes revealed the significant effect of Wasta on retention performance mediated by strategic retention management. The findings were further supported and explained through explanatory qualitative results and expanded to an institutional context by applying a regulatory, cognitive and normative framework. The key theoretical contribution of this research was the development of a multidimensional model that can be used to examine the impact of environmental factors on talent management processes and talent retention performance. This research also provides a conceptual framework that shows how the talent management process is effectively implemented to retain talented employees and how the impact of Wasta and institutional factors affects strategic retention performance through the process of strategic talent management. In doing so, this study attempts to help key stakeholders and HR consultants at organisational level, as well as policymakers at sectorial and national levels identify how to utilise their pools of talent as well as to address the impact of Wasta on retention performance in Jordanian organisations.

This cross-sectional research explores the relationship between strategic planning practices and performance of SMEs in the Nigerian service-related sector, to establish empirically whether adopting strategic planning impacts performance, as previous studies covering the developed world have found. It appraises the attitudes to and perceptions of SME owners and managers in Nigeria towards strategic planning, to determine if strategic planning adoption impacts on performance. It also attempts to ascertain the extent to which SMEs in the Nigerian service-related sector make use of strategic planning and the role the peculiar Nigerian socio-cultural dynamics (such as the patronage culture, corruption, religion, societal norms, and education) play in hampering adoption. It intends to provoke debate about and generate awareness of the need for Nigerian SMEs to plan strategically for continuity. It also presents a framework for deducing the relationship between strategic planning and SMEs’ effectiveness from the Nigerian perspective. A mixed methods approach was adopted and primary data were collected from owners and managers of SMEs, using both questionnaires (136) and semi-structured interviews (20). The findings indicated a low level of strategic planning adoption among Nigerian SMEs, partly due to the social factors mentioned. They corroborate findings from extant research covering the developed world, that adopting strategic planning impacts positively on the performance of SMEs. The study suggests that systematic re-orientation is required, for SME owners in Nigeria to embrace the concept of long-term planning for continuity, and for responsible government agencies to actively promote it. Finally, this study extended and expanded the scope of previous research by proposing a model suggesting that the decision to adopt strategic planning depended partly on the business and owners’ attributes, and partly on the socio-cultural influences of the business location and business owners’ socio-cultural orientation.

This study that uses ethnographic research methods explores how trust influences the sharing of practical knowledge in technology producing SMEs. More specifically, this project investigates how trust behaviours influence the sharing of various types of tacit and explicit practical knowledge. Currently, practice theory research recommends how practical knowledge can be shared however, efforts to share practical knowledge generally fail due to trust not been developed adequately in the collaborative relationships formed by companies. This research aims to inform practice theory of how SMEs can develop collaborative relationships more effectively. To succeed, these companies are particularly dependent on collaborative working as a source for growth and competitive advantage. This investigation uses a qualitative research methodology, which employs a multiple case study approach where semi-structured interviews have been conducted with six engineers, three of whom work in large companies and three in SMEs. Observations were also conducted for one case study. These participants work at various levels and the companies themselves are based in a variety of geographic locations across the UK. Based on the use of a thematic analysis on the interview data it was possible to characterise a practical knowledge sharing culture. In addition, the research outlines the specific perceptions and experiences of participants who adopted trust based strategies for sharing practical knowledge over the life of a project. By applying a method devised in this research called narrative mapping, it was possible to identify patterns between trust behaviours and types of practical knowledge shared from participants' anecdotes. As the interviewees' anecdotes relate to specific relationship phases over a project life cycle, the research was able to build up a picture of how trust develops over the life stages of a project. The findings provide a novel way of helping SMEs to develop effective collaborative relationships and associated working practices and inform future trust and practice theory research.

This study aims to exarnine the relationship between the structures of inter-organisation connections and innovation results in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Existing literature shows that SMEs can benefit from inter- organisation connections in SNEs development. However: there is a theoretical gap in how a combination of various structures of inter-organisation connections affects SMEs development results. In other words: the theoretical gap in this area is what structures of inter-firm connections can be more beneficial than the others. Thus, this study adopts the network theory and network analysis to explore the effects of network structures on SMEs performances in their development. To close this gap, network theory is employed to support this study's hypotheses. Then, this study uses network analysis to generate network snapshots and test proposed hypotheses. Complementary to prior research, this study suggests that SMEs development results can benefit from having sparse connections, interlocked connections, centrality, and brokerage in their networks. Also, in contrast to prior research, this study emphasizes the influences of these four inter-firm connection structures, sparse connections, interlocked connections, centrality, and brokerage.

Organisations that demonstrate effective human resource management (HRM) practices experience higher productivity from employees. The antecedent is to establish and implement human resource functions or processes that bring out the best in employees. Generally, larger organisations have more sophisticated and wellstructured HRM practices. The perception is HRM practices in large organisations are easy to replicate in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Certainly, SMEs face many challenges unique to their business environment hence the solutions are specific to these challenges. Therefore, issues affecting people, in this instance HRM issues would require highly specific human resource process interventions to suit the SMEs needs. A very vital and highly specific element is the strategic recruitment and selection process in SMEs. Hence, this study focuses on the importance of strategic recruitment and selection practices in Malaysian SMEs and the significance of fit specifically person-job (PJ) and person-organisation (PO) fit. Literature indicates there is a lack of sufficient studies that look at the effect and application of PO and PJ fit dimension in the recruitment and selection function specifically in Malaysian SMEs. This qualitative study encompasses the development of a priori themes drawn from literature as the initial fundamental guide. The first level a priori themes are the precursor in developing the initial a priori template. The main data collection methods used are in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The research adopts the interpretivist approach infusing a practitioner-researcher viewpoint that embraces 'sense-making'. It combines the practical rationality and utility of the problems of practising managers. Data collected is analysed using the combination of template analysis and qualitative analysis software encompassing the thematic organising and analysis of interview data. The interpretation and understanding of the importance of PJ and PO fit among the SMEs when recruiting and selecting talent is ambiguous. Hence putting in place a structured human resource policy and the system is the biggest challenge. The final template produced five important first-level a priori themes; strategic considerations, recruitment practices, selection criteria, fit dimension and link-outcome between fit and retention. These five level one themes together with key sub-level themes serve as a guide for SMEs to implement a strategic and structured recruitment and selection process. An effective hiring system incorporates business strategy linked dimensions of PJ and PO fit in the overall process. Employee retention in SMEs tend to be higher because of the intrinsic job factors experienced by potential applicants in the hiring process. SMEs should consider using specific and systematic hiring-costing template that achieves cost-effective methods. Second, adopting a targeted recruitment and selection approach, for example, referrals, internships, sourcing from technical and vocational education or training institutions are effective methods for SMEs. Speed, simplicity and cost efficiency are strong drivers in SMEs recruitment and selection process. Hence using a highly focused recruitment and selection targeting applicants with specific trade based skills produces better PJ and PO fit. Ultimately, as a way forward the findings shape the foundation in developing a strategically focused recruitment and selection framework and template that facilitates SMEs to hire the best person that fits the job and the organisation.

I write three essays on micro and small firms in Indonesia. The first essay discusses the effects of the education of entrepreneurs-the managers cum owners of micro and small firms-on the firm performance and the entrepreneurs' earnings. I find some evidence that, on average, better educated entrepreneurs earn more hourly, monthly, and annually, though the return to education differs by sector. I also find female entrepreneurs benefit more from their education, so do entrepreneurs in urban areas. The second essay studies whether social health insurance in Indonesia, Askeskin, that owners of micro and small firms have access to help the firms cope with family hardships experienced by the households. I find some evidence of Askeskin reduces the adverse effects of deaths in the family in the previous year, outpatient care, and traffic accidents on net profits; Askeskin also protects total assets against owners' need of outpatient care. The third essay analyses the effects of an increase in real wage rates on small farms' investment in tractors, machines, equipment, and irrigation system, i.e., whether an increase in wages induces farmers to substitute labour for capital. I find some evidence that higher real minimum wages induce greater use of tractors on small farms; higher real agricultural wages encourage smallholders invest more in vehicles. I also find relatively large farms use more tractors as real wages (all types) increase; they also invest more in vehicles when farm labour become more expensive. By contrast, relatively small farms invest more in irrigation systems in response to higher real wages and more in farm equipment when real agricultural wages increase.

