Maurizio Massaro, Karen Handley, Carlo Bagnoli and John Dumay
This paper aims to review and critique the knowledge management (KM) literature within small and medium enterprises (SMEs), offers an overview of the state of research and outline…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review and critique the knowledge management (KM) literature within small and medium enterprises (SMEs), offers an overview of the state of research and outline a future research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
Papers published in KM journals are analysed using a structured literature review methodology. The paper analyses 89 papers published in ten journals specialising in the field of KM.
Findings
KM within SMEs is a research area of growing importance. Findings show that literature on KM in SMEs is fragmented and dominated by unrelated research, with few comparative studies between countries and several countries receiving little attention. Additionally, different definitions of SMEs are used and different kinds of SMEs (e.g. micro, small and medium) are often treated as equivalent, making comparison almost impossible. The results show a failure to address the implications of findings for practitioners and policymakers, which risks relegating the KM research on SMEs to irrelevance.
Originality/value
The paper presents a comprehensive structured literature review of the articles published in KM journals. The paper’s findings can offer insights into future research avenues.
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Stephanie Perkiss and Karen Handley
The purpose of this paper is to explore economic conditions of contemporary society to provide insight into the ways in which the consequences of disaster, including environmental…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore economic conditions of contemporary society to provide insight into the ways in which the consequences of disaster, including environmental migration, are accentuated.
Design/methodology/approach
This research draws on Zygmunt Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity and notions of development to analyse disaster. From the analysis, a new concept, liquid development, is proposed and critiqued as a contributing factor leading to severe contemporary disaster.
Findings
Liquid development provides a new way of making sense of the conditions and consequences of economic growth and a business as usual attitude. It further provides a framework to explore the potential disaster of environmental migration in the Pacific Islands arising from liquid development driven climate change-induced sea level rise.
Research limitations/implications
Analysing these conditions provides greater understanding of the resulting impact of disaster, creating awareness and informing the need for accountability and social policy. This study aims to contribute to further practical and research enquiry that will challenge liquid developers to reconsider their impact and to accept responsibility for vulnerable members of society as part of their business as usual structure.
Originality/value
This paper adds to Bauman’s understanding of the consequences of globalisation through the construct of liquid development. It also continues his debate by giving awareness to the global issue of environmental migration.
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Karen Handley and Courtney Molloy
This paper takes a structured literature review (SLR) approach to identify gaps in the literature and suggest future research opportunities. It focuses on corporate governance…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper takes a structured literature review (SLR) approach to identify gaps in the literature and suggest future research opportunities. It focuses on corporate governance (CG) performed outside the formal board of directors’ structure and examines research of alternative CG of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the SLR method to search the Scopus database, extracting and synthesising findings relating specifically to SMEs’ CG. These are tabulated and described using bibliometric software.
Findings
The authors highlight an absence of tailored theoretical approaches to understanding CG in SMEs, which differs from the governance of larger entities. They also find evidence of alternative governance structures in SME CG.
Research limitations/implications
Further research should embrace management and other theoretical perspectives and expanded methodologies, nuances in understanding offered in contextualised settings and awareness of practical implications to better understand the specific setting of CG in SMEs.
Practical implications
SMEs seek to access the scarce resources and skills external to their formal CG structures. Regulators and resource providers should mobilise facilitation and training for this expansion.
Originality/value
The authors synthesise a large body of literature to extract findings specific to SMEs. A unique contribution is our focus on alternative forms of CG in SMEs. Evidence of alternative boards points to resolutions for human capital shortages in SMEs.
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Angelica Risquez, Michele O'Dwyer and Ann Ledwith
This paper seeks to explore the relationship between entrepreneurship students' ethical views on plagiarism, their self reported engagement in plagiarism and their participation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore the relationship between entrepreneurship students' ethical views on plagiarism, their self reported engagement in plagiarism and their participation in an online plagiarism prevention tutorial.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a questionnaire administered to 434 undergraduate university entrepreneurship students, combining self‐reported data with behavioural measures.
Findings
The results illustrate that more than one online plagiarism prevention tutorial is required to change self‐reported views relating to engagement in plagiarism, perception of peer participation in plagiarism and students' ethical views. However, it should be noted that even such a small intervention demonstrates an observable difference in students' capacity to recognise a case of verbatim plagiarism as an academic breach in practice.
