scholarly journals Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Cloud in Developing Countries: A Synthesis of the Literature and Future Research Directions.

Author(s):  
Ibrahim Osman Adam
Author(s):  
E. A. G. Sumanasiri

This paper explores the e-leadership behaviours of Sri Lankan Small and Medium Entreprises and the barriers to e-leadership in SME sector. To explore these research objectives a qualitative method was used with 23 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with owners of fast-growing SMEs in Sri Lanka. To understand the effective e-leadership behaviours the study used Gary Yukl’s Hierarchical Taxonomy of Leadership Behaviours model. Findings confirmed that most SME leaders use ‘Internet of things’ in performing their leadership roles. Among the four effective e-leadership behaviours described by Gary Yukl, most SME leaders use e-leadership for change-oriented decision making while relationship-oriented leadership behaviours became the least important. Theoretical contributions, limitations and future research directions are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Francioni ◽  
Alessandro Pagano ◽  
Davide Castellani

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic and updated assessment of studies on key exporting stimuli for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to propose a research agenda on this topic. Design/methodology/approach The authors develop a review of empirical articles on SMEs’ exporting stimuli and outline future research directions based on key emerging drivers. Findings Research on SMEs’ exporting drivers focuses mainly on human resources’ competences, skills and subjective characteristics and on the role of relevant network actors (customers, intermediaries). Originality/value This paper provides an original contribution with regard to updating the framework on export drivers by Leonidou et al. (2007), highlighting an emerging research perspective based on internal/external network dimensions and proposing future research directions on internal individual and organisational actors and on new external network actors.


Author(s):  
Truong Hoang Oanh ◽  
Duong Ngoc Thanh ◽  
Truong Thi Be Hai

The article contributes to summarizing the characteristics of innovation capacity in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through empirical research of prestigious international articles. The review also provides new research directions based on gaps that existing studies. Researchers and scholars can find out new aspects of innovation capacity of MSMEs, helping business administrators improve innovation capacity and business results. The structure of this article is organized in four sections including Introduction; Research Methods; Research results and Discussion; and Conclusions and future research directions.


Author(s):  
Rosmeriany Nahan-Suomela ◽  
Satu Lautamäki

A rapidly changing business environment generates a growing demand for enterprises to understand their markets. Knowledge about markets is a strategic resource and enterprises are advised to invest in understanding their markets, competitors, and customers. Market orientation is widely studied as a concept describing how enterprises generate and respond to market knowledge. Market orientation is a cultural factor which we analyze in the framework of organizational culture. We examine market orientation as a cultural factor, as adopting a new type of culture inside and outside an organization can be particularly challenging for Small- and Medium-Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs have not been considered as very active participants in global business, where market knowledge is of utmost importance. For example, Keskin (2006) finds that market orientation is an antecedent of learning orientation in SMEs and market intelligence guides their learning processes. This chapter examines both theoretically and empirically how market orientation as a cultural factor is related to the internationalization processes of SMEs. This hopefully helps us to understand how SMEs can develop their businesses to a global level. We will present a qualitative study of four Finnish SMEs representing different phases of internationalization. Finally, discussion on the results and future research directions will be presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1281-1310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashna Chandra ◽  
Justin Paul ◽  
Meena Chavan

PurposeThis paper reviews the literature on internationalization barriers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from developing countries. The purposes of the study are: (1) to explicitly point out specific factors influencing the growth and internationalization of SMEs from developing countries and (2) to identify the research gaps to provide lucid and succinct directions for future research in this area.Design/methodology/approachThe authors selected relevant papers from journals listed on Web of Science and Scopus databases.FindingsIt was found that there are large number of questions remain unanswered regarding the internationalization of SMEs from developing countries regarding the factors determining their growth and internationalization.Originality/valueThis review distinctively accentuates previous studies on such barriers influencing the growth of SMEs from developing countries and systematically synthesize the issues faced by those SMEs. Thus, the authors seek to provide a comprehensible platform for researchers working in this area.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 4743
Author(s):  
Francesco Castagna ◽  
Piera Centobelli ◽  
Roberto Cerchione ◽  
Eugenio Oropallo ◽  
Shashi ◽  
...  

In this paper, a structured review was conducted to investigate the internationalisation process of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to define barriers and enablers and identify research gaps in this relevant field. Data were collected from two databases of scientific peer-reviewed articles (i.e., Scopus and Web of Science). After the selection process, 161 papers focusing on SMEs’ internalisation were analysed using both descriptive and content analysis. The analysis of the results highlights that SMEs’ internalisation is a growing research field, but different research gaps remain to be filled. These gaps concern barriers, impact on performance, models, and theories related to the different phases of the internationalisation process (e.g., start-up, early entrance, international growth). The future research directions identified interesting suggestions and guidelines for future researchers in the field of SMEs internationalisation.


Author(s):  
James M. Njihia

IT based public sector reforms takes place within a contested policy and socio-economic context but one that often appears non-controversial since the pursuit of development is generally desirable. In this chapter we explore this context from two discursive perspectives, the dominant international ICT development dialogue associated with western institutions, and from postcolonial theory that emanates from reflections on the postcolonial condition found in most developing countries. They are presented as representing a contrived and an actual context respectively that give rise to policy-practice gaps. The discussion brings out the limitations of developmentalism when conceptualizing IT innovations and change in postcolonial developing countries, and suggests an approach that factors in postcolonial theory in bridging these gaps. This would strengthen existing innovative approaches and provide new analytical perspectives that factor in history, time, global geo-political structures, and the submerged potentially destabilizing voices in former colonies. Future research directions towards post-development and their challenges are also highlighted.


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Chinomona ◽  
E. Chinomona

Despite increasing awareness of the importance of managing the negative effects of organizational politics at the workplace, research on consequences relating to employees’ perceptions of the same in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa has received little attention. Therefore, using data from 250 SMEs in Zimbabwe, this study examines the effects of employees’ perceptions of organizational politics on turnover intentions and the mediating influence of employees’ perceptions of equity and organizational commitment. All the posited six hypotheses were supported by the sample data. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed and limitations and future research directions are indicated.


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