Ghanaian SMEs’ perspective on the interrelationship between market and entrepreneurial orientations

PurposeThis research examines the interrelationships between market orientation (MO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector. Due to the conflicting results associated with each orientation's influence on firm performance, some researchers advanced that scholars should resort to concurrent observation of the constructs. To the researchers, concurrent deployment of the constructs by businesses is likely to result in an enhanced performance. However, what is lacking in their proposition is how the deployment of these resources should be, thereby leading to a knowledge gap in the literature. The aforementioned gap is what this paper seeks to address.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed deductive research approach, and data were collected from 366 SMEs' owners or owner-managers of SMEs in two metropoles in Ghana. For this study, the hand delivery and collection of questionnaire technique was deployed. The reason is that most respondents may be reluctant to respond to the questionnaires through the post or Internet. Partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed for the data analysis due to its importance in allowing the testing of relationships among constructs. Furthermore, seven-point Likert scale was used to generate responses from the respondents.FindingsThe result indicates that MO and EO have a positive and significant influence on each other. However, the influence of EO on MO is greater. Therefore, when owners of SMEs are embracing the two constructs in their businesses, EO should precede MO. The finding is a novelty of this study. Through this result, the owners of SMEs would have knowledge of embracing EO before MO during the employment of the two constructs in their firms. The study further revealed that not all the components of MO have positive and significant influence on EO, and the reverse is true. Without this study, the owners of SMEs would have placed equal attention on each construct and their components. The study also indicates that deployment of MO in its composite form rather than components is the best way for improving EO.Practical implicationsThe more SMEs engage in MO activities, the likelihood of an increase in their entrepreneurial spirit and the opposite is true. However, engaging in more EO activities would result in higher MO than the reverse.Originality/valueThe findings add to the empirical literature by revealing the interrelationships between MO and EO, which serve as a guide to owners of SMEs and practitioners in their concurrent deployment of the two constructs. The findings would also open replication doors for future researchers in different settings.

Understanding Roman London

This chapter reviews the theoretical and methodological approaches that have been applied to the archaeological study of Roman London. It explores the role and relevancy of inductive and hypothetico-deductive research methodologies, contrasting the research directions taken by academics and professional fieldworkers. The chapter then describes the evolution of current approaches to stratigraphic excavation, including the pioneering approaches to open-area urban excavation developed by the archaeologists of the Museum of London. Attention is then given to how relative and absolute chronologies are established, giving emphasis to the exceptional importance of both dendrochronology and pottery type-series. A brief review of the research environment concludes by questioning the relevance of ‘Romanization’ as a concept for the study of Roman London. It is explained how the goal of this study is to use the wealth of descriptive documentation now available to understand how and why London changed through time. This justifies the adoption of a more traditional approach to the use of archaeological results to reconstruct historical narrative.

Protection from domestic violence in the Republic of Kosovo

The paper analyzes and elaborates the protection from domestic violence, the subjects protected by law, the protection measures provided by law such as: lawsuit, court order, shelter of the victim, issuance of protection order, investigation, identification and responsibilities of the police on the basis of the law on the protection of victims of domestic violence. The paper will also analyze the measures taken to prevent domestic violence, strategies and efforts. Mutual police communications with the public through press releases, leaflets, leaflets, targeting negative phenomena in society, transparency on all taboo topics in the public interest but understood on the basis of legal restrictions. The paper also included research by various authors from both national and international perspectives on domestic violence. The paper uses inductive and deductive research methods, as well as analytical and comparative methods. This paper contributes to the existing scientific literature, especially the legal, criminological and victimological literature. Furthermore, this paper is likely to contribute to the work of NGOs that deal with providing victims of domestic violence, but also to the work of state bodies for the prevention of domestic violence, which is and remains a national challenge.

Religious Radicalization: Dimension of Culture and the Foundation of Freedom

The origins of human culture and the foundation of freedom can be traced back to the religious nature of the species. Human ability to create an entirely worldly one, separate from the great synthesis, came only after a long period of experimentation and thought. Certainly, this is seen as a positive development in the current conception of culture and its historical context. Today, it is being debated whether the detachment of human work-from science to morality to education to the state to economics to art-from religious connections and connections has been beneficial both to culture itself and to human personality progress in the direction of higher concrete achievements and human development. The author utilized deductive reasoning to create a link between religion and the aspects of culture and the foundations of freedom in this research work, which uses a qualitative technique based on a deductive research methodology.

