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Although studies have investigated reasons for software as a service (SaaS) adoption, it is unclear how firm-level SaaS use impacts future SaaS intentions. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model that integrates the technology-organization-environment framework, institutional theory, diffusion-of-innovation theory and the opportunity-risk framework to analyze the drivers of SaaS use and its continuance intention.

The authors evaluated the direct, moderating and mediating effects of determinants on SaaS continuance intentions using structural equation modeling and data from 301 firms.

Results found that top management support and normative pressures influenced SaaS use. Cost saving and security concerns were direct predictors of perceived opportunities and perceived risks, respectively. Perceived opportunities and risks and actual SaaS use influenced SaaS continuance. Interestingly, perceived opportunities were found to be a negative moderator on the relationship between SaaS use and SaaS continuance.

The results reveal insightful and controversial findings for SaaS research.

This paper focuses on prospective teachers’ (PTs) participation in a lesson study (LS) that prompted them to research their own practice. We seek to describe the dimensions of PTs’ knowledge of student learning developed during the process and the LS features fostering it.

The participants were two PTs, a teacher educator, a cooperating teacher and a researcher. The LS was integrated into a Portuguese initial elementary teacher education program. Following a qualitative approach, we used participant observation.

The PTs developed their knowledge of students’ learning of the concept of area in four dimensions: theories; students’ interests and expectations; ways students interact with the content and students’ strengths and weaknesses in learning the concept. To support this development, the LS design considered follow-up sessions and emphasised collaborative work.

This study focuses on PTs researching their practice and disseminating the results, which has been overlooked in previous research of LS with PTs. The results highlight the potential of LS to motivate PTs to research their practice and emphasise the importance of involving them in disseminating LS results.

This study aims to examine the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on financial and non-financial aspects of firm performance in medium and large-scale manufacturing firms in Ethiopia.

The cross-sectional survey and simple random sampling methods are adopted while the data collection is through a questionnaire that covers five corporate governance indicators consisting of the board independence, board effectiveness, shareholders role, internal audit effectiveness (IAE) and disclosure and transparency. The dimensions of firm performance were indicated by six firm performance indicators of customer and market (CM), internal process (IP), differentiation, efficiency, competitive position (CP) and financial (organizational) performance (OP). The covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) with the maximum likelihood parameter estimation technique was used to perform the data analysis.

A significant positive relationship has been found between the independence of the board of directors and firm performance (especially with respect to differentiation, OP, CP and IP). However, the board of directors’ effectiveness showed an unexpected result, significant negative effect on differentiation, OP, CP, CM and IP. The study also indicates a positive significant effect of disclosure and transparency on differentiation, CP and OP. However, the coefficient on the CM construct of firm performance is negative and significant. A significant negative linkage has also been revealed between IAE and two constructs of performance: differentiation and CP. One of the important findings of the study is that shareholders’ role has a significant positive impact on both board characteristics (board independence and board effectiveness) and firm performance (differentiation, efficiency, CP and OP).

The study has two potential limitations. First, in comparison to prior studies, this study is based on a small sample size which limits the generalizability of the findings. Different scholars have suggested (Anderson and Gerbing, 1984, 1988; Iacobucci, 2010; Hair et al., 2019) that SEM requires a large sample size to test the hypothetical model. Thus, future research can further investigate the link between corporate governance and firm performance by using a larger sample size to achieve more reliable results. Second, the current study used a quantitative approach only, but prior studies (e.g. Ahrens and Khalifa, 2013) suggest a qualitative approach to more investigate and reach a very conclusive idea on corporate governance. The approach is currently receiving growing popularity in the literature.

The findings of the study would have measurable implications for different stakeholders who are in the position of supporting or regulating manufacturing firms. First, the findings give a clue about how a firm can design a good corporate governance system. Second, managers of the firm can get a hint or tip from the result that might help as input for designing strategies. Finally, it might help policymakers to understand and think about the very crucial role of active participation of shareholders in curtailing/reducing agency cost and enhancing firm performance apart from (beyond) the conventional corporate governance mechanisms (board of directors, internal audit, disclosure and transparency).

This study seeks to extend and contribute to the current literature in several ways. First, in contrast to previous studies, this study used both financial and non-financial performance measures and thereby providing new empirical insights relating to the non-financial performance measures. Second, this study provides a new result that the role of shareholders has a direct significant positive impact on board characteristics (i.e. board independence and board effectiveness) and firm performance. Finally, this study has come with a new insight that disclosure and transparency is a major driver of firm performance.