The proposed case study seeks to acquire empirical evidence on the evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Kazakhstan. This research draws upon primary sources, including in-depth interviews of general managers of Kazakhstani SMEs along with professionals in the field of CSR in Kazakhstan, and a survey of SME customers. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Kazakhstani business culture has been exposed to rapid changes, which affected almost every aspect of social interactions from political and institutional architecture to common cultural references and social norms. Simultaneously, transformations in business and economic relations at the global level have produced a growth in discourse on CSR, particularly in developing countries. These systemic changes and international developments prompted this research to explore what constitutes CSR in the case of SMEs in Kazakhstan? Without a consideration of contextual features, it becomes difficult to understand how and why phenomena such as CSR may or may not be adapted and incorporated into the local Kazakhstani business in the same way as in countries with established free economy markets. Findings from this research challenge the prevailing belief that local CSR is newly born phenomenon, which was merely brought to Kazakhstan from outside. Instead, this study demonstrates a considerable discrepancy between the Western conceptualisations and the local CSR realities. Contrary to popular assumptions, the notion of social responsibility has a unique and sustained history in Kazakhstan. This study examined the effect of local cultural and historical circumstances in shaping the development, conceptualisation, and adoption of CSR in Kazakhstani SMEs. To do so, this research 1) explored the “local roots” of Kazakstani CSR and analysed the determinants of its unique form, 2) identified the main recipients of SMEs’ CSR, whose concerns are prioritised, 3) unfolded the driving forces compelling local companies to adopt CSR practices.

The predominance and economic significance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) meanswidespread disruption to their operations can have severe financial consequences for a nation’s economy. For instance, the 2007 summer floods in the UK caused damage estimated at £2.3 billion and a significant proportion of this damage was sustained by SMEs, which, in 2018, represented 99.9% (5.7 million) of all UK businesses. Thus, due to the importance of this sizeof business to developed nations’ economies, this research seeks to develop an agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) framework to investigate manufacturing and retail SMEs’ immediate response to and short-term recovery from flooding. This ABMS framework consists of three main components: (i) flood-event simulation; (ii) a modelled geographical environment (MGE); and (iii) agent-based modelling and simulation. First, flood-event simulation represents the input (inundation) data that feeds into the MGE component, which provides a common platform for the flood-event simulation and the agent-based modelling and simulation. Specifically, the MGE combines Ordnance Survey (OS) MasterMap® data (i.e. Topography, Integrated Transport Network (ITN), and AddressBase Plus layers) with the input from the flood-event simulation to enable the identification of the flooded and non-flooded organisations. Consequently, a proportion of these identified organisations, and particularly SMEs from manufacturing and retail sectors, are modelled as autonomous agents and simulated over three stages, namely pre-flood, flood (no operation), and post-flood. In addition, SME-related organisations (e.g. suppliers, customers, electrical service providers, plumbing service providers, IT service providers, cleaning service providers, the Environment Agency (EA), mutual aid partners, refurbishment companies, and insurance companies) are also modelled as autonomous agents and simulated to support SMEs’ operation and/or recovery. In terms of SMEs, manufacturing and retail SMEs are modelled as autonomous agents with different sets of attributes (e.g. static and dynamic), behaviours (e.g. pre- and post-flood), and pre-defined precautionary measures (e.g. flood resistance, flood resilience, and businesscontinuity/risk management). Production level and service capability are computed at each simulation tick for every manufacturing and retail SME modelled, respectively, to determine their performance throughout the simulation. In terms of simulation, two real-life case studies of UK flood events in 2007 have been considered: (a) the Lower Don Valley of Sheffield, south Yorkshire, and (b) Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. For the analysis, manufacturing and retail SMEs are categorised according to the level the floodwater reached in their respective premises (i.e. lightly, moderately, and severely) and then each category is investigated individually against each of the simulation experiments defined, which corresponds to different combinations of precautionary measures. As a result, this research has found that the flood resistance precautionary measures, which include a bund-wall being erected around SMEs’ premises, are effective for lightly and moderately flooded manufacturing and retail SMEs. However, the severely flooded manufacturing and retail SMEs simulated with a combination of flood resistance precautionary measures as well as business continuity/risk management tend to achieve higher production levels and service capability profiles, respectively.

This study is among the first to explore female labour in the private sector in Saudi Arabia, drawing on Saudi women’s experiences of working in SMEs. A gendered power relations approach was adopted to make an important and original contribution to knowledge, with regard to the implications of feminisation in SMEs. In particular, it addresses the gendered nature of Saudi Arabia’s latest Saudization incentive,the Nitaqat programme; illuminating the complexities of managing female labour under Nitaqat and allowing the voices of female labour in the Saudi private sector to be heard and interpreted. The study therefore explores the shifting role of women in the Saudi Arabian labour market due to Nitaqat – a programme launched in 2011 to impose quotas for the employment of Saudi nationals in the private sector, but which has also led to an increase in the number of female employees in what were hitherto almost exclusively male environments. Hence, Saudi women are gradually beginning to experience more open workplaces. It is these changes that have inspired the current study on the management response to increased female labour in private Saudi firms. Moreover, Bradley’s (1999)gendered power relations approach in the workplace provides a lens through which the experiences of Saudi women and the shifting nature of their roles which challenges the norms within Saudi Arabia’s patriarchal society. Consequently, this original research,based on five detailed case studies of private-sector firms, explores the experiences of female Saudi employees in SMEs, with specific reference to their management. The findings are clearly complex: while the women appeared to be subjugated in some ways,they also seemed to be gaining sources of power in the workplace. However, the source of this power varied across the firms. Through semi-structured interviews, rich, in-depth qualitative data were gathered from 26 participants, comprising female employees and human resource managers. To enrich these data, an ethnographic approach was adopted for two of the case studies. The findings highlight varying responses to female employment,revealing that while some firms comply with Nitaqat, an opportunistic approach to employing women is also evident, with Nitaqat as an incentive. Therefore, this research provides insights into the varying degrees of liberation witnessed amongst female employees in the private sector, particularly in terms of their workplace experience,influenced by managerial responses, the nature of the firm, and the employer’s level of authority. Thus, this research makes an important contribution to existing work undertaken on the implications of gendered power and labour in SMEs in emerging economies.

Entrepreneurial orientation is one of the most crucial and reliable means of achieving a sustained competitive advantage in organizations. This is done through an ongoing process of highlighting new opportunities that arise now and then in a typical business environment. This study examines the impact of organizational culture (group, hierarchical, rational, and development) on entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The study also explores the effect of EO on organizational learning, innovation and firm performance, and the mediating role of both organizational learning and innovation and performance in the relationship between EO and firm performance. It applies to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in an Omani context. The study employs quantitative method to gather information and data which are imperative for any typical study of a firm’s performance. A questionnaire was distributed to gather data from 418 managers of SMEs in Oman. Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the collected data. The findings of the study indicated that organizational culture is a key determinant of EO in SMEs. Further, only hierarchical, rational and development culture bear direct correlation to EO whereas group culture has almost no effect. The results also depicted how EO contributes positively to the performance, organizational learning and innovation of a firm. Learning organization and innovation performance were also seen to deeply influence a firm’s overall output. Finally, the results concluded that organizational learning and innovation performance play a mediating role in the relationship between EO and firm performance. This study contributes to the current available theoretical knowledge pool and stresses the understanding and knowledge about the relationships that typically exist between the four different types of attributes, namely: organizational culture, EO, organizational learning, innovation performance and firm performance. The study also confirms the requirement of at least two mediators that further enhance the relationship between EO and firm performance, particularly in the context of small and medium enterprises in Oman. In practical terms, this study examines the role of organizational culture on supporting EO in the context of SMEs belonging to Oman. The research also investigates how organizational learning and innovation performance enhance the impact of EO on SME performance. Additionally, this study will help the Omani SMEs in enhancing their performance by encouraging correct EO behaviours that support organizational learning practices, thereby improving innovation and performance. Further, it will help SMEs to improve their performance through the support of an outstanding organizational culture, thus enhancing EO and, in the process, encouraging managers and employees to follow a continuous learning approach. Therefore, existing good organizational culture that enhances EO by supporting organizational learning and innovation performance will further motivate SME managers to take calculated risks in planning and expanding their enterprises in a competitive business setup in order to achieve supremacy in the marketplace against competitors and at the same time grow in a sustained manner.

