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Given that business opportunities for sustainable development are increasing, it is opportune to consider the moderating effects of students’ sustainability orientations on the entrepreneurial intention model. This study aims to contribute to entrepreneurial intention research by extending insights from the theory of planned behaviour (i.e. attitudes towards behaviour, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control) by considering the moderating effects of sustainability orientation. To date, no known studies have tested the moderating effects of sustainability orientation on entrepreneurial intention. The main contributions of this study are thus twofold. First, it provides a framework for better understanding the entrepreneurial intention model. Second, it offers empirical evidence to validate this model with a multi-group structural equation modelling approach for two sustainability orientations – high and low. The multi-group structural equation modelling approach is then used to test the proposed model’s causal structure. The results differ between the groups.

Nowadays, appropriate management strategies and competitive advantage for most organisations need developing an integrative architecture based on customers’ knowledge. One of the most important parts of this architecture is the process of Electronic Customer Relationship Management (ECRM) through social media. This study, shows these four interactions, including ECRM systems, types of customer knowledge, Knowledge Creation Processes and Social Media. In other words, this research examines the effective factors on SCKM framework due to concepts of KM, Knowledge (for/from/about) customer, Customer Knowledge Management (CKM), ECRM and Social Media. This research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. First, the conceptual framework has been developed based on the grounded theory method. Then, the extracted model has been examined and confirmed by Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. So, effective factors of Social Customer Knowledge Management (SCKM) among Iranian electronic service providers have been presented. They include effective parameters for determining the level of SCKM acceptance in six main dimensions: Causal Conditions (five effective factors), Phenomenon (one effective factor), Strategies (seven effective factors), Context (three effective factors), Concequences (two effective factors) and Intervening Conditions (four effective factors). The developed model can be used as a scientific, theoretical and fundamental framework for maturity assessment of organisations with the aim of establishing SCKM systems.

The objective of this study is to explore the empirical structural links among intellectual capital (IC), innovation and firm’s financial performance, furthermore, the impact of IC and innovation on firm’s financial performance has also been measured. Value added intellectual coefficient model (VAIC) has been used for the measurement of IC. Innovation is measured through research and development (R&D), products development and products in pipeline, whereas, financial performance is measured through traditional financial measures such as return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), earnings per share (EPS), assets turnover ratio (ATO) and market-to-book ratio (MB). The study was based on secondary data, and it has been collected from the published annual reports of listed pharmaceutical firms in London Stock Exchange. The research was carried for the three year period of 2012–2014 and our sample consists of 207 firm-year observations. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique is used to address cause–effect relationships among endogenous and exogenous constructs. Empirical results of SEM analysis support that IC and its components have positive and significant impact on innovation and firms’ financial performance. Moreover, innovation also has significant impact on firms’ financial performance. The study is valuable for the manager, decision makers and policy makers to recognise the value of IC and its philosophy to obtain and sustain competitive advantage through innovation.

This study explores students’ acceptance of e-learning technology in Jordanian higher educational institutions. A paucity of studies that were conducted in individual institutions indicated that different cultural perspectives and resistance to change are overlaying the wide adoption of e-learning and influencing users’ perceptions pertaining the technology usefulness and/or ease of use. Our study utilises the technology acceptance model (TAM) and explores the influence of the main antecedents of accepting this technology from users’ perspectives, that is, perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) in order to reveal the country’s readiness to adopt this technology and move from individual innovations to institutional standards. The results obtained using a survey-based methodology from three main public and private institutions distributed in multiple geographical areas show that the actual behaviour of usage is influenced by behavioural intention (BI), which is directed by PU, PEU, and attitude. Based on these results, multiple recommendations pertaining to cultural perspectives and educational institutions readiness are proposed and implications of the study are discussed.

