20/05/2021
1CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
17 th Annual International Bata Conference
for Ph.D. Students and Young Researchers
Conference Proceedings DOKBAT
17th Annual International Bata Conference for Ph.D. Students and Young Researchers
Tomas Bata University in Zlín Faculty of Management and Economics
Mostní 5139 – Zlín, 760 01
Czech Republic
Copyright © 2021 by authors. All rights reserved. Digital publishing – www.dokbat.utb.cz.
Published in 2021.
Edited by: Ing. Michael Fafílek ISBN: 978-80-7678-025-5 DOI: 10.7441/dokbat.2021
The publication was released within the DOKBAT conference, supported by the IGA project No. SVK/FaME/2021/001.
Many thanks to the reviewers who helped ensure the quality of the papers.
No reproduction, copies or transmissions may be made without written permission from the individual authors.
HOW TO CITE:
Surname, First Name. (2021). Title. In DOKBAT 2021 - 17th Annual International Bata Conference for Ph.D. Students and Young Researchers (Vol. 17). Zlín: Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Faculty of Management and Economics. Retrieved from http://dokbat.utb.cz/conference-proceedings/ ISBN: 978-80-7678-025-5
CONTENT
HOW GREEN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DRIVES CORPORATE
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A LITERATURE REVIEW ... 9
Zuhair Abbas, Roman Zámečník, Ghulam Kalsoom, Muhammad Shoaib, Munir Hussain, Mohsin Javed ... 9
KEY BARRIERS TO SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES INNOVATION PERFORMANCE ACROSS EUROPE ... 21
Michael Amponsah Odei, John Amoah, Petr Novak ... 21
THE MANAGEMENT OF GREEN TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE GLOBAL WEST AND THE V4 ECONOMIES ... 30
Arif Ibne Asad, Elona Çera, Drahomíra Pavelková, Jana Matošková ... 30
THE IMPACT OF FDI ON DOMESTIC INVESTMENT: A LITERATURE REVIEW ... 41
Francis Atiso, Etsub Tekola Jemberu, Lucie Kopřivová, Ali Sufyan, Abdul Quddus ... 41
IDENTIFYING FEATURES OF DIGITAL BUSINESS MODELS ... 59
Stephan Bauriedel ... 59
DIGITIZATION POTENTIAL IN THE CONTAINER SHIPPING INDUSTRY ... 67
Benjamin Bendel, Milan Fekete ... 67
THE GLOBALISATION, SPILLOVER AND SUSTAINABILITY PROFILE OF FRANCE AND THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND ... 80
Patricia Bokorová, Denisa Čiderová, Tímea Fusatá ... 80
ELECTRO MOBILITY – ONE-SIDED STRATEGY FOR ALTERNATIVE DRIVES OR IS IT BETTER TO FOCUS ON FUEL CELLS NOW? ... 95
Andreas Britsche, Milan Fekete... 95
EMPLOYMENT OF GRADUATES WITH ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE .... 105
Roman Buchtele ... 105
DIRECT IMPACTS OF INDUSTRY 4.0 TO PURCHASING 4.0 AND QUALITY 4.0 ... 117
Sebastian Bunzendahl, Oliver Schneider ... 117
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE COMPANY AND ITS IMPACT ON THE REPUTATION AND THE EMPLOYER’S BRAND ... 130
Jana Charvát Janechová, Natália Augustínová ... 130
POSSIBILITIES OF QUESTIONING AS THE BASIS OF BUILDING A VALUABLE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLACE AND THE LOCAL COMMUNITY ... 139
Tamás Darázs ... 139
BASIS OF THE DIGITAL KPI TOOLBOX FOR OSH MANAGEMENT... 149
Arman Dehghani, Eleonora Fendeková, Peter Marković ... 149
REGIONAL INTEGRATED TERRITORIAL STRATEGIES ... 163
Kristína Dzureková ... 163
SOLVENCY RATIO ESTIMATION FOR REGULATORY PURPOSES ... 176
Ivana Faybikova ... 176
THE IMPACT OF THE TRANSITION TO DISTANCE EDUCATION ... 190
ON THE FORMATION OF HUMAN CAPITAL ... 190
Irina Gushchina ... 190
CONSUMER PERSONALITY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CONSUMER EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR AND DECISION-MAKING IN THE FOOD PRODUCTS MARKET ... 196
Lenka Havettová, Tamás Darázs ... 196
INVESTIGATING FACTORS INFLUENCING YOUNG CONSUMERS' E-LOYALTY TO TOURISM SITES ... 203
Hoang Duc Sinh, Vo Viet Hung, Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung... 203
STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING IN THE RESEARCH OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ... 215
Vojtech Hruby ... 215
SENIOR UNIVERSITIES IN PORTUGAL: EXPLORATORY STUDY FOR THE APPROACH OF POSITIVE ORGANISATIONS ... 230
Luis Jacob, Sónia Galinha, Ricardo São-João ... 230
THE TRANSMISSION MECHANISM OF MONETARY POLICY IN EUROPE: EVIDENCE FROM SMALL MACRO-ECONOMIC MODEL ... 240
Lukáš Jursa ... 240
SPORTSMEN AND ENTREPRENEURS: TWO OF A KIND? ... 260
Oskar Karlík, Marian Holienka, Slavomír Abrahamovský ... 260
SLOVAK POPULATION MORTALITY MODELLING AND FORECASTING USING CAIRNS-BLAKE-DOWD MODEL ... 272
Jana Kútiková ... 272
BEHAVIOR OF E-BOOK READERS IN THE DIGITAL SPACE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ... 285
Miriama Koliščáková, Jana Paveleková ... 285
DIGITIZATION, DIGITALIZATION AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN INDUSTRY - A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ... 298
Laura Lachvajderová, Jaroslava Kádárová ... 298
TERRITORIAL ANALYSIS OF UNEMPLOYMENT WITH REGARD TO SCHOOL CLOSURES DUE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC ... 310
Patrik Mihalech ... 310
BARRIERS TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: ... 322
CAUSES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 322
Vy Nguyen ... 322