The study aims to explore the role of entrepreneurial orientation coupled with three dynamic capabilities in enhancing the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve this aim, three main objectives have been set, firstly, to examine separately the relationship between innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking on dynamic capabilities. Secondly, to investigate the direct influence of Dynamic Capability (DC) dimensions on firm performance. Finally, to examine the mediating role of explorative, exploitative, reconfiguration capabilities on the relationship between EO and firm performance. The study adopts a positivist philosophy, a deductive approach with a quantitative method, and uses a questionnaire to gather data from Saudi SMEs. This study has conducted an extensive literature review to evaluate the taxonomy of EO and firm performance and identify relevant measurements items of EO dimensions, explorative capabilities, exploitive capabilities, reconfiguration capabilities, and firm performance. Before proceeding to examine the hypotheses, the study followed several data examination processes. These are reliability and validity tests of the constructs, and measurement model tests by confirmatory factor analysis. Once confirmed the reliability and validity issues of the measurement model, the study addressed structural equation model test to analyse the proposed hypotheses with an actual sample size 392 of SMEs with a response rate of 50%. To examine the conceptual model, the study used SEM with Warp PLS 6 statistical package for eliciting the causal relationships among the constructs. The findings indicate that the entrepreneurial orientation, exploring, exploiting, and reconfiguration capabilities jointly have a positive effect on performance. However, the findings show that dynamic capability only partially mediates the respective effects of entrepreneurial orientation on performance. These results provide convincing support for the importance of dynamic capability in enhancing firm performance. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a better understanding the nature of the relationship between EO and firm performance through DC. The study suggests that SMEs need to allocate their investments in resources and capabilities to attain a competitive advantage. The empirical findings will be of interest to managers and practitioners in SMEs, helping them to utilise their resources and capabilities effectively.

Globalisation has had a significant impact on the world and changed the landscape of manufacturing. Owing to this, UK manufacturing has to face challenges from both advanced economies, such as France, Germany, Japan and the US, as well as developing economies, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). To respond to this challenge, UK manufacturing needs to differentiate itself by shifting its focus towards high value manufacturing (HVM) as it has strong potential to bring sustainable growth to the UK economy. Technological advancement in the cyberphysical age enables companies to connect and create supply chains (SCs) in ways that were not previously possible. This presents an opportunity for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to participate and increase their participation in larger customers’ SCs. However, this requires SMEs to have the capability to interact effectively with their larger customers. This research explores the relationship between interaction capabilities, SMEs’ participation and firm performance. Interaction capabilities are a relatively new concept in an SC context, with existing studies more focused on the marketing domain. There are four types of interaction capabilities: human, managerial systems, technological and cultural. To examine these relationships, three sequential phases were involved. First, a reliable and valid scale for measuring interaction capabilities was developed. After developing the scale, data were collected by surveying 181 UK HVM SMEs. The survey data, then, were validated by two in-depth case studies. Of the four interaction capabilities, the results suggest SMEs have human interaction capability (HIC) in place as it significantly improves their firm performance. Additionally, acquiring HIC would support the development of other capabilities such as technological interaction capability (TIC) and cultural interaction capability (CIC). This research also indicates that SMEs should consider developing capabilities to support managerial interaction capability (MIC) if they wish to grow their business with larger customers and in turn improve their business performance.

The overall aims of this study are twofold: the first is to develop a new and practical theory which explains some of the dynamics that stimulate the development of competitive manufacturing capabilities in High Value Manufacturing (HVM) SMEs in Wales. This task was accomplished through an exploratory study that increased our understanding of the concept of competitive manufacturing capabilities. Secondly, our aim was to pursue this task using the Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM), a rarely used methodology in Operations Management research. Based on this methodology, the research involved a combination of methods administered to an initial sample of 13 organisations; 11 HVM SMEs and 2 academic support institutes, followed by a more detailed case study of a selection of 4 SMEs, out of the initial population of 13. Findings from the study included the core capability, Navigating Complexities, of which Balancing Complexities, Smart/Informed Prospecting, Sensing and Organisational Resonance were shown to be key dynamics. Other major findings include 4 closely related categories; Cross Functional Intellectual Benchmarking, Socioeconomic Complexities, Technological Complexities and Situational Knowledge Stretching, each with their own sub - dynamics. While these findings do not claim to provide the only solution available for improving competitive manufacturing capabilities, the framework presented in this thesis will help HVM SMEs better understand some of the actions they need to take to ensure they embed proven methods for enhancing their competitiveness. It will also help other interested stakeholders within the wider innovation ecosystem better understand their roles and responsibilities in supporting these SMEs to success.

The focus of the research is to investigate, how the Internet has changed internationalisation for micro and small specialist and niche retail firms within the United Kingdom (UK). Internationalisation within this research is based on the export practices of the firms. This further focuses on how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the sector internationalise through different digital modes of entry and barriers experience. The study examines different internationalisation theories/models, the Internet and digital entry modes. The study undertaken followed interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) paradigm with an exploratory research approach. The nine case studies are developed through an in-depth semi structured interview with owner/founders of the firms. The qualitative analysis allows us to gain a better understanding of the internationalisation process experienced in these firms and the role of Internet. The empirical finding discuss the firm’s business journey (through traditional Brick and Mortar), where do they stand today with the use of Internet (inclusion of Brick and Click), internationalisation through digital modes of entry adopted by the firms (Click only), and how they plan to move forward (Virtual Store). This theory-building research demonstrates partial relevance of Born Global model of internationalisation. However, the findings from this study dominated around six different theories/models such as the Resource Based View, Dynamic Capabilities, Stage / Uppsala model, Born-again Global, Technology Acceptance Model and Diffusion of innovation theory. The introduction of new technologies like Social Media and E-commerce platforms have provided the greatest opportunities for expansion into the international markets for the micro and small firms. These technological tools have empowered the firms to export using multiple digital entry mode procedures towards globalisation. Which has resulted in a high impact on reaching multiple international markets over a short period of time. Also, considering the niche specialist sector the firms operate, this study has identified new internationalisation barriers: Brexit and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These barriers relate to the changes in the external environment identified within the sector. A foundation is set for further research on the digital internationalisation process of other micro and small sector firms.

This study draws on the dynamic capabilities view to investigate how SMEs management consulting firms’, in a turbulent international marketplace successful grow. SMEs shows that the processes of successful international growth, the act of gaining and sustaining competitive operations have often failed, especially in a turbulent business landscape. Through a qualitative case study, we argue that international growth success depends on subtle and continual orchestration of key interrelated internal and external factors. Factors such as the environment, continual reconfiguration of the firm assets pool (resources, processes and structures) and the constant alignment of the business model and strategic options are key determinants of successful international growth. We use the dynamic capabilities approach to discuss and to explain the importance of these determinates and how they contribute to successful SMEs international growth in a turbulent business environment across both developed and emerging economies. A generalised framework has been proposed as an outcome, which might act as a point of reference for SMEs owner/managers of management consulting firm considering international growth. The study provides useful practical implications for both UK and Nigeria SMEs management consulting firms currently seeking international growth opportunities. The study contributes to the literature in the field of SMEs international growth, strategic management and turbulent business environments concerned dynamic capabilities with SME management consulting firm internationalisation in a turbulent business environment highlighting the main factors that should be considered. Keywords: small to medium-sized enterprise (SME), internationalisation, service sector, management consulting, dynamic capabilities and critical success factor (CSF).

