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This study aims to examine the effect of market orientation (MO) as a mediating variable in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs)’ performance.

A total of 500 SMEs in the manufacturing industry of food and beverages were involved in this study with a response rate of 117. Data collection was conducted in all states of Peninsular Malaysia including the northern, central, southern and eastern regions.

The findings show that EO has a significant relationship with MO, and MO has a significant relationship with SME performance. MO will mediate the relationship between EO and SMEs’ performance.

The higher the EO implemented in a business, the more willing a company will be to implement MO. This analysis shows that highly entrepreneurial firms tend to be highly market orientated and this affects SMEs’ performance.

The results of this study show that the characteristic of entrepreneurial and MO practiced by SMEs in Malaysia has been significantly affected the SMEs’ performance. It indicates that EO offers a holistic and systematic model for supporting SMEs to build a well-maintained environment of MO and SMEs’ performance.

This study aims to investigate the role of e-service quality and e-trust for achieving e-loyalty among digital library users in the digital economy. The current study examined the mediation effect of e-trust in the connection between e-service quality and e-loyalty.

Cross-sectional design was applied for the purpose of data collection and empirical findings of the study. Survey method was used for the purpose of data collection from 783 online digital libraries users.

Results reveal that e-service quality positively predicts e-trust in digital economy. Moreover, in digital economy e-trust predicts the e-loyalty. The findings also reveal that e-trust mediates the relationship between e-service quality and e-loyalty links.

The finding of study suggested that individual level e-trust have a strong effect on e-loyalty in digital economy. Individual level aspects in term of e-service quality have a direct effect on e-trust to improve their e-loyalty. The finding indicated that digital libraries users in future will be more loyal toward e-service quality providers. The results are useful for the management of digital libraries and academia for future. This is the first study that includes e-service quality, e-trust and e-loyalty in the context of digital economy.

The purpose of the research was to examine the effect of strategic orientation on organizational innovativeness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, in order to highlight the constructive role of strategic orientation, the study also observes the intervening role of strategic alignment and moderating role of strategic flexibility.

Data were collected from 209 owner/managers of SMEs through self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, correlation and hierarchical regression were used for testing the study hypotheses.

Results revealed that strategic orientation is positively related to SMEs innovativeness. Strategic alignment mediates between the strategic orientation and innovativeness link. Furthermore, the findings also established that the association between strategic orientation and strategic alignment is stronger when SMEs are strategically flexible.

Organizational innovativeness is of vital importance for SMEs strength, especially in the context of developing economies. Although researchers have acknowledged several antecedents of SMEs innovativeness, however, it is still unclear how strategic orientation influences organizational innovativeness. Moreover, the study focuses on another important element of strategic alignment through the integration of goals and strategies to achieve innovativeness.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the structural relationships between total quality management (TQM) and employee satisfaction and hotel performance.

A judgmental sampling technique was employed in this study. A total of 25 (four- and five-star) hotels were selected in four cities in Malaysia. A total of 625 questionnaires were distributed randomly to both employees and managers.

The results of this study showed that seven TQM constructs have significant relationships with employee satisfaction and hotel performance. Leadership and customer focus play significant roles in enhancing employee satisfaction and hotel performance.

Employees who are highly satisfied with their jobs will be willing to support their coworkers. They will be loyal to their jobs and enhance hotel performance. Hoteliers must provide a friendly working atmosphere, as well as a blueprint and strategic map, to increase employee satisfaction and improve hotel performance.

This research study provides a substantial contribution to the hospitality management literature by explaining how TQM practices can be used as a predictor of employee satisfaction and consequently improve hotel performance. A better understanding of these relationships will help hoteliers in developing their marketing strategies to maintain the relationship with hotel customers.

This study aims to investigate the ways that human capital influences the strategic orientation variables entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and market orientation (MO), which ultimately leverage the firm performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia.

This study used a quantitative method with a total of 274 SMEs in the Regency of Gresik, East Java, Indonesia, as the observable population. Furthermore, the identified samples obtained through the random sampling technique were determined using the Slovin formula with 163 SMEs used for analysis. As the means of analysis, this study used a statistical approach by using PLS-SEM statistics from SmartPLS software. This analytical tool has been proven to be a robust statistical tool that has been used in many marketing studies.