DO QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM STANDARDS AFFECT FIRM INNOVATION? RESULTS FROM AN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ... 332
Thi Anh Van Nguyen, David Tuček, Khac-Hieu Nguyen ... 332
MARKETING ETHICS IMPLICATIONS: COMPARATIVE RESEARCH OF VR EXPERIENCE PERCEPTION BY CHILDREN AND PARENTS ... 342
Hana Nováková, Peter Štarchoň ... 342
CZECH SERVICE QUALITY SYSTEM - A TOOL FOR IMPROVING QUALITY IN THE CZECH MARKET ENVIRONMENT ... 354
Jana Novotná ... 354
ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIES AMONG UNIVERSITIES IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC ... 365
Michael Amponsah Odei, Emad Attia Mohamed Omran ... 365
INTANGIBLE ASSETS AS A DRIVER OF THE POSITION AND FORWARD LINKAGES PARTICIPATION IN GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS ... 374
Marek Pekarčík, Júlia Ďurčová ... 374
FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE IN THE GERMAN MIDMARKET ... 385
Jonas Pfeffer ... 385
THE FACTORS OF FINTECH: A LITERATURE REVIEW ... 395
Tien Phat Pham, Abdul Quddus, Arif Ibne Asad, Boris Popesko, Sarfraz Hussain ... 395
METHODS OF MOTIVATING SALES MANAGERS TO ACT IN FAVOUR OF OWNERS ... 406
Gabriela Polakova ... 406
EFFECT OF CURRENT ASSETS ON COMPANY LIQUIDITY BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC - 19 ... 416
Radoslav Potoma, Janka Kopčáková ... 416
RISK CORRELATION BASED SYSTEM FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMIC SECURITY OF ENTERPRISE ... 426
Pavol Prievoznik, Stanislava Strelcova ... 426
INVESTMENT DECISIONS AND FIRM PERFORMANCE UNDER ECONOMIC POLICY UNCERTAINTY ... 442
Abdul Quddus, Drahomíra Pavelková, Sarfraz Hussain, Tien Phat Pham, Arif Ibne Asad ... 442
CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS IN SLOVAKIA – A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE PIEŠŤANY DISTRICT ... 454
León Richvalský ... 454
THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT IN FAMILY AND NON-FAMILY BUSINESSES ... 465
Boris Rumanko ... 465
CONTROLLING AS A TOOL OF MANAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN SLOVAKIAN PRACTICE ... 477
Mariana Sedliačiková, Anna Kocianová, Miroslava Vetráková and Mária Moresová ... 477
ANALYSIS OF FINTECH IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ... 493
Albulena Shala, Vlora Berisha ... 493
MANAGING RESPONSIBLY: GREEN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT LEADS TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ... 509
Muhammad Shoaib, Roman Zámečník, Zuhair Abbas, Ghulam Kalsoom ... 509
VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION MECHNISM AS AN ALTERNATIVE MECHANISM FOR PROVIDING PUBLIC GOODS: EVIDENCE FROM ONLINE CLASSROOM EXPERIMENT ... 519
Eva Sirakovová ... 519
INTERVAL PROGRESSIVITY OF THE INCOME TAX IN CZECH REPUBLIC IN 2020 AND 2021 ... 529
Jiří Slezák, Ivana Čermáková ... 529
BIG DATA PROJECTS MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES: A LITERATURE REVIEW ... 540
Bára Smolová ... 540
IDEAL PROCESS AS A GOAL FOR PROCESS IMPROVEMENT ... 551
Vladimir Sojka, Petr Lepsik ... 551
THE ROLE OF ECO-INNOVATION IN THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF POLAND ... 562
Rafał Śpiewak, Aleksandra Seroka ... 562
PHYSICIANS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – THE PERCEPTION OF YOUNG USERS ... 575
Małgorzata Szwed ... 575
MANIPULATIVE METHODS AS INVISIBLE “COMPONENTS” OF SECTARIAN AGITATION ON THE INTERNET ... 583
Hedviga Tkáčová ... 583
HOW DID COVID-19 RESHAPE THE ACCOMMODATION PREFERENCES AMONG TOURISTS ... 596
Lukáš Vaľko, Martina Jantová, Eva Smolková ... 596
9
HOW GREEN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DRIVES CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A LITERATURE REVIEW
Zuhair Abbas, Roman Zámečník, Ghulam Kalsoom, Muhammad Shoaib, Munir Hussain, Mohsin Javed
Abstract
This green human resource management (GHRM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) remained under-researched in the management field. In this way, this study attempts to bridge the research gap by conducted a literature review on green human resource management (GHRM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Methodologically, this study conducted a literature review to generate an interesting knowledge. This study considered and selected only relevant 9 peer-reviewed articles published during the period from 2014 to 2021 from Web of Science and Scopus databases on GHRM practices and CSR. This study employed Atlas.ti 9 qualitative data analysis software for the analysis of published articles. This review developed a new framework to get better understanding of GHRM and CSR phenomenon after systematically analysis of 9 studies on Atlas.ti software. This review revealed GHRM enables socially responsible behaviour of employees via top management commitment and bring employee volunteering activities at the workplace. Importantly, this review also found employee green behavior and socially responsible HRM is main drivers of business competitiveness and corporate reputation. This study suggested managers, policymaker and leaders to get better understanding by adopting GHRM practices and promote social responsibility initiatives globally and locally.