It is incontestable that building business relationships remains a crucial aspect of trade. Since the dawning of civilisation, human societies have grown and expanded mainly through contact facilitated by trade. Relationships that arise from this, continue to define us both socially and economically. In today’s globalised world, businesses wrangle to gain a source of competitive advantage, turning to technology, innovation and resources in their bid to survive the demands of 21st Century markets. An oft overlooked means through which this can be achieved is the development of business relationships. These relationships are not without their challenges however are compounded when trade is conducted across borders and cultures. Based on this therefore the aim of this research is to identify and investigate the existing gap in literature, and evaluate the factors influencing the development of cross-cultural business relationships of Turkish manufacturing SMEs. To address this aim, the study relies on 25 participants from the Small to Medium Enterprise manufacturing sector in Istanbul. Using semi-structured interviews, the opinions of the sample group who encompass company owners, sales managers or international business department managers are collected. The research sample offer insights into the challenges they have experienced whilst establishing, developing and maintaining cross-cultural business relationships. On the basis of the primary research, a number of important findings have been obtained from the data collected, which was subsequently analysed using thematic analysis. Firstly, it emerges that a business relationship is not universally defined in the same way; within the context of Turkish SMEs, a business relationship represents more than a simple trade agreement. Rather the business relationship is a means through which economic growth is generated. It further emerges that whilst within the literature trust is defined as being a core factor, amongst satisfaction and commitment as far as a successful business relationship is concerned, trust is viewed by Turkish SMEs as the foundations upon which subsequent relations can be built. As such, the business relationship is viewed as one that takes three stages, and unlike the consensus within the literature, there is no definitive end to a business relationship as far as Turkish SMEs are concerned. The present study builds on the contributions of past academics/theorists in a bid to broaden understanding of the specific factors that influence the trading relationships between Turkish SMEs and their business partners. The implications of the research largely rest on the significance of culture and how this shapes the business relationship. More importantly, to succeed in developing and establishing a relationship, cultural awareness, understanding and adaptation remain crucial. The study further offers evidence to suggest that expressions of trust are shaped and dictated by culture. Trust therefore has to be explored and understood within the relevant context and culture in which it will take precedence.

This study aims to identify the distinguishing characteristics of successful international R&D collaboration among Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). For this purpose, I used survey and interview data on Korean SMEs. First, investigating the overall patterns of international technology collaboration involving SMEs, I found that the most observed and desired type of collaboration was R&D collaboration among SMEs, but it produced the lowest level of satisfaction and thus needed further investigation. Consequently, I focused only on one particular type of collaboration, that is, "international R&D collaboration among SMEs". Then, I examined the main motivations behind such collaboration and motivation specific features of the collaboration in terms of collective strength, partner selection criteria, and project management practices. An attention was paid on the diversity of motivation, where resource based theory was adopted to develop a theoretical framework. I also analysed the benefits and costs of international R&D collaboration for SMEs compared to domestic R&D collaboration, where resource based theory with transaction cost theory were integrated. Finally, I suggested a framework to measure the performance of international R&D collaboration from the SME perspective. A logic model was adopted to identify feasible measures to assess the performance of R&D collaboration, from which the most significant measures for SMEs, considering that the collaboration is across firms in different nations, were investigated. This study represents one of the few attempts to explain the mechanisms through which how international R&D collaborations in SMEs are initiated, managed and produce benefits, and to suggest the conditions that can offer SMEs a greater value from international collaboration than domestic collaboration. Practically, the research findings are expected to help establish an R&D strategy at the firm level and will also provide valuable knowledge to develop innovation policies for SMEs at the national level.

This study investigates the mechanism influencing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) diffusion in the Nigerian transport/logistics industry, necessitated by the need to improve logistics performance in the region. The study involved a mixed-method approach, divided into four phases: scoping study; questionnaire survey; multiple case studies; and focus group discussion/in-depth expert interviews. The approach was required to respond to the following specific objectives of the study, including to (i) unpack diverse ranges of both internal and external factors influencing ICT diffusion in the industry. (ii) Empirically capture the causal interrelationships of the relevant factors influencing ICT diffusion in the industry, using evidence from the activities of the local small and medium third-party logistics operators (3PL SMEs). (iii) Compare the influences of firm and structure on the ICT adoption process, and, in turn, logistics performance among the local 3PL SMEs, and (iv) identify policy initiatives required to improve ICT diffusion in the industry. The outcomes of the study suggest as follows: (i) there are varied ranges of context-specific factors influencing ICT diffusion in the Nigerian transport and logistics industry. (ii) Amongst the main barriers include lack of facilitating conditions and limited scope of business, while the main driver was consumer readiness. The three constructs appear interdependent. (iii) The local logistics operators were motivated differently in terms of the extent of ICT adoption. (iv) There are limited policy-driven initiatives, as well as dysfunctional institutional framework stimulating ICT diffusion in the industry. These outcomes lead to making the following recommendations: (i) The logistics practitioners in the region should concentrate on developing their internal resources, particularly technical skills/expertise, as it represents their primary source of sustaining their competitive advantage. (ii) Relevant policy initiatives (e.g., the national IT policy) require revision to enhance their sectorial applications in the industry, and (iii) The study also recommends significant overhaul/reorientation of the local logistics system, particularly the institutional framework. These relate to the dampening effects (barriers) the lack of a functional institutional framework has posed on the efficient coordination of the local logistics system. The outcomes of the study suggest the need for continuous engagement of the relevant stakeholders in addressing some of the critical issues raised in this study, mainly as represented in the developed ICT diffusion framework. This approach is envisaged to help address issues relating to the ever-increasing complex and dynamic nature of the modern smart logistics system. For the practitioners, the contingency management approach is mostly recommended based on the unstable nature of the local economy and logistics market in particular. Overall, the research findings may help lay the foundation for the pragmatic resolution of ICT diffusion challenges in the local transport and logistics industry.

Extant literature about SMEs internationalisation suggests that resource-constrained SMEs can use their networks to fill their resource gap for internationalisation. However, existing theories fail to address how SMEs protect themselves against opportunistic behaviour of their network partners. The present study aims to address this gap by combining resource dependency management theory with bargaining theory to analyse how SMEs that depend on networks to overcome their internationalisation constraints manage network externalities and opportunistic behaviours of their partners. The combination of these theories helps towards better understanding of underlying bargaining power dynamics when firms use dependency management strategies. It investigates SMEs' dependency management strategies as low-power firms that they use against their high-power counterparts. The study addresses this gap by analysing the evidence from the context of the IT sector of Pakistan. The study employed qualitative methodology with multiple case studies that include in-depth analysis of 75 dyadic relationships between 22 low-power firms and their four high-power counterparts. The findings reveal that low-power firms deal with their high-power counterparts by using unconventional strategies. Instead of decreasing their dependence or increasing the counterpart's dependence, they collect power from outside the exchange relationship to reduce the power imbalance and influence their high-power counterparts to adopt interest-based bargaining. This enables low-power firms to renegotiate exchange terms to ensure sustainable access to resources, and ultimately, they become more dependent on the same counterpart, but with more power to resist any opportunistic behaviour. This study contributes to the literature on SMEs' internationalisation by highlighting how SMEs build defence mechanism against dark sides of networks, which they use to access resources for internationalisation. It also contributes to RDT by suggesting that firms do not always intend to decrease their dependence on others, rather they seek power without needing to reduce dependence because it enables them to counter any opportunistic behaviour of their counterparts. It also adds value to the bargaining theory by articulating the mechanism for low-power firms to shift their high-power counterparts from the positional bargaining to the desired interest-based bargaining.