This study found that human capital is a key determinant of EO and MO as strategic orientations of SMEs. Furthermore, this study highlighted that SMEs’ strategic orientations (i.e. EO and MO) provide a valuable thrust that leverages firm performance. Moreover, the role of human capital in leveraging firm performance was found to be significant with the role of the joint effect of EO and MO as mediator. This implies that human capital is not solely a single determinant that leverages SMEs’ performance.

There are few aspects of limitations in this research that could be enhanced by other scholars in the discipline of entrepreneurship. First, the strategic orientation concept being indicated by EO and MO had yet to provide a comprehensive view of strategic orientation. Second, this research used samples that represent the traditional furniture cluster in East Java and had yet to explore other clusters such as food processing and services cluster which may be relevant to the context of SMEs in Indonesia.

As a practical implication, this study would benefit policymakers in Indonesia, such as the Ministry for Cooperatives and SMEs to provide assistance to SMEs to progressively nurture capacity-building through formal and informal education to leverage human capital. Moreover, it could benefit other relevant businesses, such as national banks in Indonesia whose interests are significant, especially in providing financial access to SMEs in Indonesia.

The social implication of this research lay the focus on the suggestion by which SMEs must be able to optimize their capabilities by enhancing levels of human capital particularly for traditionally managed SMEs. The ability to survive external pressures for would be able to contribute to the social well-being of their society as many people are dependent heavily in the operation of the SMEs.

The significance of this study is twofold. Although the use of human capital as a determinant of firm performance has been discussed in the literature, few studies to date has sought to predict human capital with EO and MO as mediators of firm performance. Furthermore, the joint impact of EO and MO as a strategic orientation needs to be holistically explored and explained, particularly in an emerging economy context.

Over the past two decades, tourism in Zimbabwe was affected by the political and economic situation resulting from bad publicity. As a result, most ecotourism establishments under the CAMPFIRE program collapsed. Of the ecotourism establishments that survived, the revenues are decreasing such that incomes accruing to the communities have become insufficiently low. Hence, it became difficult to persuade the individuals to work collectively towards conserving and preserving the natural heritage. Ngomakurira Hills (a heritage site) was used as a case study for this particular chapter. The study used a qualitative methodology including observation, and literature review to enable the researcher to obtain the required information. Results of the study reveal that the community feels there has been a divergence from the original goals of the project which were community involvement, employment creation, improvement in income and standards of living. None of these goals were achieved, most of the respondents highlighted there has not been a change brought about by the project. The major factors affecting the potential for sustainable ecotourism at Ngomakurira were political and economic instability, lack of effective marketing and promotion, limited financial and human resources, corruption, lack of transparency, insufficient collaboration between the community, private and public sectors. The study recommends the development of an ecotourism model meant to ensure equitable distribution of ecotourism benefits, sustainable community support for the project by enhancing trans-generational preservation of natural and cultural resources.

Total quality management (TQM) must include orientation towards quality awareness in the overall organisational processes in a firm. A successful TQM needs a supportive culture that can adapt to alterations and strengthen innovation. This study aims to confirm the association between the style of management known as organisational culture (OC) and TQM practices in manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Data-driven research was drawn from self-assessment inquiries among 772 managers/owners of manufacturing SMEs of the Saudi Arabia Kingdom (KSA). The dominant culture was detected by means of a cross-sectional technique.

The findings enrich the literature by revealing a positive effect of OC on TQM execution in the manufacturing SMEs of KSA.

Prior to the execution of TQM operations, administrators of manufacturing SMEs should be aware of the culture within organisations so that TQM may be implemented.

The study suggests that organisations, particularly manufacturing SMEs, should constantly strive to enhance the TQM culture.

Amid intense competition among manufacturing SMEs, it is crucial to guarantee their high performance. This research assists society in evaluating the strength of a particular SME sector and further enables it to assess which SMEs really have a good OC–TQM relation.

The paper creates and presents various platforms of the OC and TQM as a unified body of knowledge.