Keywords: Green Human Resource Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, Integrative Literature Review
1 INTRODUCTION
Over the years, the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and green human resource management (GHRM) has received a lot of attention from both the practitioner and scholars (Carroll, 1999; Matten & Moon, 2008; Jabbour and Santos 2008; Carroll & Shabana, 2010; Renwick et al., 2013; Yong et al., 2019). GHRM originated as a concept due to the organization’s motivation to integrate an aspect of environmental responsibility and corporate social responsibility into their decision-making and internal activities (Marcus & Fremeth, 2009; Howard-Grenville et al., 2014). Moreover, the definition of Green HRM as a phenomenon to help the organizations as to understand the association which exists within the organizational activities that influence the implementation, evolution, design and natural environment of the HRM systems (Jackson et al., 2014). CSR was defined as the legal, economic, discretionary and ethical expectations from the organizations that the society at a certain period (Carroll, 1979).
Research of the present era have demonstrated increased amount of attention to corporate social responsibility and green HRM practices (Al Kerdawy, 2019; Freitas et al., 2020). Subsequently, many scholars working in the field of human resources have made GHRM a research trend in the current era as the practices of green human resource management has the capability to contribute towards and help the organizations achieve their sustainable development goals (Pham et al., 2019). Due to this very reason, GHRM’s primary objective is to support
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organizations to become compatible and innovative with their sustainable goals (Yong and Mohd-Yusoff, 2016). In this disposition, some fundamental inputs are considered by the HRM practices regarding the adoption and integration of Corporate Social Responsibility practices in organizations. Organizations have diverted the path of HRM practices towards solving the environmental problems; however, some attention been provided to the individual procedure by which the willingness of employees to embrace the green behaviour is triggered by HRM practices (Paillé et al., 2014).
While practitioners and in academia, CSR research is mostly based on the firm level or ‘macro’
approach, there are a number of emerging researches which are based on the role of employees or individuals towards achieving the organization’s sustainable goals. Rodell and Lynch in their research discussed regarding employee’s volunteer acts and whether the organizations encourage or stigmatize such acts. Sonenshein et al., (2014) highlighted in their research discussed the struggle of individuals regarding their support for environmental issues when employers lay a doubt whether these efforts will lead to positive performance results.
Subsequently, there is very less information on the green behaviour engagement of employees towards environmental sustainability.
Moreover, the management literature considers the concept of CSR as a an imperative;
however, the translation of CSR into actual managerial practices is still challenging for organizations in both under-developed and developing countries (Wang et al., 2015; Jamali et al., 2015). A number of initiatives were raised in the European Union at the end of 20th century with an objective to integrate the extension and practices of CSR as business standards to enable the organizations contribute towards sustainable development. However, it also poses challenge for example; the Slovak companies work with several aspects, which limit the vision of European Union in the area of corporate social responsibility (Antošová and Csikósová, 2015).
Subsequently, it was studied that the CSR tool can be used as an effective management technique by organizations to benefit the whole society.
This study attempts to addresses a research gap in several ways. Recently, prior study has called for further research on GHRM and CSR to know the better understanding of responsible businesses for the betterment of employees and society (Mousa and Othman, 2020). More specifically, previous research was silent on emerging issue of environmental and social performance such as GHRM and CSR. In doing so, this study responds to abovementioned call to conduct literature review. This study provides several theoretical contributions for the academic discourse. Firstly, this study attempts to address research gap by examining GHRM and CSR literature review. Secondly, this contributes to the body of knowledge on GHRM and CSR. To date, research on GHRM and CSR are largely separated. In doing so, this review responds to contributes in the existing literature and thus paves the way forward for the scholars in the field of human resource management.
This study has four main sections. The first section is theoretical background, which discusses the background literature on GHRM and CSR. The second area is methodology, which will, discusses the methods used to achieve the results. The third area is results and discussion and the fourth area are conclusion and limitations.
2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1 Green Human Resource Management and Corporate Social Responsibility
The concept of green human resource management has been invoked by the regulations and increasing awareness about environmental sustainability, in search for effective practices related to environmental management within organisations (Ren et al., 2017). Different studies
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have explored the significance of employees with respect to CSR practices and suggested that the main stakeholders of CSR are the employees of the organisation (Wood & Jones, 1995) and they have greater responsibility of execution of the CSR initiatives as well as bearing most of the related concerns (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). More significantly, Jamali, El Dirani, &
Harwood emphasised that one of the underlying mandates of CSR policies is that the functional departments within an organization must undertake or follow the green initiatives (2015), and without active human participation, it is difficult of the organizations to image the observance of CSR activities. In light of this, several studies have surfaced the interpretation of CSR activities as responsible human resource management practices (McCabe, 2000) and suggest that CSR can aid in achieving responsible HRM. CSR has paved the way for the initiatives of GHRM in a number of organisations (Amrutha & Geetha, 2020).