This study emphasises that knowledge as a primary resource of the export performance and becomes organisation's basis capabilities. Drawing from resource-based view and knowledge-based view, the knowledge as an asset valuably found in organisation is vital to achieving the superior performance in export undertaking. This study also emphasised the export knowledge and experiences that held by managers and staff becoming a primary factor that associated with export performance via export marketing strategy, and managers' knowledge on business environment. A survey was commenced to collect essential information from registered SMEs actively pursuing exporting activities with a focus on the manufacturing sector in Malaysia. 211 SMEs responded to the survey by sharing their organisational data, including the background of the organisation, manager knowledge of the business environment, export marketing strategy for managing export operation. In a nutshell, this study is a quantitative research in nature by employing multiple regression in order to comprehend the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variables in the model. The present study has established both managers' knowledge of the business environment and export marketing strategy are associated with export performance, managers' knowledge of the business environment and export performance is moderated with years of exporting experience, and export marketing strategy and export performance is moderated by number of staff are associated export performance of Malaysian SMEs. However, export knowledge and experience of staff, export knowledge and experience of staff and export performance is moderated by number of employees, managers' knowledge of the business environment and export performance is moderated by number of employees and export marketing strategy and export performance is moderated by years of exporting experience are not associated with export performance of Malaysian SMEs. This study finding is useful for existing and potential SMEs' exporters that are embarking on export initiative in the manufacturing sectors and related industries. This study is also of fundamental importance for decision-makers on policy related to empowering SMEs in Malaysian and developing countries. Decisively, this study emphasises the perpetuation of knowledge inside organisation is crucial to enhance organisation performance in a globalised business environment.

This thesis is motivated by the fact that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are of vital importance to most European countries collectively, and to each country individually. For these reasons, understanding SME failure is an integral part of decision and policy making. Firm failure can be regarded as a multi-year process that develops over time. Yet there has been limited work in the area of quantitatively identifying and analysing SME failure processes. In particular, despite evidence from the qualitative firm failure process literature on the importance that non-financial, firm-specific characteristics have on firm failure processes, the quantitative firm failure process literature has largely ignored this aspect. Likewise, the determinants of firms' transition to failure within potential alternative firm failure processes and the importance of geographical location are often overlooked in the firm failure process literature, despite evidence in the wider firm failure literature for the contrary. For these reasons, the current evidence in the quantitative firm failure process literature is quite isolated from wider firm failure studies. This thesis aims to investigate alternative SME failure processes, the determinants of firms' transition towards failure and the importance of firms' geographical location by bringing evidence from other parts of the firm failure literature in the quantitative study of firm failure processes. The sample analysed consists of SMEs in eight EU countries, covering the period from 2004-2013. In addition to analysing the whole sample, the failure processes and failure determinants of UK failed SMEs are also investigated. The dataset of this study covers firm-specific characteristics - such as financial ratios and directors' characteristics - and information about the macroeconomic and business environment. In addition, the impact of geographical location is considered. The key results of the analysis identify the existence of four alternative firm failure processes (new firms with inexperienced boards, high growth firms, old firms, firms without board diversity) which apply across EU countries and UK regions. A number of other characteristics are also present in the alternative firm failure processes: directors characteristics are of primary importance for firm failure processes as well as firms' transition to failure. So are the age of the firm, the legal tradition of the country, the levels of business growth and the intensity of competition due to new business entrants in an area and the geographical location of firms. There are a number of contributions that this thesis makes to the quantitative firm failure process literature. First, given that the different failure processes were found to have differing determinants, the results show the importance of looking at individual firm failure processes rather than simply analysing all failed firms together. Second, this thesis is the first to quantitatively analyse the impact of directors' characteristics in the identification of the alternative firm failure processes in EU and UK firms. Third, it is the first study to investigate the determinants of firms' transition to failure within the alternative firm failure processes context where both financial distress and liquidations are considered in the definition of failure. Fourth, this thesis identifies the importance of geographical location and the existence of spatial interactions in some parts of firms' transition to failure. As such, this thesis consolidates and analyses evidence from qualitative firm failure process studies and from wider firm failure studies in the context of quantitative firm failure process. In doing so, it applies spatial panel data analysis for first time in a firm failure process study. A number of policy implications result from these findings. Given the differences in firm-specific characteristics, the differences in the determinants of transition to failure and the geographic sensitivities that the alternative firm failure processes have, policies and decisions designed to support SMEs to avoid failure should be more targeted according to the characteristics of the firm and the process towards failure with which it is mostly associated.

This thesis explores the research gap in salutogenic factors promoting workforce health and well-being generated by top management of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in East-Westphalia Lippe (EWL), in Germany. The workplace health promotion (WHP) is, and will be, a relevant area of research because the growing absenteeism, the reduced work performance and the increased turnover rates in businesses are believed to be some of the major challenges of the 21st-century. It is well documented that WHP has many advantages for SMEs but only a few recognise the necessity of WHP. The thesis chooses a new way in WHP in SMEs while using salutogenesis as a theoretical framework in order to give the thesis a special focus on employees’ well-being. In addition, salutogenesis is successfully used in various professional fields for example medicine and nursing. But there is a research gap in implementing salutogenesis in SMEs. The originality consists of connecting the salutogenesis (SoC model) with a current study about health promoting factors by Bruch et al. (2013) which were used as salutogenic factors and tested for usability in SMEs. Consequently, the thesis implements the theoretical premise of salutogenesis to SMEs and explores how, or to what extent, applicable the concept of salutogenesis is in SMEs in EWL. The primary question is: What salutogenic factors can be generated by top management to support the promotion of health and well-being of the workforce? The second research question meets the important role of the top manager as the decision maker of WHP: How can SMEs develop top management awareness to keep their staff healthy? The third key research question is: How can SMEs in EWL/Germany integrate health promoting and well-being factors? The research methodology is based on the literature review and the empirical research based on focus- group discussions of top managers and employees of SMEs in EWL. A critical realist prejudice was developed as a foundation for an Applied Thematic Analysis (ATA). A reflection group was used to compare the authors’ interpretation. The core findings are: The findings from the small-scale research suggest: The salutogenic factors can be mainly found in the quality of the relationship of top managers with their employees. The thesis delivers the new findings to WHP research: ‘the importance of the quality of the relationship’, and the ‘importance of the capacity of older top managers to reflect’. The latter is at the same time the surprising finding of this thesis. Whether the higher age of top managers has significant influences on WHP has to be explored in future research. For salutogenic WHP in SMEs, it seems to be optimal for the top managers to act in a relationship-oriented sense with the capacity to reflect themselves. SMEs that implement salutogenic factors are headed in the right direction to be fit for the future, by taking into account the needs of employees in the sense of salutogenesis and thus keeping their most important resource, the workforce, healthy. Further additional research is needed about experiences of implementation of the SoC in SMEs.

