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Global epidemic crises, such as the coronavirus (COVID-19), usually expose small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to various kinds of challenges and may put their lives at risk. This study aims to develop a theoretical model to provide insights about the association between innovation practices and the SMEs’ performance and survival while underlining the auxiliary role of external support in such a relationship. Online questionnaire has been used to collect the data from 259 randomly selected SME managers in Saudi Arabia, and the data was analyzed using the SmartPLS3 software. The structural equation modeling results showed that the innovation practices adopted by SMEs to face the repercussions of COVID-19 had a positive impact on the performance and likelihood of business survival. PLS-SEM bootstrap results indicated that external support aids strengthen the positive impact of SMEs’ innovation practices on business survival rather than its performance. The study has several significant practical implications for SME managers, governments, and policy makers that have been stated.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effect of governance – a proxy for network effects on small and medium enterprises (SME) growth through access to new markets. Specifically, investigate how export intensity (EI) and performance are affected. This study also tests related theories, given the growth in the post-liberalization setting of a developing economy. Specifically, this study tests Uppsala and born global (BG) perspectives for internationalization and resource-based view for performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors collect secondary data for each SME over a 20 year period from a growth-oriented developing economy – India. This period is after the liberalization of the Indian economy. Thus, the authors test the hypotheses in this context. The authors expect that exports would surge for SMEs given the governance structures considered. The authors consider several governance modes and two types of product classifications, namely, products and services. Findings The authors find conditional support for the two models – indicating that governance structures do not consistently support finding new markets. Further, given the governance structure, EI is not consistently a means to improved performance. This is contrary to the expectations. However, at the same time, the authors do find evidence that governance matters and affects products and services differently. Research limitations/implications While the authors conduct research in India which has a variety of cultures and state policies, the authors still believe comparative study with multi-country data from developing countries might bring further insights. Further, primary data would also help to understand governance and motivational effects (the authors did not consider the later). Implications: The authors believe the research will have implications for policy since the authors find effects of governance. Hence, specific policies that improve the performance of a governance type could be adopted. Practical implications Although SMEs are affected by many factors, the authors find significant effects for important variables. Hence, the authors believe the government could use the study to design proper policies so that new markets could be discovered through different governance forms, through strategic investment and capacity building. Social implications SMEs are a key part of the social fabric of a society/country. The work deals with how SMEs could be helped. Hence, the authors believe the work has important implications for society. Further, as the work deals with large firm-SME interfaces, the authors also inform how these different governance structures are performing and where attention is needed. Originality/value The authors find that certain governance-type and SME-type work well together. Further, networks through the governance structures help find new markets – depending on SME-type. The authors find partial support for the Uppsala model and also for the BG model, again depending on the SME-type.

In the era of economic globalization, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are recognized as an engine of sustainable economic development in both the developed and developing world. In literature, three competitive challenges—the sustainability challenge, the global challenge and the technological challenge—faced by industrial entities in the current globalized economy, are categorized. Of them, this paper undertakes a systemic review of the literature covering the theme of SMEs and technology in order to identify how technological progress in the SMEs, correlates with SMEs survival improvement in the global competition. The review identified six driving forces—social capital, link with Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) and Transnational Corporations (TNCs), innovation, sharing and networking, information technology, and adoption of productivity-enhancing technology—influencing technological upgrade in the SMEs. The review also identified two conditions for successful technological adaptation in the SME sector—availability of technologically skillful workforce in the economy, and identification of opportunities of new technologies in the competition. These conditions could be viewed in the macro environment and emphasize the need for the economies’ readiness towards SMEs’ success.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how entrepreneurial behaviors support small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) resilience, refine the concept of entrepreneurial resilience, and identify how SME resilience might be promoted. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data were collected in the UK via 11 focus groups which provided a sub-sample of 19 SME participants. Findings Because of their experience operating in uncertain environments, their direct experience of adversity, and the informal organizational settings they inhabit, entrepreneurs are often highly resilient and possess capabilities that enable SMEs to be resilient. Entrepreneurial resilience provides a basis for SME resilience that differs significantly from best practices as understood in larger firms. Research limitations/implications Exploratory qualitative research on a small sample (n=19) limits the generalizability of this work. Further research could quantitatively test the paper’s findings and/or examine the link between entrepreneurial resilience and the resilience of larger firms. Practical implications Rather than encouraging formal planning and redundancy, policy and practice designed to promote the resilience of SMEs should pay greater attention to building capacities to cope with uncertainty, generating and leveraging personal relationships, and activating the ability to experiment and think creatively in response to crises. Originality/value This paper draws on organizational psychology research to refine understanding of entrepreneurial resilience and to empirically examine and inductively theorize the multi-level relationships between entrepreneurial resilience and SME resilience.

Purpose: Industry 4.0 represents a special challenge for businesses in general and for SMEs in particular. The study at hand will examine companies' awareness, readiness and capability to meet this challenge taking into account the special role of SMEs Design/methodology/approach: The results of nine studies dealing with this range of topics are examined in the framework of a systematic review and compared with regard to the objective of the study at hand. Findings: The review showed that, as a rule, there is an awareness concerning the relevance of the topic. The readiness and the capability to meet this challenge existin parts; however, they strongly depend on the enterprise size. The smaller SMEs are, the higher the risk that they will become victims instead of beneficiaries of this revolution. Originality/value: Considering different studies concerning Industry 4.0 the article gives an insight into the dependence of the Industry 4.0 readiness in reference to the company size. This deepens the knowledge in adaption deficits German SME still have and opens different approaches for further research and action plans.