More importantly, some of the previous studies have also highlighted the shortage of environmental orientation within the human resources and demonstrated that this acts as a major barrier in the effective implementation of corporate social responsibility (Yeh et al., 2014;
Odriozola et al., 2015). Moreover, Pizone et al., (2016) have explained in their study that GHRM practices are advantageous for the organizations if human resources perform voluntary behaviours at collective level in order to fulfil the CSR strategies. Nevertheless, organizations still have to face numerous challenges regarding the embedding and implementation of CSR activities within organisations’ everyday procedures. One of such challenges is to aware employees regarding the CSR (Bartlett, 2009).
Below defined are the two research questions this study aims to answer:
• What is the relationship between GHRM and CSR?
• What is the role of new framework for the body of knowledge on GHRM and CSR as well as its practical importance for the policymakers and managers?
3 METHODOLOGY
This study employed a literature review method that analyses, summarize, and draw inferences (Tranfield et al., 2003). In order to synthesize the emerging research areas at the association of GHRM and CSR, the literature review methodology seemed appropriate as this review method enables the researchers to generate novel perspectives, frameworks, and knowledge on emerging and new topics (Torraco, 2016). Nine (9) studies have been considered for review under the literature review which was published between the period of 2014 and 2021. The studies were extracted from Web of Science and SCOPUS databases. This study analyzed data through using Atlas.ti Qualitative data analysis software.
3.1 Search Strategy
Broad search terms i.e., “green human resource management (GHRM), “corporate social responsibility (CSR)” were used to retrieve research articles from 2 databases namely, Web of Science and Scopus Various keywords were used to find relevant articles from the database.
Our search considered was limited to peer-reviewed journals.
4 RESULTS
This research found 9 studies which are relevant to the GHRM and CSR aspects as mentioned below Table 1.
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Tab.1 - Summary of GHRM and CSR Studies. Source: own research
S.No Author Method Main Findings
1 Úbeda-García et al., 2021 Quantitative
The findings of this study demonstrate a constructive link between the organisation’s performance (Hotel Industry) and CSR.
2 De Souza Freitas et al.,
2020 Quantitative
The findings of this study demonstrate that CSR practices are positively influenced by the GHRM practices, which also influences customer relationship management positively.
3 Cheema & Javed, 2017 Quantitative
The findings of this study demonstrate that an important role is being played the senior management while being obliged to ensure and support employees who actively participate in meeting ecological, economic, and collective benefits from the green environment.
4 Al Kerdawy, 2019 Quantitative
The findings of this study demonstrate that CSEV and GHRM play a substantial role in the adoption of CSR activities within organizations.
5 De Souza Freitas et al.,
2020 Quantitative
The study findings demonstrate that the practices of CSR are assertively influenced due to the GHRM practices. The study also explored that the practices including performance evaluation, teamwork and recruitment & selection, are as important as the others for better CSR performance are.
6 Yusliza et al., 2019 Quantitative
The findings of this study demonstrate the progressive link between the CSR and top management
commitment along with the dimensions of GHRM.
7 Jie et al., 2020 Quantitative
The findings of this study demonstrate the positive performance and behaviour organization’s sustainability due to three-way collaborative effects of responsible governance on task performance and employee green behaviour, Green HRM, and the CSR.
8 Chaung & Huang, 2018 Quantitative
The study findings highlight that Environmental CSR pose substantial progressive influences on the green IT structural capital, green IT relational capital, and green IT human capital. Moreover, it was also studied that, green IT relational capital and green IT structural capital pose positive effects on the competitiveness of business and environmental performance.
9 Berber et al.,2014 Quantitative
The findings of this study demonstrate a positive association between the existence of the statements of CSR and the level of environmental matters of different organisations in the Serbia and CEE region.
Organisations having the written CSR statements have a higher level of environmental matters than the ones, which do not have these statements.
The below Table.2 demonstrates that GHRM and CSR searched 54 studies in the Web of Science (WoS) and 51 studies in SCOPUS database. While, GHRM independently studies were found 171 in WoS and 214 in SCOPUS respectively. On the other hand, CSR studies were found 13031 in WoS and 13975 in SCOPUS.
Tab. 2 - Results of own literature review in the field. Source: own research
Keywords SCOPUS WoS
Green HRM and Corporate social responsibility
51 54
Green HRM 214 171
Corporate Social Responsibility 13975 13031
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The below trend analysis (see Figure.1) shows that most of studies (11) conducted in developed country context (United States U.S). On the other hand, 6 studies were conducted in developing country context (Pakistan). Subsequently, 3 studies were conducted in Czech Republic. Finally, 8 studies were conducted in the Peoples Republic China.
