Examining the link between social capital, knowledge quality, SMEs innovativeness and performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between some elements of social capital, knowledge quality, and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)’ innovativeness and export performance. Data were collected from owners/managers of SME exporters in Ghana. Structural Equation Modeling was used for the data analysis. The results indicate that the elements of social capital facilitate access to quality knowledge which consequently improves SMEs’ innovativeness. The study also shows that SMEs’ innovativeness affects their export performance.

DOES ISLAMIC SOCIAL CAPITAL ENHANCING SMEs SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE?

“…Social capital is a central element that arrange organizational relationships internally and externally to provide important learning resources for the development of the company (Adler & Kwon, 2002;Bhatti et al, 2021;Mamun et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019). In line with these findings, others state that the benefits of increasing sustainable performance by building social capital are the result of a series of knowledge exchanges between stakeholders, where any information that is key to innovation becomes an intangible resource in product and process development in SMEs business management (Agyapong et al, 2017;Boateng et al, 2020;Yokakul & Zawdie, 2011).…”

Knowledge management in SMEs: a follow-up literature review

“…Knowledge creation, distribution and utilisation, together with risk-taking, can also reduce negative innovative outcomes in SMEs (Games and Rendi, 2019). Zhou et al (2021, p. 21) write in this connection, that the findings “clearly support the conclusion that both external knowledge acquisition and internal knowledge-sharing practices contribute positively but indirectly to SME innovation performance by enhancing the firm’s innovation orientation.” The knowledge creation process is also related to better rganizational performance (Luhn et al , 2017), such as export performance (Boateng et al , 2020, 2021). Access to different external sources is also material for small firms “knowledge creation activities (Durst et al , 2013), while Alonso et al (2019) identified the importance of self-efficacy, shown by entrepreneurs” determination and self-motivation for knowledge acquisition.…”

“…Alonso et al (2019),Al-Tal and Emeagwali (2019),,,Azyabi (2021),Boateng et al (2020Boateng et al ( , 2021, Dabic et al (2020), Dost et al (2019), Durst et al (2013), Fan et al (2017), Feller et al (2013), Games and Rendi (2019), Grimsdottir et al (2019), Harris et al (2013), Liao and Barnes (2015), Luhn et al (2017), Maldonado-Guzman et al (2016), Martinez-Costa et al (2019), Nasution et al (2021), Ngo and Vu (2020), Senivongse et al (2019), Wahyono (2020), Zhou et al (2021) et al…”