Through the lens of entrepreneurial orientation, this study investigates operational practices that (small and medium-sized enterprises) have either adopted or improvised to support small and medium-sized enterprises’ resilience in the face of coronavirus disease 2019. Qualitative data were collected through 43 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurial resource providers, owners and managers of several small and medium-sized enterprises across different industrial sectors in Jordan. The study contributes to the further understanding of small and medium-sized enterprises’ resilience by conceptually advocating a five-pillars practitioner-grounded framework of small and medium-sized enterprises’ resilience capability (efficiency-based capability, adaptive-capability, collaborative-capability, change-capability and learning-capability). Entrepreneurial orientation has been found to transition and mobilise small and medium-sized enterprises’ resilience to survive major disruptions and threats. Entrepreneurial orientation, in this study, grounded on risk-taking, innovation and proactivity, facilitates developing new capabilities that shield the firm against different threats. Practically, the study suggests several recommendations for small and medium-sized enterprises to meet the challenges of coronavirus disease 2019 and similar future major shocks. Notably, the study suggests that small and medium-sized enterprises should balance short-term operational actions with long-term strategic thinking to build a resilience capability pool.

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PurposeThis study aims to propose a comprehensive model for assessing the quality of academic programs in higher education institutions (HEIs) by adopting the TQM philosophy.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sample of 377 responses from higher education academics, experts and professionals in Sweden, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to empirically test the proposed hypotheses and validate the model.FindingsThe model reveals that the input-based factors have a stronger impact on the process-based factors; while process-based factors have less impact on the output-based factors. The input-based factors: adoption of international pedagogy standards (IPS), education infrastructure (EDI), and work/study environment (WSE) through the process-based factors quality of students (QOS) and quality of faculty staff (QFS) is found to have a significant impact on output-based factor quality of academic programs (QAP).Research limitations/implicationsThis study has been conducted in Sweden. Inclusion of other countries provides opportunities for further analysis by conducting cross-comparison between different cultures in higher education, and including additional stakeholders such as policymakers, parents and students.Practical implicationsThis research also contributes to practice by providing an in-depth understanding of the relationships among variables that affect the quality of academic programs in HEIs, and provides insights to internally assess the quality levels of their academic programsOriginality/valueThis study contributes to the knowledge by providing a holistic view in which it integrates input, process and output perspectives in a conceptual model to assess the quality of academic programs at the higher education level.

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