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In the Covid-19 era, entrepreneurship has been the response of public and private sectors to the health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationships among the dimensions of entrepreneurship in a coffee-growing locality in central Mexico. Based on a virtual ethnography, the demands and resources of coffee growers' associations were examined, considering their opportunities, challenges and challenges in the face of the pandemic. The results show that the 45 entrepreneurial associations revolve around relational capital in the face of challenges, opportunities and resources. It is recommended that the study be extended to the analysis of strategic alliances among the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that group the coffee growing organizations.
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PurposeThis study aims to fill the research gap on the moderating effect of leadership empowerment on the relationship between relational capital and firms' innovation performance in the entrepreneurial ecosystem by addressing the following research questions: (1) How do different types of relational capital positively or negatively affect firms' innovation performance in China? (2) Does leadership empowerment play a moderating role in the above relationship?Design/methodology/approachUsing data derived from the firms distributed in eastern, central and western China, the authors study the impact of relational capital, one of the dimensions of intellectual capital, on firms' innovation performance in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Based on firms' operation process regarding the relationships with their external stakeholders, the authors divided relational capital into three aspects: trust, reciprocity and transparency. Furthermore, leadership empowerment is taken as the moderating variable in the above theoretical relationship.FindingsThere is significant evidence that trust, reciprocity and transparency have positive impact on firms' innovation performance. Leadership empowerment positively moderates the impact of trust and reciprocity on innovation performance. However, there is no significant moderating effect of leadership empowerment on the relationship between transparency and innovation performance.Originality/valueIn the era of the knowledge economy, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is a critical foundation for firms to improve their innovation capacity and performance, and intellectual capital is one of the most imperative drivers in terms of firms' innovation performance. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated thoroughly concerning the relationships among the entrepreneurial ecosystem, intellectual capital and innovation performance. As this study explores the relationships among the above three factors, it may have profound theoretical and practical significance for firms to extent external relationship networks, improve their innovation performance and strengthen their core competencies, which is of great significance to facilitate the construction of entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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This paper examines the role of Intellectual Capital (IC) and its contribution to Business Sustainability (BS) among Large Manufacturing Firms (LMF) in Malaysia. It seeks to explain the relationship between them under turbulent market conditions. The study used the survey method to collect data from 203 large companies, and the hypotheses were tested using Partial-Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling. Based on the findings, two dimensions of IC, namely Human capital (HC) and Structural Capital (SC), had a significant effect on business sustainability, but Relational Capital (RC) did not. Also results indicate that Market Turbulence (MT) moderates the relationship between two IC dimensions, HC and RC but not that between SC and BS. The study findings can be used as guidelines by CEOs of LMFs, policy makers and researchers to comprehend positive the influence of MT and IC on BS. © 2022
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Purpose – Supply chain disruptions have plagued firms since the advent of COVID-19 lockdowns. As a re-sult, supply chains remain unstable and dynamic. To better understand supply chain management during pe-riods of disruption, this study compares the impact of relational capital on ambidextrous innovation and firm performance between Korean and U.S firms. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study includes a sample of 200 Korean firms and 227 U.S firms. PLS-SEM is the statistical tool utilized with MICOM multigroup analysis. Findings – Korean and U.S. firms were found to be different on three different pathways indicating that open innovation and investment in supplier relations improve supply chain disruption orientation, exploration inno-vation, and firm performance Research Implications – Relationship capital can significantly improve supply chain management, innova-tion, and firm performance. Exploitation innovation is better for enhancing supply chain management in the short-term amid interruptions. © 2022, International Academy of Global Business and Trade. All rights reserved.