Greece has been experiencing the consequences of a deep economic crisis for nine consecutive years since 2008. This has adversely affected the entire business sector of the country. Due to its unique business sector characteristics, meaning the fact that in Greece the greatest percentage of the companies are micro SMEs and SMEs, the conditions during the economic crisis years (2008-2016) have significantly worsened. The socioeconomic conditions in Greece since the beginning of the crisis, combined with the characteristics of the SMEs and the SMEs' organizational level, are the sources behind the problems experienced by these SMEs. This present research studied the identification of a specific Turnaround Strategies Mix, as well as the factors affecting those strategies, and furthermore the impact of those strategies on the Greek SMES' performance and viability. Despite the fact that many researchers have supported that organizational change and top-level management replacement should be followed by Retrenchment Strategies for declining SMEs' survival, the present research investigates and identifies Turnaround Strategies, focusing on their ability to improve the SMEs' viability and survival. This has been made effective since the researcher, based on previous researchers' Turnaround models, conducted the present research's model by altering the Investment Strategies, instead of the Retrenchment ones. The business environment complexity into which the sequence of these Turnaround Strategies (Turnaround Process) takes place, creates factors that affect this process. This research examines and identifies as critical factors, the impact of the SMEs' owners or managers' personal profile characteristics, the economic crisis effects and the firm's debt extent-leverage that affect the Turnaround Strategies Mix adopted by the Greek SMEs in order to achieve their survival and improve their financial performance during deep economic recession circumstances. The scope of the research was to analyse the collected data from the conducted sample of 209 Ionian Islands Greek SMEs and the Turnaround Strategies they implemented as a result of the economic crisis and the deterioration of their profitability. The main Turnaround Strategies investigated were Organizational Change, Investment vs Retrenchment, Innovation Strategies and Market Strategies (including Export Orientation). The research conducted was based on the proposed model and studied the operating SMEs in the Ionian Island region in Greece while a new prototype Turnaround Strategies Measurement Instrument (TSMI) was introduced by the researcher to evaluate those Strategies. The results of the present research showed that the Turnaround Strategy Mix, which was used by the research's proposed model, positively affect the performance, viability and survival of the SMEs during economically stressed conditions. Furthermore, this research's findings showed the positive impact on the Greek micro SMEs and SMEs' performance and viability from the use of a specific Turnaround Strategies Mix during economic crisis circumstances. Therefore these findings could be very important for the SMEs' owners or managers, as well as researchers, government organizations, policy makers, and, business advisors. The present study contributes to knowledge (originality) at a theoretical level with the measurement instrument (TSMI) introduced, adding the relevant gap in the Turnaround literature, as well as on the empirical level by proposing a specific Turnaround Strategy Mix for the Greek SMEs, on the one hand, and by identifying those factors that affect the utilization of specific Turnaround Strategies by the Greek SMEs on the other hand.

According to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, intangible assets generate up to 80% of the value of businesses listed on a stock exchange ranging from multinationals in the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) to SMEs in the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Large enterprises are aware of the value of their intangibles, including human capital, use sophisticated approaches to evaluate them internally and describe them in annual reports. Some medium sized enterprises do use such approaches but they are time consuming and expensive to implement and maintain. The aim of this study, therefore, was to develop an instrument for assessing the quality of human capital in medium sized enterprises which could be implemented quickly at relatively low cost. It was hypothesized that information on the quality of human capital made available by this instrument to ‘relationship building’ and ‘buy and hold’ Investors would influence their view on its value and so influence their levels of investment. The literature review enabled the generation of a long-list of human capital issues used to create surveys which were completed by subject matter experts and investors. The surveys resulted in a short-list of items which were used to create a pilot instrument. The instrument was piloted using structured interviews in two commercial businesses, two not-for-profit businesses and a Business School. The pilot was then developed into an assessment instrument which was completed by 211 senior executives from medium sized enterprises. The resulting Human Capital Report (HCP) was found to demonstrate good internal consistency; test – retest and inter-rater reliability; content (face) validity; construct validity; concurrent and predictive validity. Information generated by the senior executives was found not correlate with financial data used by investors but did correlate strongly with enterprise flexibility. As such it is argued that the HCA offers investors information additional to the ‘financials’ which they currently use to inform investment decisions. Some categories of investors agree: 97% of those completing the investor survey indicated that, assuming they could trust the information, they would vary their levels of investment by up to 50%. The approach has been made available to interested parties in the form of two websites. The first is aimed at mature SMEs wishing to demonstate the quality of their workforce to funders/investors: www.HumanCapital.Report. The second is aimed at rapidly growing SMEs wishing to introduce a more sytematic approach to managing their workforce: www.ScaleupLeader.Guide.

This research evaluates how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is constructed and practised in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The majority of extant research has been in large businesses, but an expanding body of CSR literature does acknowledge the distinct characteristics of SMEs, identifying ways to advance an appropriate research agenda. A significant strand of this literature calls to reclaim the moral foundations of CSR, following recognition that the concept has been constricted by economically rational justifications and a search for the business case. Consequently, a need is identified for practical and theoretical progressions that more accurately explain CSR in SMEs and address the subordination of morality. The following study responds to the calls above and aims to establish the role of two moral perspectives: moral proximity and the ethic of care. Their relevance is explored through an empirical analysis of Spence's (2016) redrawn stakeholder theory and small business social responsibility (SBSR) pyramids. In order to do this, the research adopts a social constructionist perspective, drawing from the experiences of owner-managers through four exploratory focus groups and thirty in-depth interviews. To access a deeper comprehension of CSR, the research is not only framed by ethical theory, but builds on insights from the sociology of economic behaviour. A qualitative content analysis indicates that SMEs rarely justify their CSR engagement in rational economic terms. Motivations go far beyond the economic, with ethical and organisational perspectives most commonly represented. The research confirms that moral proximity and the ethic of care are relevant to accommodate the contextual, relational and dynamic nature of SMEs. These characteristics intensify ethical responsibility towards stakeholders, with both positive and negative implications that regardless, significantly shape the inception and engagement of CSR. From the findings, suggestions are made to enhance the redrawn theories and reiterate the value of these moral perspectives to inform our understanding of CSR in SMEs.

The bottom of pyramid (BoP) concept holds that multinational companies (MNCs) can profitably serve the needs of the poor and have the opportunity to invest in the BoP market to‘do good and do well’ simultaneously. This thesis contributes to BoP concept by challenging the notion that- MNCs and big companies are the initiators of BoP business models. Recent scholars cited NGOs, SMEs, and governments as initiators, without recognising the visible activities of microbusinesses in the developing economies such as Ghana. This project aims to understand the origins of BoP business models, examine both MNCs’ co-optation and offering more of MNCs and local microbusinesses’ activities in the BoP market of Ghana. It examines the how MNCs got interest to engage the poor microbusinesses in the BoP market. The research employed case study approach and explores how MNCs interact with the local microbusinesses in the BoP market, using so-called Gioia method for data analysis. The main result of the empirical research demonstrated the source of innovation in the BoP market as the microbusinesses and not MNCs and large companies. MNCs just identify gaps in the BoP market and then develop cost-effective solutions that often help to serve the market. The research examined a type of BoP strategy (co-optation) that was not wholly discussed in the BoP literature. BoP as a concept has become performative in Ghana as Pralahad’s proposition influenced MNCs’ managers to show interest in the BoP market.