The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the mediating role of knowledge management (KM) in the linkage between organizational factors, namely, organizational culture (OGCUL) and leadership and management support (LMS) and innovation in medium- and large-scale manufacturing firms in Ethiopia.

A sample of 200 firms has been used to gather data using simple random sampling and to test the proposed hypotheses. Structural equation modeling and cross-sectional design were used to analyze the data using LISREL 8.80 SIMPLIS program software tool.

Organizational factors (i.e. OGCUL and LMS) are positively associated with KM and innovation. KM constructs, namely, knowledge sharing, knowledge conversion and knowledge storage, have a significant positive influence on innovation. Knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between organizational factors and innovation.

This study has three potential limitations: first, this study is based on a cross-sectional research design. Future research should include longitudinal design to get in-depth insights into the causal inferences. Second, only a few Ethiopian medium- and large-scale manufacturing firms were included in the sample. As a suggestion for future research, other researchers can include small-scale enterprises using large sample sizes and should examine the effects of organizational factors, KM and innovation across different industries. Finally, this study has only focused on investigating the mediating role of knowledge sharing between organizational factors and innovation. Future research should test the mediating role of the KM process and its constituents (knowledge acquisition, knowledge conversion, knowledge sharing and knowledge storage) between organizational factors and specific aspects of innovation to gain a full understanding of the critical role of KM in organizational innovation.

The findings of this study would serve as a guide for policy-makers and managers of manufacturing firms in developing countries in the formulation of policies and long-term strategies. It may also provide a better understanding of the causal relationship between organizational factors, KM and innovation, which in turn has value to directors and managers in manufacturing firms in developing countries as a reference for building a good OGCUL, serving as practical guidance for effective leadership and providing organizational or management support. Specifically, the findings would have the following practical implications: first, firms need to have a combination of KM processes (such as acquisition, storage, sharing and conversion). In practice, developing countries such as Ethiopia have based their innovation strategy on knowledge and technology acquisition through encouraging foreign direct investment. It is not in doubt that Ethiopia has been benefiting from the strategy as a lot of foreign companies have opened their subsidiaries in the country. However, in the authors’ view, more emphasis on knowledge acquisition strategy would not take a firm a long time to sustain its innovative activity because it is likely available to firms operating in the same industry, as well as it may hurt a firm’s competitive advantage. In addition, by its nature, knowledge may not be retained for future use; it may expire soon. Second, the current highly impulsive and rapid change in the business environment changes the way firms have to operate and deliver products or services. Knowledge (both tacit and explicit) is a resource that can provide a competitive advantage if used well for the intended purpose. In real practice, firms often face challenges in determining where to get knowledge from and how to value or manage it. Besides, knowledge can be obtained from three sources: knowledge can exist in individuals’ minds (skills, experience, ideas and insight); knowledge can dwell in a group, which we can call collective knowledge (a team of scientists or researchers); and knowledge can be embodied in an organization's systems, tools, procedures, policies, etc. Knowledge cannot be a valuable resource unless it is obtained and used in designing or producing a product or service. To integrate knowledge with business strategies, there should be a platform or framework that helps to manage it properly. Firm managers, policy-makers and other concerned bodies would consider the three sources of knowledge to foster innovative activities and obtain a competitive advantage. In addition, the authors recommend more emphasis be placed on firm-specific factors (such as OGCUL, leadership, management support and KM) to enhance the innovative capacity of a firm. Finally, the most critical issue to be raised while designing an innovation strategy would be employees’ willingness and passion to collaborate with others to develop new ideas, share ideas or implement policies. As knowledge resides in individuals’ minds, the knowledge holder should have a passion to share it with those working with him or her. In practice, knowledge sharing depends extremely on the passion and voluntariness of the two parts: knowledge provider and receiver. Therefore, firm managers would design a platform on how to motivate individuals to share their skills, experience and ideas with others through providing incentive packages, punishment and commitment. In this regard, the authors believe that the results would help individuals who are in the position to manage or regulate the manufacturing sector in designing innovation policies, KM policies or technology management policies and business strategies.

This study provides new empirical insight into the relationships between organizational factors (such as OGCUL and LMS), KM and innovation in a large sample of firms. To date, the empirical research on these relationships has been mainly limited to descriptive case studies (Chen and Huang, 2009; Zack et al., 2009; Donate and Guadaumillas, 2011), and there is thus a lack of empirical evidence with large samples of firms. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of studies investigating the relationship between organizational factors, KM and innovation in developing countries, especially in Ethiopia. This paper intends to fill this gap and nurture future research studies in the area.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between information and coping from the experiences of young people coping with long term illness.

