Kapil Gora, Barkha Dhingra and Mahender Yadav
Micro-finance has a significant role in the better performance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This study aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the existing…
Abstract
Purpose
Micro-finance has a significant role in the better performance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This study aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the existing literature on the role of micro-finance and its approaches in MSMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
This work performs a bibliometric analysis using a data set of 631 articles collected from the Scopus database. The Bibliometrix R package and Vosviewer are used to conduct performance analysis and scientific mapping. Performance analysis shows the publication trend, key authors, journals and top influential articles. Science mapping through a bibliographic coupling network of documents is prepared to discover the intellectual structure of the field.
Findings
This review has identified the four major themes: access to finance and schemes, women empowerment and poverty alleviation, the performance of micro-finance institutions and recent development in micro-financial institutions. With the help of these research themes, the paper also highlights future research agendas.
Originality/value
This paper enriches the understanding of the role of micro-finance services in performance of entrepreneurship with the bibliometric review of top contributors.
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Raju M. Mathew and Santhamma Raju
Universities are social and economic instruments for investment in man and thereby for the development of human resources at the highest level. This is truer in the case of…
Abstract
Universities are social and economic instruments for investment in man and thereby for the development of human resources at the highest level. This is truer in the case of developing countries where science and technology have not yet extended their beneficial aspects to whole spheres of social life. While preserving culture and heritage, universities are the most powerful institutions for social change and innovation. At the same time, universities and colleges themselves are subject to changes and need to adapt to these.
This paper is based on insights from philosophy of science, centered in Gilbert Ryle’s notion of “category mistakes”. A category mistake occurs in a science when scholars have…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is based on insights from philosophy of science, centered in Gilbert Ryle’s notion of “category mistakes”. A category mistake occurs in a science when scholars have been thinking of a phenomenon as of a certain sort, when it is really nothing of the kind. This paper aims to claim that regarding sustained enterprise innovation (SEI) as a strictly operational problem commits such a category mistake. Instead, SEI is an aspirational problem and thus requires scholars to examine it from that perspective as well.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper begins by explicating Ryle’s notion of a category mistake. It develops the suggestion that innovation scholars have made such a mistake by thinking of innovation as a strictly operational problem. In reality, it is as much an aspirational problem. The paper then builds on the metaphor made famous by Isaiah Berlin, distinguishing between hedgehogs and foxes. A hedgehog is a leader who copes with the non-predictive nature of innovation. The paper builds on the findings from positive psychology and virtue epistemology to highlight how humans can act rationally in the face of non-predictive outcomes. Four virtues of hedgehog leadership are proposed and defined.
Findings
The paper concludes that hedgehog leadership is necessary for sustained enterprise innovation. It also concludes that hedgehogs can act rationally in pursuit of non-predictive outcomes by practicing a set of governing virtues.
Research limitations/implications
Further research needs to be conducted to validate the proposed governing virtues, to illuminate the optimal hedgehog/fox balance within the enterprise, and to validate through longitudinal work the impact of hedgehogs on sustained enterprise innovation.
Practical implications
Based on the continuing interest in innovation expressed by enterprise leaders around the world, hedgehogs are in increasing demand. Fortunately, hedgehogs can be made (and self-made) via deliberate practice of the governing virtues. Aspiring and current hedgehogs can be confident that practicing these virtues and becoming increasingly adept at their application will promote and effect enterprise innovation.
Originality/value
Very little research has been conducted on the aspirational aspect of SEI. This is an insidious gap in the literature, as it affects scholars and practitioners alike. Scholars are trapped in the “normal science” paradigm that treats the innovation problem as if it can be solved through operational techniques. This paper contends that this ubiquitous category mistake has led scholars down a blind alley. Instead, it is important for scholars and practitioners alike to view SEI as an aspirational problem that requires vastly different research frameworks and practitioner prescriptions.
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Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier…
Abstract
Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier 25), the consequences on employees of such a reduction can be assessed; and relevant attitudes and aspirations better known.
Lorna Stevens, Pauline Maclaran and Stephen Brown
This paper aims to use embodied theory to analyze consumer experience in a retail brandscape, Hollister Co. By taking a holistic, embodied approach, this study reveals how…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to use embodied theory to analyze consumer experience in a retail brandscape, Hollister Co. By taking a holistic, embodied approach, this study reveals how individual consumers interact with such retail environments in corporeal, instinctive and sensual ways.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary source of data was 97 subjective personal introspective accounts undertaken with the target age group for the store. These were supplemented with in-depth interviews with consumers, managers and employees of Hollister.
Findings
The authors offer a conceptualization of consumers’ embodied experience, which they term The Immersive Somascape Experience. This identifies four key touch points that evoke the Hollister store experience – each of which reveals how the body is affected by particular relational and material specificities. These are sensory activation, brand materialities, corporeal relationality and (dis)orientation. These may lead to consumer emplacement.
Research limitations/implications
The authors propose that taking an “intelligible embodiment” approach to consumer experiences in retail contexts provides a deeper, more holistic understanding of the embodied processes involved. They also suggest that more anthropological, body-grounded studies are needed for the unique insights they provide. Finally, they note that there is growing consumer demand for experiences, which, they argue, points to the need for more research from an embodied experience perspective in our field.
Practical implications
The study reveals the perils and pitfalls of adopting a sensory marketing perspective. It also offers insights into how the body leads in retail brandscapes, addressing a lack in such approaches in the current retailing literature and suggesting that embodied, experiential aspects of branding are increasingly pertinent in retailing in light of the continued growth of on-line shopping.
Originality/value
Overall, the study shows how an embodied approach challenges the dominance of mind and representation over body and materiality, suggesting an “intelligible embodiment” lens offers unique insights into consumers’ embodied experiences in retail environments.
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Jeannette Camilleri and Barbara Neuhofer
This paper aims to develop a theoretical framework of value co-creation and value co-destruction of guest-host social practices facilitated through Airbnb in the sharing economy.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a theoretical framework of value co-creation and value co-destruction of guest-host social practices facilitated through Airbnb in the sharing economy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper makes use of a qualitative online content analysis to extract Airbnb data and to analyse guest reviews and host responses posted in the context of Malta.
Findings
A theoretical framework is proposed revealing six distinct themes of guest–host social practices and their sub-categories, resulting in a spectrum of dimensions of value formation.
Research limitations/implications
This paper collects data from Airbnb properties in Malta, with more narratives posted by guests, implying a dominance of guest views on value co-creation and co-destruction. Findings might have a limited transferability beyond similar sharing economy platforms and tourist destinations.
Practical/implications
The paper uncovers guest–host hospitality value creation practices, providing concrete examples as to what practices lead to distinct value formation or destruction. In addressing the lack of knowledge about value creation practices in the sharing economy, strategic implications are offered to the hospitality sector to understand the distinct value propositions Airbnb offers compared to traditional accommodation types.
Originality/value
The paper’s contribution is its theoretical framework of value practices of guests staying at Airbnb-listed accommodations, contributing to a better understanding of the distinct value propositions underlying collaborative consumption offers in the sharing economy.