Fig. 2 - Trend Analysis Number of Articles Published in Country-Wise on GHRM and CSR. Source: Own research
Tab. 3 - Top-Cited Scholars in field of CSR. Source: own research
Author Journal Citation
McWilliams & Siegel Academy of Management Review 2706 Sen & Bhattacharya Journal of Marketing Research 1938
John L Campbell Academy of Management Review 1750
Matten & Moon Academy of Management Review 1739
Tab. 4 - Top-Cited Scholars in field of GHRM. Source: own research
Author Journal Citation
Douglas W.S Renwick International Journal of Management Reviews 341
Pascal Paille Journal of Business Ethics 182
Chiappetta Jabbour Charbel Jose
Journal of Cleaner Production 162
Jenny Dumont Human Resource Management 114
‘The world cloud shows (see Figure.3) an interesting aspect studied in previous 9 studies. Our study found that ‘environmental’, ‘social’, ‘management’, ‘responsibility’, ‘performance’ and resource sustainable’ are mostly explored areas in the literature. Conversely, ‘sustainability’, stakeholder behavior’, and ethics are under-researched.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Country
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Fig. 3 - Word Cloud of GHRM and CSR. Source: Atlas.ti 9 Version
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Fig. 4 - Framework of GHRM and CSR. Source: Atlas.ti 9 Version
This study developed an interesting new framework from published studies to contribute significantly towards body of knowledge and practice as well. Firstly, our study revealed that green HRM (GHRM) is positively related with corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Importantly, our study found that green HRM practices promotes social responsibility initiatives at the workplace, it also pushes employees to play their role in achieving economic performance along with environmental and social performance. Also, this study demonstrated stakeholder pressure pushes top management commitment to implement CSR initiatives as employees can realize that corporate social responsibility also important as economic performance. Previous research also shows top management commitment is main driver of corporate social change activism at the workplace (den Hond & de Bakker, 2007).
Additionally, our study also found ethical corporate behaviour enables employee engagement in CSR activities. Additionally, regarding the welfare of the society, this study determined the importance of engagement for employees to welcome CSR initiatives and activism at their workplace. Subsequently, more and more organizations are getting involved in CSR, which has attracted calls from researchers to explore and determine the motivations and consequences of organizations that are engaged actively in CSR (Supanti et al., 2015).
Secondly, our study revealed that found employee green behaviour and socially responsible HRM promotes and supports business competitiveness and corporate reputation. This finding suggests to organizations that if they want to ‘‘win war for talent’’ in this competitive era, they must bring the culture of environmentally friendly and CSR activism and play their role in
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socially responsible ways to achieve corporate reputation and competitiveness by taking care of employees as well as contributes positive image for the society.
Similarly, this study demonstrates that environmental sustainability in organizations can be promoted using a novel field i.e. employee green behaviour (EGB). One of the factors, which contribute to employee green behaviour as demonstrated in the study is a workplace specific form of pro-environmental behaviour. Moreover, EGB can be defined as a measurable individual behaviour, which in the work context, detracts or contributes towards environmental sustainability goals. In the 21st century, environmental sustainability has emerged as a significant aspect of corporate existence (Starik & Marcus, 2000). Finally, our study found employee volunteering at workplace positively related with GHRM and CSR. This finding is aligned with previous research (Ana and Arminda, 2013), they found that CSR and GHRM practices can be enhances by encouraging volunteering work to employees.
5 DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
This study revealed that GHRM and CSR are important for the organizations to progress and bring stability not only focus on profit maximization but also environmental and social sustainability. Our study suggests that corporate responsibility as a pathway for corporate social responsibility activities in order to promote the wellbeing of underprivileged people, good and healthy workplace, and human rights. Similarly, operations of the organizations can be proactive and work in collaboration with multilateral and government institutions. Lastly, this study also explored that employee volunteering at workplace and socially responsible HRM has become a topic of interest of researchers in the present era, as it not only focuses on the economic aspect but also on social and environmental aspects of the business. Importantly, Gulzar et al., (2020) suggested that to achieve sustainability at workplace, organizations should consider employee wellbeing as an imperative. This nature of the literature review will help the researchers and become valuable in the scientific community (Van Kampen et al., 2012).
5.1 Theoretical Contribution
This study provides theoretical contributions in several ways for the academic discourse on GHRM and CSR. Firstly, this study applied a literature review by developing new framework.
Secondly, this study found important drivers which promotes and supports green HRM and corporate social responsibility. In this way, it is an original contribution to the body of knowledge. Thirdly, this study opens new avenues for the scholars to explore the employee green behavior, top management commitment via stakeholder pressure with engagement of CSR activitism at the workplace.
5.2 Practical Implications
The present model encourages top management and HR managers to bring the culture of sustainability and responsibility among employees as they become responsible employees to play their role in a better way. Organizations must consider the important role of employees in achievement of environmental and social performance.
5.3 Limitations and Future research agenda
This study has numerous limitations. Firstly, this study reviewed only quantitative studies.
Secondly, this study did not shed light on early access articles, proceeding papers, mix-method studies, book chapters, and review papers. Thirdly, this study only considered business and management field. For this reason, this study also opens new avenues for scholars to explore the employee green behavior and corporate social responsibility. In this vein, this study also
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suggests to examine the employee green behavior with corporate sustainability by mediation mechanism of CSR engagement. Another essential suggestion is that to explore the antecedents of green HRM to get better understanding for the academic discourse. Subsequently, Future research may conduct further research on GHRM-CSR on addressing methodological gap by employing mix-methods study.
Acknowledgement:
The authors are thankful to the Internal Grant Agency of FaME TBU No. IGA/FaME/2021/009, project title “Green Human Resource Management Practices leading Transformation towards Sustainable Performance in the Selected Sectors” and IGA/FaME/2020/010, project title: “The Measurement of Performance in Selected Sectors with The Emphasis on Human Resources Indicators” for providing financial support to carrying out this research.
