IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/econoa/v17y2023i1p19n1013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organizational Integration, Knowledge Management, and Sustainable Entrepreneurship for SMEs in Developing Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Akinlotu Olufisayo

    (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, European University of Lefke, Lefke, Northern Cyprus TR-10 Mersin, Turkey)

  • Cavlan Gözde Inal

    (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, Administrative & Social Sciences, World Peace University-Nicosia, Sehit Kemal Ali Ömer Sk., Tower 305, Lefkoşa, Northen Cyprus, Mersin 10, Turkey)

Abstract

This study underscores the indispensable role of knowledge management (KM) in promoting sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. SMEs, being the backbone of various facets of society, including employment rates, gross domestic product growth, innovation, social cohesion, economic development, growth, and public policies, should be considered. SE is a pressing issue for low- and high-income countries and developed and developing economies. The study utilized a self-administered questionnaire to gather data from 490 SMEs operating in different commercial regions and industries, providing a large-scale empirical study that fills gaps in the existing literature. The study highlights the significance of KM processes in facilitating organizational integration (OI) activities, which positively influence the SE practices of these SMEs. The research offers practical recommendations for SMEs to foster SE through effective KM practices and OI strategies. Moreover, the study provides valuable insights for future research in this area. The findings of this study have substantial implications for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers seeking to enhance the entrepreneurial landscape in developing economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Akinlotu Olufisayo & Cavlan Gözde Inal, 2023. "Organizational Integration, Knowledge Management, and Sustainable Entrepreneurship for SMEs in Developing Economies," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 1-19.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:econoa:v:17:y:2023:i:1:p:19:n:1013
    DOI: 10.1515/econ-2022-0046
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/econ-2022-0046
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/econ-2022-0046?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jaw-Kai Wang & Melanie Ashleigh & Edgar Meyer, 2006. "Knowledge sharing and team trustworthiness: it's all about social ties!," Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 175-186, August.
    2. Jantje Halberstadt & Christoph Schank & Mark Euler & Rainer Harms, 2019. "Learning Sustainability Entrepreneurship by Doing: Providing a Lecturer-Oriented Service Learning Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-22, February.
    3. Min-Ren Yan, 2018. "Improving entrepreneurial knowledge and business innovations by simulation-based strategic decision support system," Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 173-182, April.
    4. Freeman, Chris, 1994. "The Economics of Technical Change," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 18(5), pages 463-514, October.
    5. Gmelin, Harald & Seuring, Stefan, 2014. "Achieving sustainable new product development by integrating product life-cycle management capabilities," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 166-177.
    6. Robert Huggins & Piers Thompson, 2015. "Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional growth: a network theory," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 103-128, June.
    7. Charlotte S. Diepolder & Holger Weitzel & Johannes Huwer, 2021. "Competence Frameworks of Sustainable Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-26, December.
    8. Antonio Juan Briones Peñalver & Juan Andrés Bernal Conesa & Carmen de Nieves Nieto, 2018. "Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility in Spanish Agribusiness and Its Influence on Innovation and Performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(2), pages 182-193, March.
    9. Shaker Zahra, 2015. "Corporate entrepreneurship as knowledge creation and conversion: the role of entrepreneurial hubs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 727-735, April.
    10. John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid, 2001. "Knowledge and Organization: A Social-Practice Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 198-213, April.
    11. Menuka Jayaratne & Gillian Sullivan Mort & Clare D’Souza, 2019. "Sustainability Entrepreneurship: From Consumer Concern Towards Entrepreneurial Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Mitra Madanchian & Hamed Taherdoost, 2017. "Role of Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)," Post-Print hal-03741845, HAL.
    13. Pablo Muñoz & Boyd Cohen, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research: Taking Stock and looking ahead," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 300-322, March.
    14. Mitra Madanchian & Hamed Taherdoost, 2017. "Role of Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)," Post-Print hal-02557381, HAL.
    15. Svetlana Ivanova & Artyom Latyshov, 2018. "Sustainable entrepreneurship: agrarian policy in South Korea," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 5(4), pages 748-760, June.
    16. Mirna Kordab & Jurgita Raudeliūnienė & Ieva Meidutė-Kavaliauskienė, 2020. "Mediating Role of Knowledge Management in the Relationship between Organizational Learning and Sustainable Organizational Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-20, December.
    17. Mohsen Mirzaie & Habib-Allah Javanmard & Mohammad Reza Hasankhani, 2019. "Impact of knowledge management process on human capital improvement in Islamic Consultative Assembly," Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 316-327, July.
    18. Kerstin Fink & Christian Ploder, 2009. "Knowledge Management Toolkit for SMEs," International Journal of Knowledge Management (IJKM), IGI Global, vol. 5(1), pages 46-60, January.
    19. Henri Barki & Alain Pinsonneault, 2005. "A Model of Organizational Integration, Implementation Effort, and Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 165-179, April.
    20. Lara Al-Haddad & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Imdad Ali & Rahmat Alam & Nguyen Vinh Khuong & Thai Hong Thuy Khanh, 2019. "The Role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Employment Generation and Economic Growth: A Study of Marble Industry in Emerging Economy," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(6), pages 174-187, October.
    21. Olubunmi Ipinnaiye & Declan Dineen & Helena Lenihan, 2017. "Drivers of SME performance: a holistic and multivariate approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 883-911, April.
