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PurposeAlthough big data analytics managerial skills (BDAMS) offer opportunities for firms to foster organizational agility, existing studies present inconclusive indications of this impact, with an overlooking of the intermediate pathways involved. This study explored how BDAMS affect organizational agility by investigating the mediation effect of data-driven organizational learning (DDOL) and the moderating roles of technological and market turbulence.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed mediation and moderated mediation analyses to test the hypotheses using data collected from listed Chinese firms. Furthermore, we performed a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) as a supplementary approach to identify the configurations that lead to organizational agility.FindingsThis study shows that DDOL partially mediates the relationship between BDAMS and organizational agility. Besides, technological and market turbulence positively moderate the effect of DDOL on organizational agility and the mediation effect of DDOL. Our additional analyses also reveal several patterns of conditions that facilitate agility.Originality/valueThis study offers a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between BDAMS and organizational agility by verifying the mediating effect of DDOL and moderating effects of technological and market turbulence. In addition, the fsQCA results highlighted the combinatorial effects of key factors in this study, reinforcing and refining the moderated mediation results.

Effective investment is recognized as a powerful determinant of firms’ growth and long-term advantages. However, despite long and extensive research on the upper echelons, the role of top managers’ work experiences in corporate investments remains unclear. With an investigation of the effect of CEO general managerial skills gained through lifetime work experiences on corporate overinvestment, the current study also tests boundary conditions at which this effect may be magnified or attenuated. An empirical analysis of Chinese publicly listed firms reveals that CEO general managerial skills increase corporate overinvestment: Generalist CEOs (versus specialist CEOs) are more likely to promote overinvestment. Moreover, whereas board size and economic policy uncertainty attenuate the relationship between CEO general managerial skills and corporate overinvestment, firm profitability magnifies the relationship. By examining the dark side of this managerial characteristic of CEO, this study provides important implications for literature about corporate investment and upper echelons.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to contribute to the debate in the literature about generalist CEOs by exploring the effect of board governance on CEO general managerial ability, focusing on one of the most crucial aspects of the board of directors, board size. Prior research shows that smaller boards constitute a more effective governance mechanism and therefore are expected to reduce agency costs. Design/methodology/approach The authors estimate the effect of board size on CEO general managerial ability, using a fixed-effects regression analysis, propensity score matching, as well as an instrumental-variable analysis. These techniques mitigate endogeneity greatly and make the results much more likely to show causality. Findings The results show that firms with smaller board size are more likely to hire generalist CEOs. Specifically, a decline in board size by one standard deviation raises CEO general managerial ability by 15.62%. A lack of diverse experiences in a small board with fewer directors makes it more necessary to hire a CEO with a broad range of professional experiences. Furthermore, the agency costs associated with generalist CEOs are greatly diminished in firms with a smaller board. Hence, firms with a smaller board are more inclined to hire generalist CEOs. Originality/value Although prior research has explored the effects of board size on various corporate outcomes, strategies and policies, this study is the first to investigate the effect of board size on CEO general managerial ability. This study contributes to the literature both in corporate governance and on CEO general managerial ability.

PurposeThe paper aimed to explore the underlying work engagement role in transformational leadership and employees' job performance relationships. Moreover, this study also looked at the moderation of leaders' managerial skills in the transformational leadership and work engagement nexus.Design/methodology/approachThe time-lagged data of 360 followers — leader dyads nested in 71 teams were collected from star-rated hotels in Italy and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was executed.FindingsBased on social learning theory and idiosyncrasy credit theory, the SEM results demonstrate that transformational leadership is significantly and positively linked with job performance and work engagement mediated this relationship. The results also confirmed that leaders' managerial skills strengthen the transformational leadership and work engagement nexus.Practical implicationsHotel managers should consider hiring individuals with transformational leadership skills and provide training to Polish their managerial skills in order to enhance employee engagement at work, which may result in job performance.Originality/valueWith this study, the researchers emphasize the significance of transformational leadership and work engagement for better job performance in the Italian hospitality industry. Our analysis also provides new evidence that leaders' managerial skills strengthen the transformative leadership and work engagement nexus. The study is one of the first to investigate the boundary conditions of leaders' managerial skills in the transformational leadership and work engagement relationship. Based on the findings, the practical and theoretical contributions are also discussed.

This study investigates the factors influencing project managers' work performance, including decision-making, analytical, technical, interpersonal, and communication skills, with emotional intelligence as a potential moderator. Conducted within the Pakistani software industry, a comprehensive field survey using a well-designed questionnaire ensured reliable and valid data collection. The statistical findings confirm the positive impact of all five skill sets on project managers' work performance. Notably, emotional intelligence moderates the effects significantly for communication, interpersonal, and analytical skills. This research provides valuable insights into the critical attributes shaping project managers' effectiveness, offering a unique perspective by considering emotional intelligence as a potential enhancer or inhibitor of these skills' impact on work performance.