Tacit knowledge (TK) is an intangible asset of the organisation and forms a major part of organisational knowledge. TK is personal, context-specific knowledge, difficult to formalise, record or articulate and it is stored in the heads of people. TK is part of informal learning components. TK has received growing attention and popularity due to its uniqueness and significant contributions to organisational performance. Despite its crucial role, the effects of TK on employee learning have often been neglected due to the notion of measurement difficulty. As a result, it poses challenges to capture both knowledge and expertise of individuals. This paper presents and discusses the construct validation of TK. Construct validity is a test that measures the intended construct and is particularly important in the social sciences-related disciplines. This paper deliberates how items development for TK is measured and tested for validation. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique was employed for construct validation in terms of convergent and discriminant validities. Pre- and post-validations were also conducted to detect any validation discrepancies using exploratory factor analysis.

Ever growing need for innovation has become a big challenge for organisations. Consequently, Knowledge management (KM) is gaining importance in the business world as one of the critical enablers for innovation. This study answers the question whether KM philosophy helps organisations develop capabilities to induce innovation, especially in the context of developing economies. Based on the empirical evidence from the service sector of Pakistan, we show that knowledge acquisition, knowledge dissemination, and responsiveness to knowledge significantly influence an organisation’s capabilities to produce innovative outputs. We also bring to the fore a mutual relationship of KM components with each other, thereby highlighting that knowledge acquisition is important for knowledge dissemination which in turn determines an organisation’s responsiveness to knowledge. We used structural equation modelling (SEM) to develop a model among three endogenous KM factors and one exogenous factor, innovation. Our findings show a significant relationship of all variables, though the strength of each varies, hence confirming the hypothesis that KM, if implemented effectively, improves organisation’s ability to innovate.

E-finance applications, being the significant outcome of the rapid developments in information technologies in the finance sector, have grown to be increasingly significant and beneficial. Time-saving e-finance applications are more important for healthcare professionals as they have an intensive work schedule. In this research, the healthcare professionals working in Turkey, the factors influencing their intention to use the e-finance application is intended to be examined. Data collected from a sample of 517 people, including doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, were analysed through Structural Equation Modelling. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that the Trust variable has a major effect on healthcare workers’ intention to use e-finance. This research also finds that Personal Initiatives, Ease of Use and Usefulness have a positive and significant impact on the aforementioned dependent variable, respectively. As a result, findings that will increase the use of e-finance applications by healthcare professionals are presented in the study.

This study evaluates the relationship between knowledge management (KM) and dynamic capabilities. This goal stems from a lack of research regarding the impact of KM on strategic organisational aspects, particularly in firms from emerging economies. Theoretically, the link between KM and dynamic capabilities (DC) is based on the knowledge-based view of the firm (KBV). This posits that knowledge, when appropriately managed, is the main source of strategic renewal for organisations. As such, hypotheses about the relationship between KM and the dimensions of DC were both formulated and tested, in 93 knowledge-intensive organisations in Colombia, using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that KM has a significant impact on dynamic capability dimensions. For practitioners, this study sheds light on the relevance of the implementation of KM initiatives, in order to activate DC in organisations.

In this paper we have used structural equation modelling to examine the inter-relationships among specific intangible resources — product, operations, and marketing sources of ideas — as they relate to innovation and firm performance. Prior studies founded upon the Resource Based View (RBV) of the firm, have focused on the relationship between innovation and firm performance or resources and firm performance, but have not examined both simultaneously. Our study reveals how the sources of ideas, as valuable strategic firm resources, directly, and/or indirectly via innovation activities, contribute to firm performance. We find that marketing sources of ideas directly influences firm performance and that product and operations sources of ideas do not. Indirectly, however, all three sources of idea resources (marketing, operational, and product) contribute to firm performance via the innovation construct. Thus, ideas, and where they come from, are crucial to understanding innovation and firm performance. Innovation is a key component in the structural model because it partially mediates the marketing idea sources-performance relationship. It also provides the basis for interaction effects among operations and product resources and firm performance. Therefore, including innovation in the conceptual model improves the model specification as it increases insight into the resource-performance relationship.