    22. Richard Baskerville & Alina Dulipovici, 2006. "The theoretical foundations of knowledge management," Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 83-105, May.
    23. Russell L. Purvis & V. Sambamurthy & Robert W. Zmud, 2001. "The Assimilation of Knowledge Platforms in Organizations: An Empirical Investigation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 117-135, April.
    24. Nicola Bellantuono & Pierpaolo Pontrandolfo & Barbara Scozzi, 2016. "Capturing the Stakeholders’ View in Sustainability Reporting: A Novel Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-12, April.
    25. Marilyn T. Lucas, 2010. "Understanding environmental management practices: integrating views from strategic management and ecological economics," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(8), pages 543-556, December.
    26. Franco Malerba & Maureen McKelvey, 2020. "Knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurship integrating Schumpeter, evolutionary economics, and innovation systems," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 503-522, February.
    27. Swanson, Kristen K. & DeVereaux, Constance, 2017. "A theoretical framework for sustaining culture: Culturally sustainable entrepreneurship," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 78-88.
    28. Margherita Pero & Antonella Moretto & Eleonora Bottani & Barbara Bigliardi, 2017. "Environmental Collaboration for Sustainability in the Construction Industry: An Exploratory Study in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, January.
    29. Aleem Ahmad Qader & Jingwei Zhang & Sheikh Farhan Ashraf & Nausheen Syed & Khaoula Omhand & Mehrab Nazir, 2022. "Capabilities and Opportunities: Linking Knowledge Management Practices of Textile-Based SMEs on Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Organizational Performance in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-26, February.
    30. Ndeye Ndiaye & Lutfi Abdul Razak & Ruslan Nagayev & Adam Ng, 2018. "Demystifying small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) performance in emerging and developing economies," Borsa Istanbul Review, Research and Business Development Department, Borsa Istanbul, vol. 18(4), pages 269-281, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Albérico Travassos Rosário & Ricardo Jorge Raimundo & Sandra P. Cruz, 2022. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-25, May.
    2. Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & López-Cabarcos, M. Ángeles & Romero-Castro, Noelia María & Pérez-Pico, Ada María, 2020. "Innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge in the business scientific field: Mapping the research front," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 475-485.
    3. Presley K. Wesseh & Boqiang Lin & Yixuan Zhang & Preslyn Sharon Wesseh, 2024. "Sustainable entrepreneurship: When does environmental compliance improve corporate performance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3203-3221, May.
    4. Shengli Dai & Hongyan Xue & Yuan Jiang & Wei Zhang & Xin Zhang, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Team Scale Development: A Complex Systems Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    5. Renata Dana Nițu-Antonie & Emőke-Szidónia Feder & Kristina Stamenovic & Adrian Brudan, 2022. "A Moderated Serial–Parallel Mediation Model of Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention of Youth with Higher Education Studies in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-22, October.
    6. Ravi Patnayakuni & Cynthia P. Ruppel, 2010. "A socio-technical approach to improving the systems development process," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 219-234, April.
    7. Cervelló-Royo, R. & Moya-Clemente, I. & Perelló-Marín, M.R. & Ribes-Giner, G., 2020. "Sustainable development, economic and financial factors, that influence the opportunity-driven entrepreneurship. An fsQCA approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 393-402.
    8. Hellen Lillian Atieno Dawo & Thomas B. Long & Gjalt de Jong, 2023. "Sustainable entrepreneurship and legitimacy building in protected areas: Overcoming distinctive barriers through activism," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 72-95, January.
    9. Almudena Martínez-Campillo & María del Pilar Sierra-Fernández & Yolanda Fernández-Santos, 2019. "Service-Learning for Sustainability Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas: What Is Its Global Impact on Business University Students?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-21, September.
    10. Robert Huggins & Piers Thompson, 2015. "Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional growth: a network theory," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 103-128, June.
    11. Diego Corrales-Garay & Eva-María Mora-Valentín & Marta Ortiz-de-Urbina-Criado, 2020. "Entrepreneurship Through Open Data: An Opportunity for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-25, June.
    12. Yong Jin Kim & Seokwoo Song & V. Sambamurthy & Young Lyoul Lee, 2012. "Entrepreneurship, knowledge integration capability, and firm performance: An empirical study," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1047-1060, December.
    13. Bertello, Alberto & Battisti, Enrico & De Bernardi, Paola & Bresciani, Stefano, 2022. "An integrative framework of knowledge-intensive and sustainable entrepreneurship in entrepreneurial ecosystems," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 683-693.
    14. Khansa, Lara, 2015. "M&As and market value creation in the information security industry," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 113-134.
    15. Fischer, Bruno & Meissner, Dirk & Vonortas, Nicholas & Guerrero, Maribel, 2022. "Spatial features of entrepreneurial ecosystems," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 27-36.
    16. Siqueira, Erica H.S. & Fischer, Bruno Brandão & Bin, Adriana & Kickul, Jill, 2023. "Entrepreneurial ecosystems’ readiness towards knowledge-intensive sustainable entrepreneurship: Evidence from Brazil," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    17. Philip Cooke, 2002. "Biotechnology Clusters as Regional, Sectoral Innovation Systems," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 25(1), pages 8-37, January.
    18. Claude Paraponaris, 2017. "Plateformes numériques, conception ouverte et emploi," Post-Print halshs-01614430, HAL.
    19. Swen Nadkarni & Reinhard Prügl, 2021. "Digital transformation: a review, synthesis and opportunities for future research," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(2), pages 233-341, April.
    20. Chin‐jung Luan & Chengli Tien & Pei‐hua Wu, 2013. "Strategizing Environmental Policy and Compliance for Firm Economic Sustainability: Evidence from Taiwanese Electronics Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(8), pages 517-546, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:econoa:v:17:y:2023:i:1:p:19:n:1013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.