The study highlighted the role of firm characteristics, market characteristics, and financial delinquency on access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study also described the mediating role of enterprise managerial skills and technology advancement and the moderator role of government support. The 410 samples were collected from SMEs through survey questionnaires and analyzed with partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that firm characteristics, market characteristics, and financial delinquency affected SMEs’ access to finance. The enterprise managerial skills and technology advancement partially impact mediators, and government support plays a partial moderator role. The study contributed by exploring the unique concepts of the challenge toolkit that directly or indirectly influences access to finance for SMEs. In addition, the study contributed through the impressive comparative enormity of various financial demands from SMEs’ perspective along with the mediator and moderator roles. The study also constructs an exclusive relationship with the theory of discouraged borrower and human resource theory and elaborates on the future direction for researchers. The study’s findings are highly suitable for SMEs to identify the complex finance access challenges. Moreover, the study provides a flexible way for SMEs to manage a firm reputation in the market and enhance enterprise managerial knowledge for obtaining a loan from banks by fulfilling all codal formalities.

In this knowledge economy era, people-dependent intangible organizational resources, such as human capital, drive SMEs’ innovation and performance globally. However, scant literature examines the nexus between human capital, innovation, and SMEs’ performance. Hence, the study aimed to examine the mediating role of innovation practice in the nexus between human capital dimensions (formal education and managerial skill) and the performance of SMEs. A proportionate stratified with a simple random sampling technique was used to take 425 representative owner-managers of SMEs in Ethiopia. CB-SEM was used for data analysis. Findings reveal that owner’s managerial skills and formal education significantly and positively influence SME performance and innovation practice. However, innovation practice partially mediates the nexus between formal education, managerial skills, and SME performance. Hence, the study suggests for policymakers and stakeholders to play a critical role in aligning the formal education system and managerial skill development to stimulate innovation and improve SMEs’ performance. The study also suggests for SMEs to leverage their owners’ human capital for innovation-driven performance. Furthermore, this study contributes novel insights that add to the body of knowledge in the extant entrepreneurship field.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effects of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO), entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and entrepreneurial managerial skills (EMS) on project performance at both the individual and team levels using a holistic framework. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 308 university students involved in two different types of projects (entrepreneurship and nonentrepreneurship) in Qatar. Findings The confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling showed that both IEO and EMS positively and almost equally influenced project performance. However, ESE’s impact on project performance was significantly mediated by both IEO and EMS and, in practice, it should be considered a motivational factor for increasing the impact of IEO and EMS on project performance. Practical implications Project managers should recognize the value of the management and leadership skills examined in this study and their implications for project outcomes. Originality/value This study provides novel insights into the role these factors play in effective project management, thus allowing organizations to make effective decisions to reinforce these factors and gain a competitive advantage.

The demand for mutual funds is determined by their ability to convince investors to achieve their investment goals. Whether mutual fund managers can collect and analyze existing information in such a way as to select assets that entail returns above the market or not, that is a very significant question for both financial industry theorists and practitioners. To compare funds with active strategies and passive ones we use panel data models with the excess return over the benchmark as a dependent variable. Our sample was constructed from US funds over 14 years of observations from 2006 to 2019. We include funds which invest mostly in different US sectors with SP500 as the benchmark. It turns out that active funds don't give significant benefit. Nevertheless, the significancy of the spread between long term and short-term US government Treasury bonds yield confirms that the actively managed funds gain more on the expectation of the market's growth than the passive ones.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to measure mutual funds' manager performance by attributing it to their abilities to choose better securities (selectivity effect) and to allocate these securities better than their benchmarks (allocation effect). The study enables the authors to examine the relative contributions of the commonly known asset-pricing factors in mutual funds' performance.Design/methodology/approachTo examine managers' ability to steer funds' returns, the authors conduct a two-dimensional holdings-based analysis using factor-specific decomposition of funds' excess returns into their ability to select and allocate securities better than their benchmarks. Subsequently, the authors conduct an analysis of the covariance (ANCOVA) due to these factors in explaining funds' excess returns over time.FindingsWhile managers' ability to choose better securities than the benchmarks (the selectivity effect) appears modest, some funds (especially the winners) allocate securities in their portfolios better than their benchmarks (the allocation effect) based on their exposures to certain factors (e.g. the momentum factor for the winner funds). However, although funds consistently gain through their ability to predict the size and value factors well, they do not consistently possess the skills to predict the momentum factor.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the paper analyzes all the available diversified funds, the sample excludes several other categories, such as thematic and international funds. Further, the analysis is based on equity-oriented Indian funds. Broader studies of changes in factor exposures and the inclusion of more factors apart from those conventionally used may shed more light on the managers' ability to maneuver these factors.Practical implicationsThe results show that mutual fund managers lack persistence in their performance, even though some of them could predict specific factors well. Since the activity in active mutual funds could not lead to superior performance over time, investors could be better off by selecting cheaper passive funds for their long-term investments.Originality/valueThe paper presents a novel approach to studying funds' performance by conducting a two-dimensional holdings-based analysis to capture the relative contributions of common asset-pricing factors in the cross-section as well as over time.