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The purpose of this paper is to establish a link between Six Sigma and organizational change theory. Specifically, a framework that aligns Six Sigma critical success/hindering factors and the antecedents of successful organizational change process.

A theory‐derived framework containing Six Sigma's critical success and hindering factors at each stage of Lewinian change process is first proposed. Then, the framework is compared against the findings from a case study of Six Sigma improvement project in a UK, make‐to‐order, small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME).

There is a great deal of congruence (consistency) between Six Sigma's critical success factors and the antecedents of successful organizational change. Addressing people's “soft” skills (e.g. commitment, involvement, and communication) is necessary to “unfreeze” the equilibrium. The actual change and confrontation, which occur during “move” stage, requires a combination of both “software” and “hardware” of the organization (i.e. teamwork, methods/tools, organizational structure and culture). It is important for SMEs to provide resources during the “freeze” stage and justify the benefits of change, in order to sustain the change efforts.

This research was based on a single case of Six Sigma improvement project. However, future research will be conducted as a longitudinal study, to capture richer insights from the change process.

This paper offers a practical overview of how Six Sigma can be utilized as a change driver in SMEs and the enablers and barriers of success to be considered, especially during the early stage of adoption.

This paper aims to develop a cross-country analysis of the similarities and differences in the debt maturity structure of listed SMEs from the point of view of corporate governance (CG) attributes in two different economic environments: an OECD (Spain) country and a non-OECD (Argentina) country.

Using data from listed SMEs in the Argentinian SME segment (pooled data from 2012 to 2015) and 31 listed SMEs in the Spanish Mercado Alternativo Bursátil for growing firms (MAB_GE)(2014), bivariate and multivariate analyses are performed.

Spanish firms with a higher ownership concentration and a large controlling shareholder have higher short-term liabilities (STL) ratios. Participation of women on the board has a negative relation with the STL ratio only for Spain. The participation of corporations in ownership and a Big4 auditor have a negative relation with the STL ratio for both countries.

These results will help SME managers understand the effects of the application of good governance policies. The study also gives regulators a guideline to develop standards to assist in efficient borrowing in terms of seeking funding in alternative capital markets.

First, the results provide evidence about the financial impact on the STL ratio of CG attributes in listed SME. Second, as far as the authors know, this is the first paper to analyse the CG attributes of listed SMEs in an OECD country and a non-OECD country. Third, the paper presents CG data derived from an ad hoc basis elaborated from different websites and databases.

The entrepreneurial university is being widely studied, given its importance as an agent in economic and social development. This paper presents the findings of a study that had a twofold objective. First, it sought to establish a model of maturity for the measurement of the level of academic entrepreneurship in universities. Second, it aimed to apply this maturity model to a sufficiently wide and varied sample of faculties to discover their current level of academic entrepreneurship, as well as their differences by area of knowledge, type of university and autonomous region in Spain.

A questionnaire was designed with items grouped into 14 blocks that defined the entrepreneurial university according to the model previously developed. The questionnaire was answered by 84 deans/directors belonging to different faculties/universities from six Spanish regions.

The findings showed that the Spanish universities stand out in four areas: internationalisation, use of active methodologies, mission and strategy and management team support. However, the legal and administrative context, the funds for entrepreneurship and the training of staff in entrepreneurship are not sufficiently developed. Significant differences were observed between regions but not by type of university or area of knowledge.

The results provide an innovative model that explains the factors that define the entrepreneurial university, as well as guidelines for universities to move forward in developing stages.

The literature has dealt with the relationship between board characteristics (BC) and firm performance (FP) on a large scale. However, it yielded inconsistent results. Thus, this paper aims to examine the indirect relationship between BC and FP through the mediating role of the capital structure (CS).

This study used a sample of 528 non-financial companies listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2015 to 2019. Also, a two-step system generalised method of moments estimation technique was applied.

The results show that board diversity and the frequency of board meetings positively affect financial performance, and it is negatively influenced by board turnover, size and independence. Also, the results indicate a positive relationship between the independence of the board and all CS variables. Importantly, the findings support the policy-setting role of the board of directors where CS (measured by total debt and short-term debt) suppresses some governance mechanisms’ detrimental effect on FP. Hence, the board of directors, apart from the monitoring function, introduce various policies (financial and non-financial) that enhance the overall performance of companies.

These results are consistent with the agency’s perspective that management practices in selecting the optimal capital reduce agency costs and improve performance. The findings contribute to developing a broader theoretical framework that accounts for the policy-setting role of the board of directors. The current study model of corporate governance offers insight for policymakers into the role of corporate governance other than monitoring functions in organisations and how CS should be taken into consideration with corporate governance and FP association.