Top managers' attributes, innovation, and the participation in China–Pakistan Economic Corridor: A study of energy sector small and medium‐sized enterprises

Abstract

A large number of researchers are engaged in studying the determinants and consequences of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Although optimism abounds, in particular, few empirical evidence is available for Pakistani businessmen and small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) operators on how to benefit from this tremendous opportunity. Our study examined how top managers/owners of Pakistani energy sector SMEs can innovate their businesses to reap the benefits of CPEC. We have examined the influence of demographic factors (age, education, experience, and financial literacy) of top managers/owners on different forms of innovation (product, process, marketing, and organization) and their consequent chances of success through participation in CPEC.

The role of project managers’ attributes in project sustainability management and project performance under China-Pakistan economic corridor

“…Age, educational background and experience of project managers were used as independent variables in this study. These are the most significant and used variables as demographic in recent studies (Shah et al , 2021; Ying et al , 2019). Gender was not used in this research because more than 98% of project managers are male in Pakistan and women can be rarely seen in this perspective.…”

“…Discussion and conclusion Grounded on the upper echelon theory, this research examines the impact of project managers attributes, namely, age, education and experience in project performance with a mediating role of project sustainability management. The theory has been widely tested by previous studies with regard to organizational performance (Ying et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2018;Ahmadi et al, 2018), innovation (Shah et al, 2021) and internationalization (Anwar et al, 2018). Studies have also attempted the theory on the relationship between managerial attributes and CSR (Al-Mamun and Seamer, 2021;Cho et al, 2019;Patel et al, 2017).…”

“…These projects are in progress in rural and urban areas of Pakistan. Several research studies have discussed micro-level (Kanwal et al , 2019; Saad et al , 2020; Shah et al , 2021) and macro-level (McCartney, 2020; Ul Hassan, 2020; Ali et al , 2020) determinants of CPEC. Surprisingly, studies have not paid attention to how project managers’ demographic factors impact project performance through project sustainability management.…”

“…Second, CPEC has started its operation in recent years and has received tremendous attention from Chinese and Pakistani scholars. As shown by its name, CPEC is composed of many projects in the field of energy, electricity and infrastructure (Saad et al , 2020; Shah et al , 2021). These projects are under progress in many rural and urban areas of China and Pakistan.…”

A mediated–moderated model for social media adoption and small and medium‐sized enterprise performance in emerging countries

“…The contributions of the present study are threefold. First, this study contributes to the existing literature on EO, SMA, CRMC, IC, and SMEP, since limited empirical studies have been conducted in developing countries in the SME context (Ali Qalati et al, 2021; Ndiege, 2019; Shah et al, 2021). Second, the present study contributes to the resource‐based view (RBV), which supports the significance of intangible resources and organizations' capabilities in improving performance and gaining competitive advantage.…”