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Purpose>The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of intellectual capital on the innovation performance of the Jordanian banking sector and identify the moderating role of big data analytics.Design/methodology/approach>For this study's purposes, 333 questionnaires were analysed. Convergent validity, discriminant validity and reliability tests were performed through structural equation modelling (SEM) in the Smart-PLS program. A bootstrapping technique was used to analyse the data.Findings>Empirical results showed that each of the components of intellectual capital and big data analytics explains 63.5% of the variance in innovation performance and that all components of intellectual capital have a statistically significant impact on innovation performance. The results also revealed that the relationship between structural capital and innovation performance is moderated through big data analytics.Research limitations/implications>This cross-sectional study provides a snapshot at a given moment in time, a methodological limitation that affects the generalisation of its results, and the results are limited to one country.Practical implications>This study promotes the idea of focusing on components of intellectual capital to enhance innovation performance in the Jordanian banking sector and knowing the effect of big data analytics in this relationship.Social implications>This study makes recommendations for financial policymakers to improve the effectiveness of intellectual capital practices and innovation performance in the context of big data analytics.Originality/value>This study has important implications for leaders in the Jordanian banking sector, in general, as the study highlights the importance of intellectual capital to enhance the innovation performance, especially in light of the big data analytics in this sector, and thus increase the innovative capabilities of this banks, which leads to an increase in the level of innovation.
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Purpose>The lockdown imposed to avoid the increase in the number of infections caused by the pandemic emergency declared in January 2020 has unavoidably compromised the normal functioning of the Universities. They have been forced to stop the operation of their traditional student-oriented activities. In this light, the present work aims to analyse how traditional Italian Universities continue to deliver services to their students during the emergency.Design/methodology/approach>Qualitative explorative research was done. The paper used a multiple case study focused on two main public universities located in Rome (Italy). The data was collected using action research with participant observation. The activities observed before and during the health emergency are those related to the second mission and their services.Findings>Until the pandemic emergency arose, in the organizations analysed, the work was done traditionally. When the lockdown started the main instruments adopted to teach and provide the related services to students were the digital tools. Therefore, these devices represent how these organizations could immediately react to face the challenge arising from the impossibility to physically meet the students while continuing to support them in their educational path. Based on the findings obtained these universities fall into the “corporate entrepreneurship” definition.Research limitations/implications>The present work has managerial and academic implications. The academic implications can be summarized in two main points: the work (1) promptly analysed the changes necessary to overcome the problematics caused by the pandemic emergency;(2) contributes to the debate concerning the transfer of knowledge using digital tools and their relevance on the intellectual capital. One of the limits of the work is that only two Italian traditional universities are analysed and that the study focuses on universities located in a same city.Practical implications>On the other hand, in referent to managerial implications, this paper highlights how the corporate entrepreneurial view could be useful to support an inspected challenge that could happened in a certain historical period. Therefore, a real implementation of the entrepreneurial concepts is preferred.Originality/value>The paper discussed an original and contemporary topic not yet investigated since it refers to the Universities' reaction to the pandemic emergency in 2020, with the focus on their ability to maintain the intellectual capital value and give more points that could be investigate in the future, as, e.g. a selection of more than three traditional universities or with a comparative case study, useful in highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the decisions taken in different contexts, considering: (1) telematic universities and traditional universities;or (2) universities located in other countries. Another future line of enquiry could be to focus the analysis on the effective quality of the MOOCs applied at the universities' activities, using the students' opinions obtainable through OPIS (Rilevazione Opinione degli Studenti) or through direct interviews.
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Disruptive changes, such as the ones caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, oblige firms to develop the ability to be resilient in this unstable environment if they want to stay competitive. In this context, the aim of this article is to unveil how intellectual capital (IC) may foster resilience in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To serve this purpose, this article presents the results of a qualitative analysis of two SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most significant evidence is that a combination of the components of IC, namely human capital, organisational capital, and relational capital, is useful for SMEs to respond to changing conditions and take advantage of emergent opportunities, which means going through the prepare-respond-transform resilience process. This article is among the first attempting to elucidate the relationship between IC and SME resilience. It reveals a tight connection between these two concepts, which still deserves further investigation. © 2022 The Operational Research Society.