Research limitations/implications
The research demonstrates that educators should focus on good educational design, educating students regarding plagiarism prevention while making use of technology enhanced learning, instead of considering e‐learning choices as a quick solution to plagiarism.
Originality/value
The paper focuses on an emerging aspect of plagiarism education, that is, the use of technology enhanced learning. While acknowledging the potential of technology enhanced learning in plagiarism prevention the paper notes that plagiarism prevention should be embedded in the curriculum rather than addressed in an ad‐hoc manner.
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Anna Marie Johnson, Claudene Sproles and Latisha Reynolds
The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.
Findings
The findings provide information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
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Keywords
Karen Williams Middleton, Antonio Padilla-Meléndez, Nigel Lockett, Carla Quesada-Pallarès and Sarah Jack
The purpose of this paper is to explores the influence of socialization upon the constitution and integration of learning leading to the development of entrepreneurial competence…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explores the influence of socialization upon the constitution and integration of learning leading to the development of entrepreneurial competence while at university, from the learner perspective. Self-reported learning is analyzed to illustrate ways in which students make use of institutional and social contributions of the university context.
Design/methodology/approach
The study investigates entrepreneurial journeys of 18 participants, either currently attending or recently graduated from three universities in three countries with both comparable and distinctive contextual elements. In depth analysis of individual life stories, focusing on self-identified critical incidents, is used to illustrate ways in which students, while at university, develop entrepreneurial competence for current and future practice.
Findings
Formal and non-formal learning remain important foundations for entrepreneurial competence development, delivered through designed content-centric structures. Informal learning – particularly mentor supported socialised learning – centring around the learner is key to solidifying learning towards entrepreneurial competence, through know-how and access to resources. The university emerges as an entrepreneurial learning space where students constitute and integrate learning gained through different forms.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-cultural analysis is limited as the paper emphasizes the individual’s learning experience relative to the immediate university context.
Practical implications
Universities play a critical role as entrepreneurial learning spaces beyond formal and non-formal learning. This includes dedicating resources to orchestrate informal learning opportunities and enabling interaction with the different agents that contribute to socialised situated learning, supporting entrepreneurial competence development. Universities need to take responsibility for facilitating the entirety of learning.
Originality/value
Socialised learning in combination with other forms of learning contributes to student development of entrepreneurial competence while situated in the university context.
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Khanh Nguyen, John Sands and Karen Trimmer
This paper systematically reviewed research on accounting fraud in the non-profit organisation (NPO) sector during 2004–2024 to identify gaps in theory and practice with the aim…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper systematically reviewed research on accounting fraud in the non-profit organisation (NPO) sector during 2004–2024 to identify gaps in theory and practice with the aim of producing a new parsimonious global fraud model.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper utilised a structured literature review methodology.
Findings
We propose a new holistic approach for the NPO sector worldwide, with two foci of “what may contribute to fraud” and “what may prevent fraud”.
Research limitations/implications
The future research agenda for the new holistic approach is provided.
Practical implications
The approach helps donors promote accountability and transparency in the NPO sector worldwide, thereby sustaining the development of this sector.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first comprehensive worldwide fraud research review, making distinct contributions. Globally, the approach is the first dedicated to the NPO sector, including different stages of fraud occurrence (undetected, suspected, actual/detected and future), and using a multi-disciplinary approach to prevent these stages. The approach is also the first to incorporate individual-level, organisational-level, industry-level and country-level factors into predicting future fraud.
Details
Keywords
- Undetected fraud
- Suspected fraud
- Actual/detected fraud
- Future fraud
- Individual-level
- Organisational-level
- Industry-level
- Country-level factors
- Organisational ethical culture
- Organisational ethics programme
- Organisational internal control
- Non-governmental organisation (NGO)
- Non-profit organisation (NPO)
This study aims to investigate an individual’s boundary crossing with regard to bribery, gifts and favouritism in rewarding contracts. Samuel Pepys’s diary was written in the 17th…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate an individual’s boundary crossing with regard to bribery, gifts and favouritism in rewarding contracts. Samuel Pepys’s diary was written in the 17th century and through detailed accounts gives insight into his inherent professionalism and his negative opinions around bribery but also his acceptance of “gifts” and awarding of contracts to “friends”.