Although the general picture in the open innovation literature is that open innovation practices have mainly positive consequences for the large enterprises, an emerging research strand recently has started to examine the potential consequences of inbound and outbound open innovation activities for smaller firms. Nonetheless, there is scant evidence in the literature about the extent and magnitude of the effect of open search practices on small firms. For smaller firms, their liability of smallness presents several challenges, such as: lack of internal resources and competences, lack of financial resources, as well as, limited multidisciplinary competence base, weak appropriation strategy, which all is resulting in unstructured approaches to innovation, suffering from the not invented here syndrome, and leaving them with only few technological assets to bargain with. This has led to the conclusion that smaller firms' ability to engage in open search activities is constrained. In this thesis, several theoretical perspectives from the multiple domain literature were employed in three separate studies, and using data collected from 342 micro- to medium-sized enterprises located in science and technology parks in the United Kingdom, to explore the black box of interplay between open search strategy, appropriability strategy, intellectual capital environmental dynamism and performance. Hence, the main objective of this thesis was to explore the potential dynamics of co-creation in ecosystem of science and technology parks, being generated by a range of co-specialisation and co-evolution opportunities among the tenant firms, and between them and other stakeholders, that are associated with the development of innovation architectures in onsite firms. The first study, by introducing a construct of open search strategy, explored central questions related to the simultaneous connections between distinct types of open search strategies and the onsite firms' ability to exhibit superior levels of performance, and whether spatial and cognitive proximities in their network relations matter. The results suggested that onsite firms' open system performance was associated with offsite market-driven, science-driven, and technical and application-driven open search strategies. The results further revealed that onsite and offsite market-driven, science-driven, technical and application-driven driven and institutional open search strategies exerted positive influences on onsite firms' rational goal performance. The second study was motivation by a desire to understand the roles of open search and appropriability strategies in co-evolution of dynamic capabilities - social, human and organisational capital - in onsite firms, as well as the role social capital plays in strengthening the process of human capital and organisational capital accumulation. The study found that onsite firms' overall open search strategy positively influenced the accumulation of social, human and organisational capital. Further, it illustrated that onsite firms' appropriability strategy had a positive impact on their ability to extract positive incremental returns from social proximity. In addition, it was revealed that higher levels of social capital positively associated with higher levels of human and organisational capital. The results also indicated that there might be a mediating effect of social capital by which onsite firms could benefit from their open search and appropriability strategies, and develop and manage their human capital and organisational capital. The goal of the third study was to examine the coasts and benefits of difference appropriation mechanisms by investigating how perceived environmental dynamism affects the appropriation of rents from the coopetitive and cooperative market-driven open search activities. The results suggested that both formal and informal appropriation mechanisms positively influences rational goal performance in onsite firms. In addition, both onsite and offsite market-driven strategies were found to be associated with onsite firms' strategic focus on informal and formal appropriation mechanisms, while only offsite market-driven strategy was found to be associated with the use of formal appropriation mechanisms. The study also illustrated that environmental context plays a key role in influencing whether firms' appropriability strategies lead to more open search activities or not. Furthermore, my results showed that environmental dynamism positively moderated the impact of informal appropriation mechanisms on both onsite and offsite market-driven open search strategies. In contrast, environmental dynamism negatively moderated the impact of formal appropriation mechanisms and onsite market-driven open search strategy.

This research advances an integrative approach to examining the complex interplays between various internal and external determinants to the firm, in order to provide a fuller understanding of the international performance of firms. Specifically, this research aims to enrich our understanding of the role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in driving the international performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For this purpose, the research integrates the resource-based view (RBV) with the institutional perspective to explicate the dynamic interactions among EO - a core firm-specific resource - and two institutional factors, i.e. cultural dimensions and government regulations in explaining the international performance of SMEs. The research conceptualises and examines four core sets of associations that relate to: i) EO and international performance of firms; ii) cultural dimensions and EO; iii) government regulations on the association between EO and international performance; and iv) government regulations on the association between cultural dimensions and EO. The study employed a quantitative research method and conducted a large-scale, self-administered questionnaire survey in Malaysia. The statistical analysis of data of 203 internationalised SMEs confirms the positive impact of EO on the firms’ international performance. Moreover, analyses provide evidence of the association of cultural dimensions of high individualism, high masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance with EO; and of the premise that government regulations positively moderate the individualism-EO and masculinity-EO relationships. The incorporation of the RBV and the institutional perspective offers a fuller explanation of the international performance of SMEs. Specifically, it advances understanding of the importance of EO - a critical resource for firms, whose manifestation and strength are influenced by institutional factors - in the internationalisation of firms. The research also contributes to the institutional perspective in two ways. First, the focus on the macro institutional factors based on a micro perspective reflected through the perception of the key decision-maker advances the understanding of the entrepreneurship phenomenon. It explains that how firms perceive and respond to the institutional context within which they are embedded will, in turn, prompt the responding entrepreneurial behaviours and subsequently affect international performance. Second, it explicates the interacting and reinforcing effect of cultural dimensions and government regulations, which are an informal and a formal component of institutions, on the genesis of EO. Significant practical implications are derived accordingly for business practitioners and policy makers to promote SMEs’ international business development and growth.

The focus of this study is to explore the sustainability practices of SME suppliers as influenced by the stakeholders in the mining SC in Zambia. The study aims to provide the policymakers and senior managers of focal firms by developing a detailed framework that helps in examining the SME environment with regard to sustainability practices and formulate measures to increase their sustainability performance to decision making. This qualitative research used 50 semi-structured interviews in addressing the research objective. Interviews undertaking with cross section of stakeholders and using content analysis, the findings revealed that SMEs engage in sustainable practices when working with mining firms but disengage when working with non-mining firms. The findings further revealed the mechanisms employed by SC members in extending sustainability practices to direct and indirect suppliers (mainly informal SMEs) from focal firms. In so doing, the findings highlighted the role of first-tier suppliers as a bridge between the focal firms and sub-suppliers in disseminating sustainability practices. Besides revealing the drivers and barriers to sustainability, the research revealed the mechanisms for mitigating the barriers in order to increase the volume of SME suppliers adopting sustainable practices. This research has several contributions to both academia and practice. The main contribution to academia is a stakeholder framework, which provides a systematic mechanism of examining the sustainability phenomenon. Thus, presenting a theoretical approach for analysing and understanding sustainability practices of SMEs in a developing country context. The main contribution to practice is the production of tools that support practitioners to analyse and better comprehend the relationships in the SMEs sector and by identifying the key stakeholders that support the SMEs.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the influencers and consequences of organisational commitment (OC) within the context of the Sheffield City Region and mid-sized business. The existing literature on OC is almost wholeheartedly dedicated to investigating which type of commitment an employee will experience during their work. Ghosh and Swamy (2014) and Singh and Gupta (2008) considered this to be a weakness of commitment research as it has failed to explain what influences commitment, and its associated consequences. Meyer and Allen's (1991) three component model (TCM) is often used as a framework, and allows researchers to investigate to what extent employees are committed, and which of the three styles of commitment they experience: 'affective' and in line with organisational goals; 'continuous' and trapped through a lack of alternatives; or 'normative' and remaining through loyalty. However, what is missing from existing research is an investigation into the influencing factors of OC and the consequences of having committed employees in the same way that Meyer and Allen (1991, p.71) said 'would require further attention.' Essentially asking, why are employees are committed? Finally, it is noteworthy that OC theory has generally been developed in North-America's public sector and seldom tested in the United Kingdom and with smaller private organisations, a gap filled by this PhD study. In order to answer the research question, a mixed methods research approach was adopted in this thesis. In a pre-study, the existing Meyer and Allen (1991) TCM questionnaire survey was issued to employees in three case organisations in the Sheffield City Region. This allowed the researcher to position, for each employee their current commitment, or lack of thereof, relative to theory before investigating the reasons they were committed. The questionnaire also asked willing employees to volunteer for follow-up interviews. Further, and through a snowballing approach from the original sample, additional volunteers were located. In total, 147 completed TCM questionnaires were returned in the pre-study and 38 employees were interviewed from the three case organisations. The pre-study quantitative data was analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS and the qualitative data was transcribed and analysed in line with framework analysis (FA) (Ritchie and Spencer, 1994). The results from the qualitative data and FA demonstrated that 'Culture,' Organisational Direction,' and 'Relationship' were influencers of OC and the authors own 'Influencers of Organisational Commitment' (IOC model) was presented. Further, the researcher identified the consequences of commitment; for continuous commitment, only the requirement to remain was found. Whereas, for affective and normative commitment styles a number of outcomes were noted: goal and value alignment; reduced turnover; employee attachment; and interest and awareness in the organisations strategy. The influencers and consequences of organisational commitment were identified and explored through the findings and discussion chapters, serving as a practical and theoretical contribution to knowledge in line with the Corley and Gioia (2011) framework.

aFor many years innovation has been an integral part of improvements to products and services. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been known as innovation generators, and their importance is paramount for the growth of economy. And yet despite their great importance, there is still a lack of understanding about how SMEs and High-tech SMEs (HTSMEs) with complex products conduct their management of innovation of New Product Development (NPD). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide a foundation for addressing the suggested gaps in the literature and to show that further research is needed in innovation management of NPD and how it is connected to HTSMEs. Renewable energy wind turbine sources and the potential growth they represent for SMEs was a factor in choosing this sector as the subject of this research. HTSMEs with creative ideas and innovations of complex products need to adequately manage product development. This recognises the organisation's practices and processes during NPD and the need for innovation management (IM) as a part of an organisation's capabilities in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The aim of this thesis is to explore and validate a major qualitative abductive methodology from the findings of 21 High-tech Small Medium Enterprises management in relation to complex wind turbine invention-innovation (creative destruction) practices and processes during the NPD. Analysis, synthesis, and conclusions from the findings of this study are interpreted and discussed in the context of the definition, concepts, characteristics, theoretical, and conceptual framework. Finally, implications for managerial practice offer a deeper understanding of how HTSME manage innovation practices and processes occur during NPD building a superior product and recommendations for further research that can be valuable to academics, practitioners, and other researchers who are seeking ideas for research topics are presented and discussed.