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Scholars have recognized a material bond between the company's Relational Capital (RC) and its reactive resilience to crises. Therefore, the research's aim is to understand if and how RC can influence the company's reaction to the pandemic crisis. With this purpose, the work uses a qualitative approach by analyzing a single case study and applying the CAOS (an Italian acronym for Caratteristiche personali, Ambiente, Organizzazione, Start-up) model during the COVID-19. © 2021 IEEE.
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In the current context, marked by the challenges of the digital transformation, the climate emergency, the risks of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic and health crisis, resilience emerged as a concept explaining how societies, systems, and subsystems can respond to shocks and better manage the inherent risks that are constantly changing. With the digital transformation and the increasing use of the internet by organisations, relational capital has emerged as one of the components of intellectual capital with greater relevance for the resilience and agility of organisations. Through the most recent literature review, this study explores the relationship between relational capital and firms’ resilience indicators. The results provide empirical evidence for the positive relationship between the two concepts and present the basis for developing an auditing framework of organisational resilience. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Supply chain resilience has become a topic of revitalized interest amid COVID-19. Amongst other anomalies, COVID-19 continues to disrupt global supply chains;thus, it remains critical to understand resilience in supply chains as a mechanism with which to respond to pandemic-related disruptions. Supply chains remain an important determinant of firm capital consumption and, as such, this study aims to examine the relationships between ambidexterity and relational capital as they relate to the resilience of U.S firms' supply chains during the contemporary market irregularities. A sample of 227 firms located in the United States were collected to analyse these convictions. PLS-SEM was utilized to test both direct and mediation results. Results suggest relational capital may have a significant role in facilitating supply chain resilience. Relational capital also acts as a strong mediator between ambidextrous innovation and resilience. Nevertheless, ambidexterity is less influential upon supply chain resilience than anticipated. This study therefore contributes towards existing supply chain resilience literature by providing a novel approach to including relational capital;something not previously considered. This paper also contributes to a greater understanding of the notions of ambidextrous innovation and relational capital amid extreme supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the mediating effect of service quality (SQ) in the relationship between relational capital (RC) and organizational performance (OP) within the Egyptian mobile telecommunication setting.Design/methodology/approachA valid research instrument was utilized to conduct a survey of 384 top- middle- and supervisory- level managers from three Egyptian mobile telecommunications companies. The hypothesized direct relationships were tested through multiple linear regression, and the mediating effect was tested using a structural equation modeling technique.FindingsThe results revealed that the firm's “customer and supplier relations” and “marketing capability” positively affect both OP and SQ, “customer knowledge” positively affects SQ only, while “strategic alliances, licensing and agreements” do not have an association with SQ or OP. Moreover, SQ was found fully mediating the effect of RC on OP.Research limitations/implicationsThis is an empirical research applied in the Egyptian telecommunication setting. Its results need further investigation in other settings and countries. Also, traditional limitations of a cross-sectional study apply with respect to the attribution of causality and the time lag effects.Practical implicationsThe optimal procedure for the Egyptian telecommunications companies is to focus their efforts on leveraging all four components of RC in order to improve SQ and consequently enhance their OP. The telecommunications companies must do all they can to connect the unconnected. As the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis has shown, connectivity is a public good.Originality/valueThis is the first research that merges the concepts of RC, SQ and OP in an integrated model, and tests this model empirically in the Egyptian mobile telecommunications setting.
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Through a statistical survey of 760 front-line medical staff during the COVID-19 epidemic, this study attempts to explore the relationships between relational capital, psychological security, post-traumatic growth and the meaning of work. Data analysis verifies that trust, reciprocity, and identification can promote post-traumatic growth by enhancing the individual's psychological security. A high level of work meaning can enhance the role of trust, reciprocity and identification in promoting psychological security. Work meaning has a moderated mediating effect when trust and reciprocity affect post-traumatic growth through psychological security, but no moderated mediating effect is found when identification affects post-traumatic growth through psychological security.