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Contact information
Zuhair Abbas
Department of Business Administration at Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Mostní 5139, 76001, Zlín, Czech Republic
E-mail: abbas@utb.cz
ORCID: 0000-0003-2242-2848
20 doc. Ing. Roman Zámečník, Ph.D.
Department of Business Administration at Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Mostní 5139, 76001, Zlín, Czech Republic
E-mail: zamecnik@utb.cz ORCID: 0000-0003-4564-2317 Ghulam Kalsoom
University of Sindh Jamshoro, Pakistan
E-mail: ghulamkulsoom64@gmail.com Muhammad Shoaib
Department of Business Administration at Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Mostní 5139, 76001, Zlín, Czech Republic
E-mail: Shoaib@utb.cz
ORCID: 0000-0003-0970-2343 Dr. Munir Hussain
Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan.
Email: munir.hussain@iobm.edu.pk, munir9876us@yahoo.com Dr. Mohsin Javed
Department of Business Administration at Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Mostní 5139, 76001, Zlín, Czech Republic
E-mail: javed@utb.cz
ORCID: 0000-0002-3061-8210 doi: 10.7441/dokbat.2021.01
21
KEY BARRIERS TO SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES INNOVATION PERFORMANCE ACROSS EUROPE
Michael Amponsah Odei, John Amoah, Petr Novak
Abstract
Innovation is worldwide considered as a key instrument for Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) competitiveness. Small firms stand the risk of losing customers when their products and processes do not embrace innovation which makes them uncompetitive. The adoption of information technology has ensured a dynamic and competitive economy across Europe. Most literature reviewed indicates that few empirical studies have been conducted by researchers on barriers to SME innovation performance across Europe. This article aims to identify innovation barriers that limit the innovation performance of small and medium enterprises (SME) across Europe. This study adopts document analysis and a qualitative approach in its methodology to fill the literature gap. Scientific articles in the Scopus, WoS, and Google scholar database was used in the document analysis using keywords concerning the topic. Results from most of the documents analyzed indicated that inadequate funds, inadequate qualified and skilled personnel, low adoption of technology, and keen competition among firms are some key factors hindering SME's innovation performance. The theoretical implication will provide insight into some main barriers to SMEs' innovation performance and its influence on the European economy. The results of the study may also be helpful for SME managers who are attempting to adopt innovation across the European region. This study is limited in the sense that no sample size was used. The sample covers the whole European region which cannot be used to generalized other continents.
Keywords: Innovation, Performance, SMEs, Barriers
1 INTRODUCTION
Newly established small and medium enterprises have continuously been under the threat of major transformation from major competitors (Christensen, 2003). The main drivers of change for SME sectors have been attributed to globalization and digitalization. In recent times, SMEs have been facing competition on the market and thus there is a need for firms to embrace the necessity for innovation thus most of these firms have created new processes, procedures or they have well-established research departments (R &D) to explore new ideas and technologies.
For instance, most SMEs involved in financial services have immensely improved on their products and services rendered to the general public through digitalization which has improved customer satisfaction and perceptions since the 1990s. More products and services have been made available online and offline as a result of innovation. Nevertheless, new players that mainly offer improved products and services online such as SMEs involved in the manufacturing of shoes have adopted new smart technologies. Smart shoes for instance have distinct features such as insoles that can act as Bluetooth-connected devices that can help track activities through a smartphone application which will allow customers to track their fitness performance (Prescouter, 2018). This current trend used by shoe manufacturers will generate greater output with the same set of input. The newer design of shoes is manufactured with this smart technology to meet customer needs, this will ensure customer satisfaction and enhances business profitability which is relevant for microeconomics. This technology is adopted by
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Nike, Xiaomi, and Armour which are of course larger firms. Innovation takes full effect when a new technology is applied in the firm where it has been developed. The full benefit of innovation can be realized when it spreads across the economy and benefits firms at large.
Europe has been the birthplace of innovation and there has been a continuous boost of innovative capacity in the European region (Fassio et al., 2019). Many researchers have asserted the barriers, challenges, and obstacles for effective innovation within newly established SME firms that have been reviewed in recent literature (Bhimani et al., 2019; Chege & Wang, 2020 However, the growing literature in the field of innovation barriers mostly focuses on the disruptive innovations within the public service sector (Albury, 2005). Less is known about the barriers that focus strongly on obstacles related to the product of SME firms and R&D in manufacturing firms. This is very relevant since companies are constantly challenged by new laws aimed at stabilizing the market and competitiveness. Besides, enabled by modern technologies and new entrants to the market to offer new and improved services and products.
This compels SMEs to employ technology and offer new competitive services. Unlike other financial service sectors, most manufacturing SMEs do not have an R&D and are primarily focused on the improvement of products and services. This implies that SMEs involved in manufacturing need to inject more funds, create structures and build new R&D to enable successful innovation (Geerts et al., 2010). Consequently, successfully implementing changes will require subsystems and is connected with devasting organizational change effects (Tushman and Smith, 2002).
In this paper, I assessed some of the key barriers to the improvement of potentially disruptive and radical innovations within SMEs in the manufacturing sector. The main focus is on both internal and external barriers to innovation for us to have a clear firm dynamic. First, I assess some traditional obstacles to SME innovation based on reviewed literature. Second, I assess some external barriers through empirical studies conducted in recent literature.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Recent societal and policy debate on SMEs innovation among manufacturing firms lacks empirical studies on both internal and external barriers to innovation. Most studies focus on consumer adoption barriers (Lee et al., 2003) or the cultural influence that resulted in barriers connected with innovation (Singer et al., 2008). Most of the literature focused on the impact of innovation on the market and customer's perception or the funding of innovation and its impact on the firm’s growth. Hence, empirical assessment of both internal and external barriers experienced by SMEs firms to adopt and launch effective innovation is absent.