DETERMINING THE FEATURES OF AGE FRIENDLY FOR CITY DEVELOPMENT

Malaysia is projected to become an aging nation in the year 2035. As a significant fraction of the elderly is anticipated to be residing in urban areas, therefore it is critically important for local and relevant government agencies to prepare the city environment for the increasing aging population. Age-friendly city is a concept emerged to address the urban aged population through various strategies. Although a significant number of studies were conducted on age-friendly cities, nevertheless, city features that are important to achieve the state of an age friendly city environment remain a subject for exploration. Therefore, this study primarily aims to document the development of the age-friendly features in various countries, in understanding common features that underlie its implementation. The research applies the deductive research approach that includes descriptive and content analyses. A total of 60 important features were commonly used across the report. The findings of the study provide significance as a key input for developing embedding age-friendly city development in Malaysia.

The Rapid Rise of Next-Generation Natural History

Many ecologists have lamented the demise of natural history and have attributed this decline to a misguided view that natural history is outdated and unscientific. Although there is a perception that the focus in ecology and conservation have shifted away from descriptive natural history research and training toward hypothetico-deductive research, we argue that natural history has entered a new phase that we call “next-generation natural history.” This renaissance of natural history is characterized by technological and statistical advances that aid in collecting detailed observations systematically over broad spatial and temporal extents. The technological advances that have increased exponentially in the last decade include electronic sensors such as camera-traps and acoustic recorders, aircraft- and satellite-based remote sensing, animal-borne biologgers, genetics and genomics methods, and community science programs. Advances in statistics and computation have aided in analyzing a growing quantity of observations to reveal patterns in nature. These robust next-generation natural history datasets have transformed the anecdotal perception of natural history observations into systematically collected observations that collectively constitute the foundation for hypothetico-deductive research and can be leveraged and applied to conservation and management. These advances are encouraging scientists to conduct and embrace detailed descriptions of nature that remain a critically important component of the scientific endeavor. Finally, these next-generation natural history observations are engaging scientists and non-scientists alike with new documentations of the wonders of nature. Thus, we celebrate next-generation natural history for encouraging people to experience nature directly.

Establishing a job-crafting and intrapreneurial link: Towards new approaches to innovative work

Orientation: This research study focuses on establishing a link between job crafting and landmark studies on intrapreneurship.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide a theoretical overview of intrapreneurship, intrapreneurial orientation and job crafting, and to explore theoretical linkages between these areas of enquiry.Motivation for the study: There is currently a dearth of research studies that explore the link between job crafting and intrapreneurial behaviours in existing organisations in the form of intrapreneurial orientation.Research design, approach and method: The study is presented as a conceptual paper in the form of a qualitative, theoretical study, employing a model-building approach. A deductive research approach is followed, and a narrative review methodology is employed.Main findings: The findings of this study from a literature search acknowledge the contributions of job crafting and intrapreneurial research within the management sciences, and we remain cognisant of the organisational implications of each, which have, to date, focused on the organisation, rather than the individual. With this in mind, we suggest that job crafting and intrapreneurial behaviours are empirically researched to validate the recommendations made.Practical/managerial implications: This study will help to establish the type of job-crafting interventions and job-crafting strategies needed to promote intrapreneurial behaviours in practice.Contribution/value-add: This study provides noteworthy insights, which include the suggestion that employees with a forward-looking disposition will engage in job crafting, with a focus on intrapreneurial behaviour. Furthermore, the study fills a void left in the current body of knowledge.

THE ROLE OF EMPLOYER BRAND IN HOTEL COMPANIES DURING COVID-19 CRISIS

Hospitality and tourism is one of economic braches which has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Finding the ways and identifying the measures for recovering from the crisis which has been lasting for more than a year is the key task of hotel managers and leaders. The main objective of this paper is to examine the state of affairs in the hotel industry that has been devastated by COVID-19 and analyze the possible tools for human resource management in hotels, all with the aim of mitigating the consequences of the crisis. Inductive and deductive research methods were used for the needs of this analysis. One of the possible solutions for overcoming the crisis of human resource management is employer brand. Investing in employer brand may result in creating specific benefits for employees - functional, economic and psychological benefits. During the pandemic, the benefits for employees are expanded to job security, health protection and psychological recovery of employees.

An Urgent Call for I-O Psychologists to Produce Timelier Technology Research

The rapid pace at which technology changes creates a challenge for I-O psychologists, who often conduct hypothetico-deductive research. In this article, we examine technology research in the I-O psychology community by asking three questions: “Why should I-O psychologists study new technologies?,” “How timely is I-O psychologists’ technology research?,” and “How can I-O psychologists produce timelier technology research?” Using archival data from 23 years of SIOP conferences and a historical timeline of technology innovations, we find that I-O psychologists study technology milestones an average of 6.10 years after they first enter widespread awareness and adoption. We discuss the implications of this lag and conclude by urging I-O psychologists to study technology with an eye toward action, exploration, collaboration, dissemination, and creation.