Organisational-level cognitive distance between the source of knowledge and the applying firm is positively related to radical innovation, but hinders processing of distant knowledge as it is constrained by the firms absorptive capacity. We examine how determinants of absorptive capacity foster processing of distant knowledge from other industries. Using survey data from 125 firms across industrial sectors, structural equation modelling indicates that the relationship between a firms potential absorptive capacity and its cross-industry innovation outcomes and performance is fostered by collaborative learning activities and deliberate integration mechanisms. There is a direct negative effect of potential absorptive capacity on cross-industry innovation outcomes. Our results extend research on absorptive capacity to the context of cross-industry innovation. They reveal that although firms may have high levels of potential absorptive capacity, they may fail to exercise opportunities for cross-industry innovation. We provide means for managers to enhance absorptive capacity when moving beyond industry boundaries.

This journal article has been retracted from the International Journal of Innovation Management due to plagiarism.

Information technology (IT) has been acknowledged as a driver of innovation performance and scholars agree that the impact of IT is mediated by additional organisational factors. Among those mediators between IT and innovation performance, a firm’s absorptive capacity and developmental culture received considerable attention. Empirical evidence suggests that both fully mediate the impact of IT on innovation performance; however, research that jointly considers both dimensions is scarce. Thus, we follow the resource-based view to operationalise IT assets, absorptive capacity, and developmental culture in one research model and apply SEM to test it with a sample of 58 firms from the water industry in Germany. We find simultaneous full mediation effects for both mediators. The fact that both mediation effects are significant in the presence of each other indicates that absorptive capacity and developmental culture explain complementary portions of the variance in innovation performance — a finding we relate to sociomateriality theory.

Managers employed in the dual gatekeeper-shepherd roles in open innovation contexts need to combine external knowledge inflows with existing internal knowledge to drive innovative work behaviour. This study explores how such managers leverage knowledge sources at the firm boundary, to drive innovation activities, by using their individual-level capabilities of absorptive capacity and ambidexterity. To collect data for the study, 121 technology managers employed in four large automotive equipment manufacturing firms in India were surveyed using an online questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine the direct, moderation and mediation relationships hypothesised in the study. The results demonstrate the synergistic roles played by individual absorptive capacity and individual ambidexterity in enhancing the innovative behaviour of managers operating in an open innovation context. This study contributes to the theory related to the understudied individual-level analyses of open innovation and offers recommendations for managers looking to increase their innovativeness at work.

Given that few studies have focused on the relationship between social capital, open innovation and firm performance, particularly in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we decided to extend this line of research. Thus, we tried to focus on social capital as a key element of informal cultural norms and to study its impact on open innovation in these firms and consequently on their performance. Through a review of the literature, we were able to develop the existing relationships between these three concepts and design our theoretical model. In accordance with a positivist posture, we adopted a hypothetical-deductive approach and a quantitative empirical validation method. In order to test our conceptual model and to analyse the results of the study carried out with 67 Tunisian SMEs of the mechanical and metallurgical industries, we used the Structural Equations Method and the Neural Networks Method. The results of this research indicate that social capital significantly influences open innovation which in turn positively influences the performance of SMEs. Specifically, this study contributes to resource theory and social capital theory by first confirming that intangible resources and capabilities, associated with social capital and open innovation are valuable to SME performance. In addition to the theoretical implications, the results of this study also provide important guidance to practitioners regarding strategic direction, in that SMEs should deliberately use their limited administrative capabilities and intangible resources to support business performance. As SMEs play an important role in building, maintaining, and evolving innovation ecosystems and contribute significantly to a country’s economic growth, our research can offer significant policy implications for Tunisian SMEs to improve their innovation performance through OI strategies.

