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This study aims to identify and analyze factors determining the adoption of digital technologies in SMEs. Drawing on the technology-organization-environment framework, the study highlights enabling factors from three different contexts and hypothesizes their relationship with digital technology adoption. The data used were collected from 15 346 European Union and non-European Union SMEs to test an ordered logit regression model that highlights the factors associated with an increased level of digital technologies adoption in SMEs. The empirical results show that the technology context (IT infrastructure and digital tools) along with the existing level of innovation are the main drivers that act as stepping stones in digital technology adoption. Corporate regulation, available skills, and financial resources (as organizational variables) also play a significant role in the adoption decision. Unexpectedly, the influence of the environmental context is marginal. The implications of this study are emphasized for theory and practice, laying a foundation for further empirical studies in this field. Managerial relevance statement: This article reviews the empirical research on digital technologies adoption and examines the drivers of such adoption in SMEs. The factors identified provide guidance for practitioners adopting digital technologies in SMEs, by suggesting they assess the readiness of their firms before investing in digital technology. This research helps advance the conversation on digitalization drivers especially by bringing the discussion into the organization boundaries, as our findings highlight the predominance of organizational drivers over the technological and environmental ones. SMEs have to overcome the challenges associated with constructing an IT infrastructure capable of implementing new technologies. Indeed, while striving to adopt new digital technologies (e.g., AI, big data, IoT), many SMEs are still unprepared. Therefore, rather than adopting mimetic behaviors based on external pressure, SMEs that aim for digitalization should first assess their existing technologies, and further develop

Entrepreneurs can exhibit the entrepreneurial burnout syndrome, which retards entrepreneur and firm performance. Building upon insights from the conservation of resources theory of stress response and psychology theory, this study examined the role of entrepreneur emotional demands as well as job autonomy and satisfaction resources with regard to entrepreneurial burnout. Multivariate regression analysis relating to 273 entrepreneurs in France revealed that emotional demands were positively associated with entrepreneurial burnout, while job autonomy and satisfaction were negatively associated with entrepreneurial burnout. Job autonomy buffered the negative effect of emotional demands on entrepreneurial burnout. However, job satisfaction did not buffer the negative effect of emotional demands on entrepreneurial burnout. Implications are discussed.

Through the lens of social capital perspective, this paper assesses how individuals' interactions and their learning capabilities explain the transfer of good practices in an interorganizational network. Primary data were collected from export consortia in Tunisia through a questionnaire survey. The research underlines the impact of the strength and the range of ties between managers. It is also found that managers' absorptive capacity moderates the impact of the strength of ties. This study considers the individual's behavior at the heart of the knowledge transfer process and suggests a substitution effect between the strength of social ties and individual's absorptive capacity.

PurposeThe Brittelstand are innovative, family-owned firms that offer national and international opportunities in the United Kingdom (UK). These fast-growing businesses are customer-oriented and proud of family ownership and embeddedness of the businesses within communities. While Brittelstand firms are as likely to deploy open innovation models as non-Brittelstand firms, these firms' engagement with customers in regional and national markets and the ability to benefit from this collaboration contrasts with these firms' willingness to engage in open innovation.Design/methodology/approachUsing longitudinal data and regression analysis on 13,876 firms with 24,286 observations over 2004–2020, the authors develop and test a theoretical framework of open innovation in the Brittelstand. The authors' model explains the willingness and ability of the Brittelstand firms to engage in open innovation and benefit from it.FindingsThe authors' results show that Brittelstand firms are less willing than non-Brittelstand firms to collaborate with customers and universities, contrasting prior research on family firms, and distinguishing the innovation model of the Brittelstand from a family business model. The Brittelstand firms who are able to engage in collaboration with customers in domestic markets will outperform the firms' non-Brittelstand counterparts in innovation outputs.Research limitations/implicationsIn line with other studies, this study is associated with several limitations that open opportunities for further research that replicate and/or extends this study. First, this study is unbalanced panel data and the fact that some firms appear in the model only once from 2004–2020. The longitudinal study will allow to enforce causality of the relationship and examines the dynamics of open innovation in the Brittelstand. Second, the indicator on the extent and mechanisms of collaboration with customers could be better explained and measured, for example, using a scale indicator instead of a binary variable for knowledge collaboration across different types of partners and four geographical dimensions.Practical implicationsFirst, Brittelstand firms who are less likely to employ open innovation models nationally and with customers. However, those Brittelstand firms who decide to collaborate with customers nationally are more likely to increase the innovation sales compared to those firms that do not engage in such collaborations? This is an interesting and unexpected finding, which means that low willingness of cross-country and cross-regional collaboration for Brittelstand firms is not optimal and engagement in collaboration with customers in domestic markets is beneficial for innovation. Managers and policymakers may use this finding to design and re-design open innovation strategies managers and policymakers with customers within and across regions in the UK. Second, managers may benefit from the integrated view on the two drivers of firm innovation – collaboration with customers and the local embeddedness of such collaboration.Social implicationsThe authors' results show that Brittelstand firms outperform the firms' non-Brittelstand counterparts by adopting an open model of innovation with customers in domestic markets. This means that the most dynamic and fast growing Brittelstand firms are those who collaborate with customers for new ideas and innovation.Originality/valueThis study describes the phenomenon of the Brittelstand and investigates the link between open knowledge sourcing across different geographical proximities and partners and innovation outputs. First, the authors contribute to open innovation and resource-based view (RBV) literature in family firms by theorizing and empirically testing the open innovation model for the Brittelstand firms. The authors also debate that the Brittelstand firms should overcome this inertia of willingness to collaborate across heterogeneous external partners and convert regional/national embeddedness of the firms with customers into strengths for greater product innovation. Second, the authors contribute to family business literature by explaining how and why the Brittelstand firms can achieve greater innovation outputs. In doing so, the authors draw on the concept of familiness and local embeddedness.

This study sheds light on inclusive entrepreneurship by investigating factors that underlie the likelihood of entrepreneurial intention for people with disability. While previous works show that entrepreneurial intention results from cognitive and mental processes, little attention has been given to perceived health, as a human capital, in shaping the formation of entrepreneurship. Yet mental and physical health is a hot topic in entrepreneurship literature and academicians call for more research in this field. We focus on a specific population, people with disability (PWD) since chronic conditions associated with disabilities have implications for individuals’ psychology and cognition and, ultimately, their entrepreneurial intention. The results of a regression analysis on a sample of 212 PWD in France show that positive health perception is associated with a higher level of entrepreneurial intention by increasing alertness to opportunity. Opportunity alertness partially but significantly mediates the impact of perceived health on entrepreneurial intention. We contribute to entrepreneurship literature by offering a more socially aware analysis of entrepreneurial intention. We also help advance research on the psychocognitive factors that intervene in the entrepreneurial intention process. We add insights into this research stream by blending human capital (perceived health) and cognition (opportunity alertness) perspectives to explain entrepreneurial intention of PWD. This study ultimately aims to offer a new direction in understanding how health perception plays a key role in early stages of the entrepreneurship process.

L’objet de cette recherche est d’explorer l’influence de la citoyenneté organisationnelle, en particulier l’entraide, l’esprit d’équipe et les vertus civiques, sur la performance adaptative des salariés. Pour ce faire, une étude quantitative a été menée auprès d’un échantillon de 149 employés d’une grande entreprise. Elle révèle que la performance adaptative est influencée par l’entraide et l’esprit d’équipe dans une large mesure et par les vertus civiques dans une moindre mesure.