Design/methodology/approach
The research uses a narrative approach to study a detailed and reflective personal diary identifying the diarist’s self-exploration and attitudes around the receipt of gifts and the awarding of contracts. This microhistory is presented with a narrative account of a case study of the relationship between the diarist, Pepys and a supplier, Sir W. Warren.
Findings
The diary illustrates how Pepys crosses these boundaries and how the lack of accountability within his role enables him to do this. This detailed study enables answers to questions that with time, legislation and lack of acceptability, have become more difficult to ask and to answer, about the crossing of boundaries and ethical decisions around the acceptance of bribes and kickbacks.
Originality/value
A contribution of this paper is the use of a diary, at least a diary as self-reflective as Pepys’s written up as a narrative account. The use of a detailed diary in an accounting microhistory of this nature gives insight and assists in answering difficult to ask questions around personal motivations for bribery and corruption and contributes in this area. The research contributes in developing research around boundaries and the corruption equation using the insight gleaned from this narrative account.
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Ayse Gursoy, Karen Wickett and Melanie Feinberg
The purpose of this paper is to investigate tag use in a metadata ecosystem that supports a fan work repository to identify functions of tags and explore the system as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate tag use in a metadata ecosystem that supports a fan work repository to identify functions of tags and explore the system as a co-constructed communicative context.
Design/methodology/approach
Using modified techniques from grounded theory (Charmaz, 2007), this paper integrates humanistic and social science methods to identify kinds of tag use in a rich setting.
Findings
Three primary roles of tags emerge out of detailed study of the metadata ecosystem: tags can identify elements in the fan work, tags can reflect on how those elements are used or adapted in the fan work, and finally, tags can express the fan author’s sense of her role in the discursive context of the fan work repository. Attending to each of the tag roles shifts focus away from just what tags say to include how they say it.
Practical implications
Instead of building metadata systems designed solely for retrieval or description, this research suggests that it may be fruitful to build systems that recognize various metadata functions and allow for expressivity. This research also suggests that attending to metadata previously considered unusable in systems may reflect the participants’ sense of the system and their role within it.
Originality/value
In addition to accommodating a wider range of tag functions, this research implies consideration of metadata ecosystems, where different kinds of tags do different things and work together to create a multifaceted artifact.
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This study presents the impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU)-induced Trade Supply Chain Vulnerability (TSCV) on the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in India by…
Abstract
Purpose
This study presents the impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU)-induced Trade Supply Chain Vulnerability (TSCV) on the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in India by leveraging the World Bank Enterprise Survey data for 2014 and 2022. Applying econometric techniques, it examines firm size’ influence on productivity and trade participation, providing insights for enhancing SME resilience and trade participation amid uncertainty.
Design/methodology/approach
The econometric techniques focus on export participation, along with variables such as total exports, firm size, productivity, and capital intensity. It addresses crucial factors such as the direct import of intermediate goods and foreign ownership. Utilizing the Cobb-Douglas production function, the study estimates Total Factor Productivity, mitigating endogeneity and multicollinearity through a two-stage process. Besides, the study uses a case study of North Indian SMEs engaged in manufacturing activities and their adoption of mitigation strategies to combat unprecedented EPU.
Findings
Results reveal that EPU-induced TSCV reduces exports, impacting employment and firm size. Increased productivity, driven by technological adoption, correlates with improved export performance. The study highlights the negative impact of TSCV on trade participation, particularly for smaller Indian firms. Moreover, SMEs implement cost-based, supplier-based, and inventory-based strategies more than technology-based and risk-based strategies.
Practical implications
Policy recommendations include promoting increased imports and inward foreign direct investment to enhance small firms’ trade integration during economic uncertainty. Tailored support for smaller firms, considering their limited capacity, is crucial. Encouraging small firms to engage in international trade and adopting diverse SC mitigation strategies associated with policy uncertainty are vital considerations.
Originality/value
This study explores the impact of EPU-induced TSCV on Indian SMEs’ trade dynamics, offering nuanced insights for policymakers to enhance SME resilience amid uncertainty. The econometric analysis unveils patterns in export behavior, productivity, and factors influencing trade participation during economic uncertainty.