Situational analysis was used as a methodological approach. It has roots in the Chicago Symbolic Interactionism School. Cartographic approaches enabled the analysis, mapping the complexities emerging from the data.

As the young people became more informed about their health conditions, and gained knowledge and understanding both about their illnesses, their own bodies and boundaries, their confidence and capacity to cope increased. Gaining confidence, the young people often wanted to share their knowledge – becoming information providers themselves. From the data, five positions on an information-coping trajectory were identified: information deficiency; feeling ill-informed; needing an injection of information; having information health; and becoming an information donor.

The research was limited to an analysis of 30 narratives. The paper contributes to information theory by mapping clearly the relationship between information and coping.

The study establishes a relationship between levels of information and knowledge and the ability to cope with illness.

The information theories in this study have originality and multi-disciplinary value in the management of health and illness, and information studies.

This paper aims to demystify the creative experiences of an extraordinary group of pastry chefs – The Malaysian World Pastry Team, champions of the 2019 World Pastry Cup. The authors adopted an expressionist theoretical lens informed by two aesthetic philosophers – John Dewey and Wassily Kandinsky.

A two-year portraiture was conducted – a qualitative methodology that draws features from phenomenology and narrative inquiry, rendering artistically and empirically written “portraits” that reflect themes and patterns of participants’ experiences. In-depth interviews, observations and material artifacts were collected amid a journey alongside nine extraordinary Malaysian pastry chefs.

Presented in story structures, the authors offer three “portraits” of culinary creativity, each representing a core essence of the creative phenomenon: creative harmony in the form of sensorial and symbolic poetry; imaginative episodes as a hypnotic state of inspiration and incubation; and the creative duality of scientific rationalism and artistic fashion. The authors delineated the intricacies of each theme by presenting them as individual narratives.

The portraits indicated that culinary creativity reflects an organic and emancipating aesthetic experience that is unbounded by formative structures or sequential processes. This provides a novel theoretical view that moves beyond conventional studies’ capitalistic frameworks, and toward the intimate viewpoints of the chef-creators. Specific contributions are discussed.

Through a unique qualitative approach and an aesthetic theoretical framework, this study provided a novel perspective on the culinary creative process. The aesthetic view captures culinary creativity through the eyes of the creator, a viewpoint less considered, yet imperative to the culinary profession.

This article aims to analyze how gender and decision-making styles of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) impact the financial performance of the firms they manage.

Data were obtained for 2017 for 185 SMEs in Chile, an emerging economy, including firm information, CEO's sociodemographic characteristics and CEOs' decision-making styles. Generalized Least Squares (GLS) models were estimated to explain the influence of gender and decision-making styles on firm performance, controlling for a series of covariates. To test whether gender moderates the effect of decision-making styles on firm performance, interaction terms were included. Furthermore, models were subject to several robustness procedures, with no significant differences in results.

The authors find evidence of significant relationships for both gender and the avoidant style. Likewise, the authors find evidence of interaction effects between gender and decision-making styles, particularly between gender and the dependent style.

Findings contribute to prior research by analyzing the relationship between CEO gender and SME performance in the context of a Latin American emerging economy; by providing evidence of the impact of decision-making styles on the financial performance of SMEs; and by examining how a specific decision-making style, namely the dependent style, operates differently according to CEO gender, shedding some light on its ambiguous character as described by prior research. For policymakers and authorities, findings indicate the importance of incorporating women to SMEs and supporting their way towards higher management.

Esta investigación analiza cómo el género y los estilos de toma de decisiones de los gerentes generales (CEOs) de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMEs) impactan en el desempeño financiero de las empresas que administran.

Se obtuvieron datos del año 2017 para 185 PYMEs ubicadas en Chile, una economía emergente, incluyendo información de la empresa, así como características sociodemográficas y estilos de toma de decisiones de los gerentes generales. Se estimaron modelos de Mínimos Cuadrados Generalizados (GLS) para explicar la influencia del género y los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento de la empresa, controlando por una serie de covariables. Para determinar si el género modera el efecto de los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento de la empresa, se incluyeron términos de interacción. Además, los modelos fueron sometidos a varios procedimientos de robustez, sin encontrar diferencias significativas en los resultados.

Los autores encuentran evidencia de relaciones significativas tanto para el género como para el estilo evitativo. Asimismo, los autores encuentran evidencia de efectos interacción entre el género y estilos de toma de decisiones, particularmente entre el género y el estilo dependiente.