PurposeIn this study, we investigated the dilemma of devising an operational family business definition in the SME context. The existing family business literature mostly agrees with the validity of a theoretical model called F-PEC, which identifies family businesses by evaluating three dimensions: power, experience, and culture. Nonetheless, empirical studies on family SMEs still use just one or a few elements with many different thresholds to operationally define family SMEs, highlighting an unsolved definitional divergence among scholars, which limits the possibility of investigating the potential effects of family attributes on firms’ goals, structures, processes, and performance.Design/methodology/approachEmploying ancestry searching, online databases, and issue-by-issue searches from two decades (1990–2019), we analyzed 255 empirical studies that specified a family business’s operational definition (despite posing different research questions) and used a sample of small-sized and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).FindingsResults showed ownership and governance/management are the most used elements in the operational definitions provided in the literature to date, but that there still is not a universally adopted operational definition of family SMEs in use today.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the first to comprehensively analyze and review the operationalized use of family SME definitions in the literature.

This study aims to understand the performance of SME’s product innovation by relating it to the foresight concept of SME owners or managers and the moderating effect of competitive intensity. It employs a quantitative research method by using a survey. This paper studies SMEs from the West Java Province of Indonesia in three industrial sectors: food, fashion, and handicrafts. These industrial sectors were chosen because they are the most competitive, and their consumers change rapidly. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed, 190 were returned, and 187 were used for data processing. Furthermore, the data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that networking, time horizon, and analysis can affect product innovation performance (p < 0.05). Furthermore, competition intensity does not affect the relationship between analysis and product innovation performance, although there is a relationship between networking and time horizon. The results of this study provide insight for Indonesian SMEs, especially in West Java. Foresight skills trained by SMEs will make them accustomed to facing high-level competition, especially in the time horizon dimension. However, on the other hand, the high intensity of competition can reduce their networking to collaborate with various related parties.

The rapid evolution of technology and a large number of smartphone users are transforming the way the masses access financial services. Fintech companies consistently innovate in developing customized products and services for users and SMEs to increase financial access and inclusiveness to achieve the Indonesian national financial inclusion target of 90 percent by 2024. Access to digital financial products via Fintech contributes to greater financial inclusion for SMEs, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted economic activities. Using an extended TAM model, this study explores the driving factors of Fintech adoption for Indonesian SMEs during the COVID-19 outbreak. Data analysis of 415 respondents was conducted utilizing Smart-PLS 3.0 software. The findings confirm perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, government support, trust, and user innovativeness to have a direct positive effect on the intention of SMEs to adopt Fintech. The result also reveals that financial literacy indirectly correlates with Fintech adoption mediated by user innovativeness. This indicates that Fintech could contribute to bridging financial inclusion where SMEs with lower financial literacy can utilize financial products and services via Fintech. This is a positive contribution of Fintech for SMEs in developing economies. The present study suggests that policymakers could foster the expansion of Fintech business infrastructure to improve access to SME financial services.

In the era of the digital economy, digital transformation (DT) has become a new approach for firms to gain competitive advantages in a context of intense and dynamic market competition. Companies in almost all industries have undergone or are currently undergoing DT. Due to limited resources and capabilities, the digitalization process of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is relatively slow, so it is critical to ascertain the key factors and paths that affect the success of DT for SMEs to optimize the allocation of resources. However, there is very little research on the DT of SMEs. In response to this literature gap, the purpose of this study is to discover the key factors of the DT in SMEs and explore their interaction mechanisms. From a holistic perspective, this study has identified six key factors from three dimensions of technology, organization, and environment, and based on the resource-based view and resource-dependence theory, constructed an action mechanism model. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data collected from 180 SMEs in China. The results show that technological and environmental factors have a positive impact on organizational capabilities, and then promote the success of DT of SMEs. Organizational capabilities play an intermediary role in the influence of technological and environmental factors on DT. In addition, employee skills positively moderate the relationship between organizational capabilities and the success of DT. This study contributes to the conceptual framework and management implications in the DT field. Our study provides practitioners with profound insights into the enterprise’s DT and suggests that enterprises attach importance to the improvement of organizational capabilities, and use strategy and talents as important resources to promote the success of enterprise DT.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore and compare the extent of intellectual capital (IC) and its four components in high-tech and non-high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in China’s manufacturing sector, and to examine the relationship between IC and the performance of high-tech and non-high-tech SMEs.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses the data of 116 high-tech SMEs and 380 non-high-tech SMEs listed on the Shenzhen stock exchanges during 2012–2016. The modified value added intellectual coefficient (MVAIC) model is used incorporating four components, namely, capital employed, human capital, structural capital and relational capital. Finally, multiple regression analysis is utilized to test the proposed research hypotheses.FindingsThe findings of this paper reveal that there is significant difference in MVAIC between high-tech and non-high-tech SMEs. The results further indicate a positive relationship between IC and financial performance of high-tech and non-high-tech SMEs. Specifically, IC is positively associated with firms’ earnings, profitability and operating efficiency. Additionally, capital employed efficiency, human capital efficiency and structural capital efficiency are found to be the most influential value drivers for the performance of two types of SMEs while relational capital efficiency possesses less importance.Practical implicationsThis paper will provide a valuable framework for executives, managers and policy makers in managing IC within the Chinese context.Originality/valueTo the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first empirical study that has been conducted on high-tech and non-high-tech SMEs in the manufacturing sector in China.