The University of Manchester, PhD by Published Work, 2018 For several reasons, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are an important group of firms. In most market economies SMEs contribute significantly to wealth and job creation, economic growth, and product and service innovation. At the same time, SMEs are said to produce environmental impacts that are significant and that need managing and regulating. Their importance, from an economic and environmental perspective, is reflected in the fact that SMEs have become an established subject for research, with a distinct area of analysis focusing on how they manage their environmental impacts. Despite considerable interest in this area, aspects of their behaviour are in need of further examination, for there are still misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge. An area where gaps exist is how SMEs respond to different forms of environmental regulation (e.g., command-based or market-based approaches) and different forms of regulatory pressure (e.g., such as those pressures from civil society that might induce compliance-related activities or market forces that might flow through, and affect, the value chain). Why the gaps? On the one hand, and generally speaking, a common claim among those who have considered issues affecting smaller firms is that regulation is an important driver of environmental behaviour. There is a well-documented set of linked claims and empirical findings that smaller firms tend to be motivated by compliance with regulatory standards, yet owing to their scarce resources can find themselves hovering on the edge of compliance. Typically, SMEs will attempt to do no more than the law requires of them. They tend not, as it were, to go beyond compliance. Of course, this is an important observation - one that might say much, even if indirectly, about the motivations and intentions of smaller firms. It might indicate that SMEs, rather than addressing environmental issues, are more concerned with making cost savings and efficiency gains, or with satisfying the requirements of customers over such matters as product or service quality and delivery. While significant, there are at least three reasons why this view remains incomplete as an explanation for the interaction between SMEs, regulation and the environment. Firstly, this view tends to over-homogenise smaller firms. By treating them as a standardized group, the inference is that SMEs view and respond to regulation - i.e., they are all driven by regulation - in a broadly similar way. Secondly, it says little about how and why regulation drives behaviour. Claiming that regulation drives behaviour is helpful, but the claim is unduly narrow and leaves several important questions. In what ways does regulation drive behaviour? Does regulation drive all smaller firms in the same way? Thirdly, and finally, it suggests that different forms of regulation drive SME behaviour and that different forms of regulation drive this behaviour in broadly similar ways. That is, it is incomplete as it lacks appreciation of the widening scope of regulation and governance, and the nature of smart mixes of regulation. It fails to properly consider whether and how SMEs might respond differently to command-based regulation, market- or information-based measures, or self- or so-called civil regulatory pressures. On the other hand, and again in general terms, while those who have examined regulation have looked at how it can influence firms, they have tended to pay too little regard to how firms of different size may respond to different approaches or to how the factors and characteristics relating to size may shape the effectiveness of regulation. SMEs particularly are often discussed as an unusual sideshow that might raise different issues in relation, say, to the impacts of regulation on performance or innovation. That we often pay too little regard to how firms of different size may respond raises difficulties, particularly given our increasing understanding that there is no guarantee that a particular instrument will work in all situations. In other words, we are becoming more aware of the fact that the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of regulation is likely to be context-sensitive, and that the size of the enterprise is likely to be an important determinant of context. This thesis does take, and provides evidence for, the view that the organisational context is crucial to understanding how regulation functions. The thesis does not claim to provide all answers, but it does adopt the position that, in aggregate terms, a firm's size, or the factors that can be associated with size (e.g., resources, skills, knowledge, visibility, profile, stakeholder relations), and related factors concerning a firm's mind-set, can affect two things; first, the types of regulatory influences that may affect organizational behaviour and, second, how firms will respond to those influences. By focusing on SMEs, the thesis in some ways reinforces the dominant view that regulation is a driver of behaviour. Nevertheless, it goes much farther than this by showing, both theoretically and empirically, that there are important differences across SMEs and that these differences determine how and why they respond to regulation. It extends the common view by showing how SMEs differ not only in terms of the types of regulatory influences that shape their behaviour, but also in terms of how they react to these different influences. The emerging picture thus shows that the responses of firms are determined by their particular characteristics. The term used in this thesis is 'receptive capacity', which is shown to be a composite measure that includes the capabilities (e.g., resources, skills, knowledge) and orientations (e.g., views) of firms. It is suggested here that the range of receptive capacities across firms is enormous, since no two firms will be identical. Yet, it is argued - and demonstrated - that firms can be grouped according to certain identifiable characteristics, and that these groups of firms will respond to regulatory pressures in broadly similar ways; that is, there are groups of firms that have broadly similar resources and broadly similar worldviews. Thus, as well as suggesting that differences can be found at the micro level, it is demonstrated that there are sufficient commonalities across some firms that we can understand them as groups - groups of individual firms with some common characteristics. In conclusion, it is the differences across firms that provide us with a more sophisticated view of how SMEs are influenced by, and respond to, regulation. It is the nature of differences that is the main contribution of this research to both the fields of regulation and organisational and management studies. It is suggested finally that these differences have implications for how we design regulation, for how we may expect regulation to work or indeed not work, and for issues such as regulatory complexity and smart mixes.

If the transition to a low carbon economy is to be successful, inclusive and sustainable, then small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must not be neglected. However, they are extremely heterogenous and it is difficult to make generalisations about their motivations, consumption patterns or everyday practices, or to create effective policies and governance processes. This social scientific research uses qualitative methods to investigate how and why energy is consumed by organisations, and the role of governance practices in shaping demand. The central research question is: • How can practice theory be used to improve the effectiveness of UK SME energy and environmental governance? Five empirical papers answer this question by applying practice theory in various settings: • Paper 1 focuses on the practice of home and its affective dimensions. Themes of comfort, control and flexibility are revealed, each influencing how energy is consumed and conserved. • Paper 2 combines practice theory with the concept of sensemaking to show how energy management is intertwined with organisational culture and knowledge construction processes in three SMEs. • Paper 3 shows that low carbon SME advisors are critical middle actors, but could be more effective if 'softer' skills were deployed alongside technical expertise. • Paper 4 combines practice theory with the multi-level governance framework to investigate policy implementation as a practice-bundle, spanning spatial and temporal settings. •Paper 5 asks whether practice theory could follow behavioural economics in gaining influence within government. Findings indicate a need and appetite for practice-theoretical insights amongst government social researchers. This research demonstrates how practice theory can help to improve the effectiveness of governance practices. However to gain greater influence, researchers need to be philosophically liberal, experimental in their use of theory and methods, and pro-actively develop relationships with governance actors at local and national levels.

Entrepreneurship, innovation and internationalization are topics of great interest for the scientific community, companies and for all major governments worldwide. In literature there are many studies that are interested and look for the relationship between entrepreneurship and performances. Based on the literature on entrepreneurship, open innovation (OI), green innovation performance (GIP) and export performance (EP), we extend the model by hypothesizing and studying to what extent the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is influenced and mediated by a construct that has become a hot topic among the scientific community in the last decade, as is open innovation; impacting and facilitating the processes of green innovation and the internationalization of the companies. All this is done in an empirical study in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), where resources are scarce and strategies, linked to green production and export plays a fundamental role for their performance. Taking, as a sample Spanish companies in the footwear industry and companies related to science parks, the analyses are carried out to test these relationships through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). It is expected to find a positive relationship in the object of study.