Business Commons^™

Smes “Growing Smart”: The Complementarity Of Intangible And Digital Investment In Small Firms And Their Contribution To Firm Performance, Eva Erjavec, Tjaša Redek, Črt Kostevc

Economic and Business Review

Like large companies, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are turning to new digital technologies and knowledge-based capital to bolster their productivity and growth. However, data show that smaller companies lag significantly in implementing new Industry 4.0 technologies and in the intensity of their use. Lack of skills and human capital is often cited as one of the biggest barriers. This paper examines the benefits of digital technologies, intangible capital, and in particular the role of complementary investments in new technologies and intangible capital to maximize the impact on productivity growth. The analysis draws on extensive firm-level datasets combining business and …

Human Resource Management Systems And Firm Innovation: A Meta-Analytic Study, Yang Zhang, Matthew D. Griffith

Economic and Business Review

Building on the resource-based view, this paper examines the meta-analytic relationships between Human Resource Management (HRM) systems and different types of firm innovation (innovation in products or services, innovation in processes, and innovation in people and organizations) and the moderating role of sampled industries and sampled cultural clusters in these relationships. With 119 records from 57 unique papers published between 2000 and 2020, this study found that HRM systems positively contribute to innovation in products or services, innovation in processes, and innovation in people and organizations. Sampled industries and cultural clusters significantly moderate the relationships between HRM systems and innovation …

The Effect Of Primary School Entrepreneurship Education Programs On The Evolution Of Pupils’ Human Capital Assets, Janez Gorenc, Alenka Slavec Gomezel, Željka Kitić, Blaž Zupan

Economic and Business Review

The formation of entrepreneurship-related human capital in primary-school entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) is of great interest to European policymakers. European education systems have widely implemented EEPs since the Oslo Agenda for entrepreneurship education in Europe was passed in 2006. However, primary-school EEPs remain an underresearched domain of entrepreneurship education. The present article investigates the development of entrepreneurship-related human capital in EEPs for 9–14-year-olds in 22 primary schools. It uses a quasi-experimental design with repeated measures. Based on data obtained from a sample of 180 participants, the analysis finds that the whole group partly improved only one of the components of …

Knowledge Hiding In Organizations: Meta-Analysis 10 Years Later, Miha Škerlavaj, Matej Černe, Saša Batistič

Economic and Business Review

A decade since the seminal paper on knowledge hiding in organizations (Connelly et al., 2012) emerged, this research area has witnessed rapid evolution, resulting in a fragmentation of the field and conceptual proliferation. Given the increasing interest in knowledge hiding, this study complements a set of recently published (systematic) literature reviews and proposes an organizing framework (nomological network) for antecedents and consequences of knowledge hiding, and tests it using meta-analytic procedures. Based on an effect analysis drawn from 131 studies and 147 samples, comprising 47,348 participants, the relationships between knowledge hiding and different antecedent and consequence categories are examined. The …

Giving Sense To Change Leadership: Towards A Narrative-Based Process Model, Antonio Sadarić, Miha Škerlavaj

Economic and Business Review

Introduction: Recent studies on change agency and organizational change failure have significantly broadened the organizational behavior perspective on individual change experiences, however, the underlying mechanism for change leaders’ influential behavior remains a relatively underspecified area.

Objectives: Our central theoretical contribution focuses on the ways in which linking the findings from different research areas that deal with storytelling and persuasive communication can contribute to understanding the underlying mechanism of change leaders’ influential behavior.

Methods: We examine the various strands of research in management concerned with change leadership and persuasive communication, and propose a multidisciplinary perspective from developmental psychology, linguistics, political science, …

The Process Of The Intergenerational Succession Of Leadership In A Family Business, Bojan Dolar, Roberto Biloslavo

Economic and Business Review

Background and objective: In this paper, we explore first-generation leadership succession in family businesses which, despite extensive literature on the subject, remains insufficiently understood. Our goal is to acquire new knowledge and understanding regarding this phenomenon with a view to making it more effective.

Method: The basis of our research is a qualitative multiple case study that includes six medium-sized manufacturing family businesses. We conducted semi-structured interviews with incumbents, successors and family representatives, and analysed the data obtained using the content analysis method.

Results: The data analysis and interpretation led to a definition of the category “The way ahead: the …

A Literature Review Of Hrm Systems And Firm Innovation, Yang Zhang

Economic and Business Review

Background and objective: This paper integrated different theoretical perspectives and investigated how, when, and why human resource management (HRM) systems influence different types of firm innovation. Moreover, this paper presented the current dilemma and future research directions in the field of HRM systems and firm innovation.

Methods: A thorough literature review.

Results: In the HRM system perspective, there are three main types of firm innovation: innovation in products or services, innovation in processes, and innovation in people and organizations. Empirically, researchers have considered organizational capacity, capital, and climate both as moderators and mediators to explain the relationship between HRM systems …