Business competitiveness and its impact on organizational performance in MSMEs

The objective of the research is to analyze business competitiveness and its impact on the organizational performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in the province of Santa Elena; to meet the research objective, a survey was applied to 316 companies. The results show that 58% of MSMEs do not employ sustainable competitiveness strategies; therefore, the MCEM - 2021 metamodel was designed, which aims to strengthen business sustainability through the implementation of strategic actions that contribute to two dimensions: administrative management and organizational performance.

Cultural Diversity, Negotiation, and Organizational Leadership

In globalization, the business world is becoming increasingly complex and challenging for small and medium companies in Latin American countries. There are variables that determine the success of a national and international business. In the latter case, one must have a good knowledge of the country's environment with which a commercial operation is carried out (competitors, political, economic, socio-cultural, legal, technological, etc). All these factors are undoubtedly important in the field of international treaties or agreements, as well as the precise information of the negotiating company. However, variables such as leadership and organizational culture and, in particular, cultural diversity are to a small extent considered as decisive factors of business competitiveness. The chapter describes the importance of the three variables as tools for the performance of Colombian companies in an international context and shows the results of the CW Model of the Culture Assistant, where seven key elements of cultural diversity are evaluated in organizations.

Competitiveness of the Selected Countries of the EU with a Focus on the Quality of the Business Environment

The business environment and entrepreneurship are important elements in the economic growth of each country. The better the business environment a given country offers, the more attractive the country is for small and large companies as well as for private entrepreneurs. A high level of business competitiveness can help a country secure economic growth, especially after overcoming a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Many institutions focus on the measurement of the business environment using indices to evaluate its quality. The main goal of the present study is to evaluate the quality of the business environment through multicriteria analysis. For the period from 2018 to 2020, the data were analysed by using seven selected indices of the weighted sum approach (WSA) and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods. The research sample included all EU countries that joined the EU at the same time in 2004. The processing of analytical data was gradually implemented by using descriptive statistics and multicriteria evaluation methods. The methods used in the multicriteria evaluation of variants determined the rankings of the individual variants in terms of the selected criteria using entropy. We concluded that the efficiency of the business environments in Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia are below the EU average. Within this group of countries, Estonia, Malta and Slovenia have seen the largest regeneration of their business environment since having joined the EU.

Implementing the Innovation Strategy in International SMEs

Thanks to a relationship of mutual interdependence developed between the formulation of the internationalization strategy and innovation, on a larger scale they are entitled as decisive factors in the process of lasting growth of SMEs. The aim is to study the connections between internationalization, innovation and strategy as well as the results in terms of business competitiveness, covering a relatively consistent gap in terms of knowledge and inconclusive or even diffuse interactions regarding these interactions. In terms of internationalization, innovation and strategy, failure rates are quite high and have correspondingly consistent costs for companies. These are related to implementation details. Assuming there is a poor implementation of internationalization, innovation and strategy and to the extent that firms examine in detail each dimension of their business, they will tolerate an increase in costs. Even in these conditions, contrary to their weight, many SMEs do not have structured processes and protocols for internationalization, innovation and strategy. In entrepreneurial micro-enterprises, which is the main object of research, this aspect is particularly important and real. Identifying the tools used by companies to design the processes of development and implementation of internationalization, innovation and strategy, determinants and causes is very important to identify the main factors with particular impact on business performance and how these effects act or occur.

Digital Inability and Social Sustainability in the Face of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Proposal of New Non-Financial Indicators

In the knowledge economy, financial indicators are not sufficient to predict the evolution of business competitiveness and anticipate risks. This paper proposes new non-financial indicators based on the analysis of eighteen variables representative of the interest of the different stakeholders, which correlate the organization’s commitment to socially sustainable digital transformation and the enhancement of business capabilities. This study, based on a specific adaptation of the IMPACT methodology and carried out in forty countries, obtains as main findings that there are significant differences in the perception of the business impact generated by the improvement of the digital capabilities of the workforce according to variables, such as job level, area of work, cultural area of the interviewee, type of company, or the number of years that digital training programs have been implemented among the workforce, while factors, such as gender or generation of the interviewee, company size, or productive sector, are not determinant. The proposed analysis methodology provides useful indicators for corporate governance bodies to analyze and improve human performance and labor engagement in the face of digitalization, applicable to any type of organization, sector, or country, facilitating the deployment of more economically efficient and socially sustainable transformation programs.

Legacy Systems Modernisation for Citizen-Centric Digital Government: A Conceptual Model

Information technology and communication (ICT) plays an important role as a catalyst for organisational development and innovation. However, old information systems that are known as legacy systems often expose organisations to the risk of business failure. These systems are not only impeding the advancement in technology strategy but also hindering the organisations’ business competitiveness. Nevertheless, legacy systems are essential in supporting critical functions in organisations including the public sector and could not be scrapped easily. These systems need to be given a new strength through modernisation to continue providing the best service in line with global trends. Modernisation is a complex task that involves several related aspects. In the context of the public sector, legacy systems involve a complicated information relationship, environment, and culture, while ensuring the citizens are of high priority. The implementation of a digital government represents the transformation of the public service delivery to the citizens that emphasises a citizen-centric design. This study, therefore, aims to address this concern by reviewing the factors involved and suggesting a guideline in the form of a conceptual model to assist in the modernisation of legacy systems for a citizen-centric digital government. Data from the theoretical study were analysed using content analysis. The results show that the legacy systems’ modernisation comprised four main aspects, namely human, process, product, and organisation aspects, with related factors and elements. This model contributes as a reference for the public sector and provides overall guidance in performing legacy systems modernisation.

A Bibliometric Overview of Tourism Family Business

Family businesses are of particular economic relevance in the international hospitality and tourism industry. However, there are few studies that address their specific characteristics and objectives. The aim of this study is to produce a bibliometric overview that reveals the structure underpinning the analysis of the tourism family business in the business and management research field. The study also reveals the evolution of this research over time, as well as the most relevant related concepts and study gaps. Through a keyword co-occurrence analysis and a systematic review of 129 studies on tourism family businesses published between 1997 and 2020, the main contributions were organized into four thematic clusters, which include specific theoretical approaches. The clusters are Entrepreneurship, Marketing Orientation and Innovation Performance; Capabilities and Competitiveness; Sustainability; and Strategy and Economic Performance. On the basis of these results, this study introduces an integrative framework for tourism family business research, clarifying the rich diversity of research paths that seek to explain tourism business competitiveness, and identifying potential directions for future research aimed at further developing the field.