This study assesses the adoption of frugal innovation from customers’ and firms’ perspectives using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Three measures of frugal innovation were considered including cost reduction, core functionalities, and performance level. Then, measurement and structural models were developed with three latent, frugal innovations, firm performance, and customer acceptance. Data were collected from 40 Jordanian firms and 200 customers. In total, 300 surveys were distributed. The response rate was 75%. Results indicated that cost reduction, core functionalities, and product performance were mostly affected by used material, functional aspects, and quality of innovative products, respectively. Further, revenues and meeting requirements had the largest impacts on firm performance and customer acceptance, respectively. Finally, frugal innovation significantly impacts firm performance directly and indirectly through customer acceptance. However, the impacts of customer acceptance on firm performance were found insignificant. In conclusion, frugal innovation can enhance firms’ performance and hence firms should offer customers affordable and good enough low-cost, simple, and robust innovative products to have a successful adoption of frugal innovation.

The concept or paradigm of open innovation has gained more and more attention over the last couple of years. Firms see open innovation nowadays as an important capability to build and maintain innovativeness, even in dynamic global markets. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the question which factors determine successful innovation within the open innovation environment. In this regard, based on the dynamic capabilities view, we hypothesise that a firm’s openness, its absorptive capacity and its flexibility primarily determine innovation success in in-bound open innovation environments. To test these hypotheses, we analyse a large scale survey sample of 496 German manufacturing companies from different industries by applying structural equation modelling. As a main result, we find evidence for a positive association between the three mentioned constructs and innovation success.

Managers employed in the dual gatekeeper-shepherd roles in open innovation contexts need to combine external knowledge inflows with existing internal knowledge to drive innovative work behaviour. This study explores how such managers leverage knowledge sources at the firm boundary, to drive innovation activities, by using their individual-level capabilities of absorptive capacity and ambidexterity. To collect data for the study, 121 technology managers employed in four large automotive equipment manufacturing firms in India were surveyed using an online questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine the direct, moderation and mediation relationships hypothesised in the study. The results demonstrate the synergistic roles played by individual absorptive capacity and individual ambidexterity in enhancing the innovative behaviour of managers operating in an open innovation context. This study contributes to the theory related to the understudied individual-level analyses of open innovation and offers recommendations for managers looking to increase their innovativeness at work.

To achieve China’s goal of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”, the energy transition and development are of vital importance and urgent, and there are still many major issues that need to be studied urgently. In this context, based on the existing literature, this article combs and reviews the latest developments in the application of structural equation modeling methods in the energy industry from the dimensions of energy safety production, energy consumption behavior, energy enterprise economy, and new energy development, and believes that Has broad application prospects in the future energy transition.

In this paper auxiliary information on laboratories is combined with proficiency testing (PT) data to compute more reliable consensus values and associated uncertainties. This new methodology extensively relies on expert knowledge to assume measurement bias, to investigate the sources of measurement bias, to model relationships between sources of bias and to make hypotheses on the form of the consensus value computed as a weighted mean of the measurement results. This approach thus extends the modelling of PT data to the modelling of measurement bias. As such, the approach provides additional results aimed at diagnosing major sources of measurement bias. The full methodology is applied to a PT involving environmental laboratories measuring water pollutants.

This investigation aims to compare the usefulness and the potential contributions of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in the marketing field, particularly, when compared to traditional modelling based on Structural Equations. It uses neural network modelling and structural equation modelling (SEM) to evaluate loyalty in the bank industry in Brazil. Based on a data collection of 229 bank customers (micro, small, and medium companies) from the Northeast of Brazil, the key objective of this study is to investigate the main drivers of customer loyalty in this industry. Neural networks highlight the role of the relationship quality on customer loyalty. The technique SEM confirmed six of the seven hypotheses of the proposed model. The findings highlighted the point that micro, small, and medium companies’ loyalty to their main bank is strongly influenced by affective commitment. Comparing the results achieved from both methodologies, some similarities can be found. Relationship quality is a second order construct that includes satisfaction and affective commitment as its key components, both of which are highlighted on the structural model. The strongest impact in this model is in the relation between satisfaction and affective commitment. This result suggests that, for this marketing problem, ANN and SEM seem to be complementary statistical tools, bringing complementary conclusions.