2.1 Types of Innovation
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has grouped innovation into four types namely: process, product, marketing, and organizational innovation.
For the sake of this research, the concentration will be on process and product innovation (OECD, 2010). The result of product innovation is the introduction of improved goods or services regarding special components and their importance. Product innovation is a result of consumer demand without also neglecting the supply factor because both factors are the main drivers of this type of innovation. Modern technology, consumer preference, and the short life cycle of the product have ensured keen competition among SMEs to innovate worldwide. The method of producing new products or services improves as a result of process innovation. The process used in creating the product can be new or improved upon the already existing product.
According to Schumpeter (1940), the theory of creative destruction suggests that firms involved in innovative activities have a competitive edge to replace non-innovative firms. Innovation is key to economic growth and ensures the development of SMEs. Theoretically, SME innovation
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is expected to boost firm economic performance. Nonetheless, empirical study results have always contradicted innovation studies. That is, several studies indicate that innovation does not spring better performance.
Many studies have looked at process innovation compared to product innovation. Hall et al.
(2009) discovered that investment in R & D and firm size were the key determinants of product and process innovation for SMEs in Italy. Hall et al. (2009), also concluded on empirical evidence on the link between innovation and productivity.
Product innovation has been discovered to be more superior to process innovation according to many authors. Many authors assert that the introduction of a new product has a strong and positive impact on the income of SME employees and creates employment opportunities whilst process innovation's main goal is to reduce the cost of production. Foster et al. (2008) suggest that firm-specific demand varies in terms of technical efficiency, which is the dominant factor in determining whether a firm will survive and have a positive influence on measured productivity. Product innovation relates to firm-specific demand whilst process innovation affects technical efficiency. Mairesse and Robin (2012) indicated that product innovation seeks to be dominating factor of labor productivity whilst process innovation is statistically insignificant and economically irrelevant. Cassiman et al. (2010) discovered that product innovation affects productivity but not process innovation.
Studying innovation seeks to explain why some SMEs innovate rapidly than others by identifying various factors that help in their innovation. However, there have been major challenges identifying the successful determinants of a firm's innovation worldwide (De Brentani et al, 2010). Although there have been several issues connected with some of the factors contributing to the high performance of firms, many studies fail to provide a more integrated framework in the field of innovation. This is as a result of higher expectations on the part of SMEs to provide good satisfaction to customers and achieve better revenue for firms due to several actors like networking with an external institution which includes academic universities, companies, the general public in the area of operation coupled with organizational policies. Such forms of collaboration provide a clearer picture of SME's innovation activities.
According to Cohen & Levinthal, (1990), a research model on innovation was proposed for the comprehensive framework during a constant review and analysis of various studies conducted on innovation. In general, the various factors can be classified as internal and external factors influencing SME's innovation performance. Among the internal factors are size & age of the enterprise, human resources & human resources practices, business networks, occupational health & safety precautions, product, process, organizational, marketing innovation, leadership and planning, family ownership, and intellectual property. Although most of the reviewed articles analyze the different aspects of an organization's internal and external factors to contribute to the performance of SMEs, other authors also consider macroeconomic factors to be critical to the general success of SMEs.
Many of these studies have developed different models to access firms' level of innovation performance with the structural equation model, multiple equations, and a decision-based model (Mohnen & Hall, (2013); Rekik & Bergeron, (2017); Voulgaris et al. (2000). Similar studies were conducted on societal & environmental responsibilities which increase business performance through ''green practices'' (Rekik & Bergeron, 2017).
All the literature reviewed factored SME's performance at the microeconomic level, but a detailed understanding could be explained by studying the firm's performance at the macroeconomic level. Studying at the macroeconomic level has more advantages since it will factor all the determinants of SME innovation into account. SMEs innovation performance can be taken in three dimensions:
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the number of SMEs involved the number of employees working for the firms and the added value for firms. Osakwe et al., (2015) analyze the influence of macroeconomic indicators on SMEs growth in the Czech Republic and their results developed a concave relationship between growth and unemployment which was a positive relationship between economic growth and development of firms whiles finance use to support the SMEs sector had no significant influence.
2.2 Innovation Barriers
Many firms have adopted diverse ways in other to facilitate innovation such as the stage-gate model proposed by Cooper and Edgett (2012). These authors grouped the innovation process into several stages which help firms to meet their innovation goals through new products and services with the help of modern technology with minimal errors. Nevertheless, SMEs such as those involved in manufacturing and service who failed to adopt modern technology such as the use of point of sale (POS) devices are considered not be innovative. Several obstacles tend to hamper the process innovation of non-innovative manufacturing and service providers (Galia and Legros, 2004). According to D’Este et al. (2012), several factors hinder innovation and tend to be different throughout the firm's innovation process.