Los hallazgos contribuyen a investigaciones anteriores al analizar la relación entre el género del CEO y el rendimiento de las PYMEs en el contexto de una economía latinoamericana emergente; al proporcionar evidencia del impacto de los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento financiero de las PYMEs; y al examinar cómo un estilo de toma de decisiones específico, a saber, el estilo dependiente, opera de manera diferente según el género del CEO, esclareciendo su carácter ambiguo tal como ha sido descrito en investigaciones anteriores. Para las autoridades y los responsables de políticas, los hallazgos indican la importancia de incorporar mujeres a las PYMEs y apoyarlas en su ascenso hacia la alta administración.

Entrepreneurial action under uncertainty has captured the interest of scholars and practitioners alike. However, this growing body of research has yet to connect entrepreneurial action with actual actions of entrepreneurs. We combine insights from effectuation theory and the psychology of entrepreneurship to investigate drivers of entrepreneurial actions involved in starting and running ventures, particularly optimism, self-efficacy and the use of causal and effectual logics.

The study employs a unique mixed-method approach combining a survey with experience sampling data. After measuring demographics, preference for effectual or causal logics and psychological variables, the 197 US entrepreneurs sampled entrepreneurs logged their daily actions in the form of asks during 60 consecutive days.

Results suggest that self-efficacy and causal logics are key drivers of entrepreneurial actions, while optimism serves as a deterrent. Interestingly, the impact of self-efficacy on actions is moderated by the entrepreneur’s experience level, measured both in years and past asking experience.

The potential of the ask as the basic mechanism for entrepreneurial actions is explored. Based on the findings, the authors offer new and fertile insights by linking psychological traits to entrepreneurial actions, causal and effectual logics and entrepreneurial expertise development.

This bibliometric review aims to display visually the intellectual communities (i.e. the cooperation networks among various countries, institutions, journals and individuals), the intellectual structure (i.e. the status quo and development trajectory of the intellectual base) and emerging hot topics of the female entrepreneurship research in 1975-2018. Based on the comprehensive review of the state-of-the-science, this paper aims to identify significant research gaps in extant studies and develop potential future research agendas that may catalyse new streams of female entrepreneurship research.

Bibliometric analysis via science mapping provides in-depth analyzes, highlights the intellectual structure and identifies hot topics. Using CiteSpace, co-citation networks of contributing countries, institutions, cited journals and authors are mapped first. Second, co-citation network analysis helps to identify the key “nodes” in the intellectual structure. The landscape view identifies main clusters from an overall perspective, while a timeline view delineates the characteristics and evolution of focal clusters. Major clusters are interpreted in detail with the help of foam tree graph processed by Carrot. Finally, the co-occurrence network analysis is conducted by using VOSviewer to examine hot topics and research frontiers

The findings show that the publications of female entrepreneurship increase exponentially. The major driving force of female entrepreneurship research is from the USA and England. In terms of intellectual structure, key concepts behind different clusters represent the major milestones in relation to individual determinants of female entrepreneurship, the impact of cultural and contextual factors on female entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship in non-OECD countries, as well as the impact of family, social and institutional factors on the survival and exit of male and female enterprises. Hot topics include financing sources, the embeddedness nature, the impact and environmental factors of female entrepreneurship.

This study presents important practical implications. The findings suggest that intellectual communities of the female entrepreneurship field are relatively loose. Close contact and cooperation among different countries, institutions and researchers are lacking. To promote the evolution of the field, researchers who belong to different institutions in different countries may need to strengthen contact and cooperation. Additionally, papers in journals from the business and management discipline are most cited in this field, preventing new knowledge from other disciplines flowing into the female entrepreneurship field. Accordingly, female entrepreneurship research journals may need to expand their focus and combine knowledge from various domains.

This bibliometric review provides a more comprehensive, systematic and objective review of the female entrepreneurship field. Previous qualitative reviews are typically based on personal judgement, while a few quantitative reviews only describe statistical data. This study is based on thousands of citation data rather than a small number of papers pre-selected by the researcher, thus, is more data-grounded and less biased than prior reviews. It expands previous reviews by transparently visualizing the underlying structure and evolution of the field. Moreover, it highlights significant gaps in extant studies and develops future research agendas to catalyse new streams of research.

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the need to understand the differences between management and leadership within the project environment.

First stage research involved data analysis from forum, workshops, group to one, one to one interviews. Second stage research involves a five‐year PhD study undertaken by the author.

The paper highlights the need not only to understand the difference between project management and leadership, but also to use this differentiation in the identification, assessment and development of project services providers and as an integral part of organisational and people development for all companies involved in sponsoring, supporting or delivering projects.

The premise is that the emphasis needs to be on project leadership to achieve a successful project

The paper includes research within a specific industry based on identification of a market niche.