Environmental issues have triggered the need for sustainable behavior around the globe. The tourism industry’s rapid growth also contributes to environmental degradation through natural resource depletion and excess water and energy utilization. Based on social identity theory, this study aims to assess the impact of environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives on green customers’ citizenship behavior. Furthermore, the study assesses the mediating effects of green trust, customer–company identification and green image.

This study is a quantitative approach, and purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data from the hotels’ customers from northern areas of Pakistan. This study used partial least square-structural equation modeling to analyze the data of 426 customers.

The study’s findings show that environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives significantly impact green customers’ citizenship behavior, green trust, customer–company identification and green corporate image. However, the relationship between green corporate image and green customers’ citizenship behavior was insignificant. Furthermore, the study’s results revealed that green trust and customer–company identification partially mediate between environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and green customers’ citizenship behavior.

The findings suggest that hotels’ environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives improve green customer citizenship behavior, green trust and enhance customer–company identification. Therefore, hotel industry managers should consider reinforcing existing environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and make further efforts to highlight the importance of such initiatives for environmental sustainability, which ultimately affects customers’ green customer citizenship behavior.

This research developed a novel framework to understand green customers’ citizenship behavior in the tourism industry. It extended the literature on environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and green customers’ citizenship behavior. In addition, the research adds value by confirming the significant direct and mediating role of customer–company identification in tourism industry context.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of air and rail transportation on pollution in Turkey from 1970 to 2020.

Fourier Autoregressive Distributive Lags (ADL) and Fourier Fractional ADL cointegration tests (Banerjee et al., 2017; Ilkay et al., 2021) are employed to analyze the relationship be-tween the variables. Cointegration tests that take into account soft transitions under structural changes are implemented. Structural change issues are crucial for this topic since the changes in countries’ environmental policies and transportation habits are shaped by the decisions taken in relation to environmental regulations. Finally, for robustness purposes, we tested the estimated equation with a completely different methodology. Thus, a Machine Learning (ML) analysis is conducted, through a Ridge Regression (RR).

The findings obtained by applying Fourier Autoregressive Distributive Lags (FADL) and Fourier Fractional ADL cointegration tests, which can control for structural changes, reveal the existence of a long-term relationship between the variables. In addition, FMOLS estimates emphasize that economic growth and air transport can lead to increased pollution in the long run, while rail transport reduces it. Moreover, the statistically significant trigonometric terms indicate the existence of a smooth structural change among the variables. Robustness checks are performed through a Machine Learning (ML) analysis, which roughly confirms the previous results.

To our knowledge, existing research in Turkey focuses mainly on road transport, while the impact of rail and air transport on pollution has not yet been investigated. As such, this study will be a significant addition to the academic literature.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze if and how country- and sector-related contingency factors affect the implementation of TQM practices and various performance measures within a TQM-performance relationships model framework.

The authors used data from 156 firms in Turkey and 132 firms in North Cyprus (NC) to test the model relationships by utilizing multiple group structural equation modeling (SEM).

The study finds support for both the universal and the contingency argument within the context of country and sector analyses. Although our findings suggest no differences across the two countries, the authors find evidence for differences across sectors in terms of their TQM practices and performance outcomes. In the case of NC firms, the direct effects of TQM on human resource results and customer results constituted the missing linkages in the performance excellence framework.

This study suffers from the same limitations common to all survey research. However, it contributes strongly to the limited TQM contingency research by providing new findings and insights. This study must be replicated in different countries and other types of contextual factors must be used to determine if and how they moderate the model relationships. Other theories are also needed to better explain some of the relationships.

There needs to be a more holistic approach to quality management and increased institutional support for quality initiatives in developing countries. Through proper alignment and integration of their different components, organizations can realize maximum improvement in their business results. Understanding the sector level contingencies before implementing a performance excellence model is also recommended.

The study has several social, economic and policy implications, including the need to improve employees’ work environment to improve their lives and prevent brain drain; to pass legislation to improve lax consumer laws; to found quality institutes to promote the education, training, qualification and professional development of employees working in the various sectors of the economy; and for government and employers to realize the importance of valuing stakeholders and delivering value and results to them to ensure long-term success.

This is one of the few studies in TQM contingency research that tests various relationships among TQM and business results by using country and sector as contingency factors.