To successfully implement and adopt innovation depends on both internal and external aspects of the firm. For instance, a company may explore and adopt new technologies through research and development which allows for new ideas that lead to product development. Both internal and external barriers to a firm's innovation performance can determine whether the firm will succeed or not. Identifying the barriers to innovation performance will help determine firms that are directly or indirectly influenced by modern technology (Piatier,1984). The most recent internal innovation barriers according to Tushman and Benner, (2015) are the firm's strategy, organizational architecture, leadership, how research is conducted, and incentives given to employees. Conversely, the most mentioned external barriers are the adoption of smart technology, keen competition on the market, and market dynamics (Alexiev et al., 2016) According to Sandberg and Aarikka-Strenroos, (2014) innovation barriers are grouped into traditional internal barriers such as lack of competent employees, restrictive mindset, and organization not willing to change its structure whilst customer resistance, ecosystem dynamics, and technological troubles are all traditional external barriers.
The identification of obstacles to SME innovation can contribute massively to the innovative culture of SME firms which encourages new ideas. On a national level, it is very relevant to identify and remove some barriers to promote innovation based on competition and to avoid the probability of failing during innovation (Chaminade et al., 2009). Conversely, from an innovation management point of view, it is very vital to identify the barriers to SMEs innovation to promote economic pay-offs innovation-related efforts. (Dougherty, 1992)
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Fig. 1 – Conceptual Framework. Source: own research
3 METHODOLOGY
To execute the objective of this study, a qualitative method was adopted by the researchers. The main aim of this paper was achieved through the adoption of document analysis. Document analysis involves the use of printed and online materials for reviewing and evaluate needed documents to conclude (Bowen, 2009). Document analysis which is the scope of the study has advantages such as no interviews with individuals and easy access to many documents.
Document analysis has been used recently by researchers and scholars like (Amoah, 2020;
Amoah & Jibril, 2020). The main source of information for this paper relied on keywords search from the Scopus, WoS, and Google scholar databases. To achieve the objective of this paper, some articles between 1990 to 2020 connected to the topic were reviewed by Google scholar, WoS, and Scopus using the relevant keywords search associated with the topic such as barriers to SMEs innovation performance in Europe, obstacles to innovation, and hindrance to innovation outcomes. Out of the numerous literature downloaded from the specified databases, thirty-five of the articles were subsequently used to execute the aim of this study. All articles downloaded from the database were published in English.
Some relevant information was accessed from secondary sources as part of the methodology regarding the topic as well as some theories. Also, most literature showed a positive usage of document analysis to provide adequate information for this paper (Battaglia, et al., 2010).
Authors are encouraged to review articles conducted by K Szabo et al., (2013).
Limitation of the paper
Most useful articles were not accessed in some institutional databases and thus were not included in this article. Also results from this paper cannot be generalized in another continent due to different economic conditions.
Theory and practical implication
Although Innovation in larger firms tend to be rapid than in smaller firms, SMEs are less bureaucratic and are more willing to take risk than larger firms. An attempt to promote innovation comes from the internal decisions of management. First, it contributes to the enrichment of understanding SMEs in Europe. Innovation contributes specific knowledge concerning the financing of SMEs in the selected EU countries. This study will pave way for a more academic and practical inquiry into SME development activities within firms. The research work intends to provide a model for theory and practice for managers of SMEs.
In terms of applied contribution to knowledge, it will help in economic growth by assisting governments and policymakers in establishing an environment that will contribute to
Low adoption of technology Inadequate funds
Traditional Barriers. E.g lack of competent
employees
Low level of competition innovation
Barriers
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entrepreneurship and regional development. The outcome of the research is going to be used as a guideline to the government which will facilitate technology transfer and helps commercialize research activities. That is, it will give direction for further research as there is more room for improvement.
4 CONCLUSION
From the articles reviewed, SMEs better engaged in technological innovation as this has been the main constraint to their innovation across all sectors. For SMEs firm innovation, governmental policies, and regulation have a positive and negative effect on firm performance.
This will either promote or discourage policies by the government and will improve SME's innovation performance. The governmental policy has been a major factor restraining SME technological innovation. However, this is not an important factor for SME's innovation performance.
The flow of information in every organization is keen to overcome competitive restraining factors. However, inadequate market information is an obstacle to the SME industry to adopt technological innovation. SMEs need to collaborate with research and development firms to adopt new technologies and gain a competitive advantage because it will give new designs and help promote innovation of products and services. However, if those firms have adequate involvement in research and development, creating new ideas and adding values to the existing product will be easier. Therefore, inadequate research and development are one of the major problems facing the SME sector as this has contributed to inadequate information for consumers.
SMEs involved in innovation can have necessary resources and capabilities and thus need huge funds to own and manage existing resources. Without funds, SMEs are unable to adapt to technological innovation as a result of the high cost of innovation which has been a major setback for the sector. Finance is the main economic booster for businesses and thus firms without finances cannot adopt new technologies to innovate. This is why the inadequate fund is a significant barrier to the SME sector.
Organizational activities cannot be achieved without the existence of competent employees.
However, SMEs have inadequate human resources to achieve its objective as required. For new technologies to be adopted, new competent and qualified resource personnel need to be employed. Therefore, inadequate skilled personnel is considered as the inhabiting factor for SME innovation performance.
Suggestion for further research
It would be interesting to examine the barriers to SME innovation from both organizational or government perspectives to find out why, how and the best solution SME managers need to adapt to ensure innovation performance.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Internal Grant Agency of FaME through TBU in Zlín: No.
IGA/FaME/2021/004: SME Innovation Performance, Firm Sustainability performance and Influence of Pandemic on Entrepreneurial wellbeing.
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