Adm. Sci., Volume 12, Issue 1 (March 2022) – 42 articles

Employee involvement and participation is part of Labor Relations and Human Resource Management. This study is to identify how and to what extent employee involvement and employee participation mechanisms are used in the Greek subsidiaries of multinational companies in the pharmaceutical industry. The issues examined in this study are the design of employee involvement and participation practices, the similarities and differences of employee participation practices in the group of companies internationally, corporate employee communication and consultation mechanisms, corporate policy towards trade unions and the EWC nature and agreements. The research method is qualitative with semi-structured interviews conducted with management executives, human resource management executives and the selected organizations participating in the study are active in the pharmaceutical industry and fall within the scope of Directive 2009/38/EC/16.5.2009 on the right of employees to information and consultation at Community-scale companies and groups of companies. The findings indicate that most of the participant companies when designing employee involvement and participation practices, consider a formal model of best practices that has been codified for all multinational companies. Regarding the global company’s policy on consultation and employee involvement most of the participant companies state that they provide a little more than the institutional framework requires. Nevertheless, management receives information about the activity and meetings of the EWC systematically at the time of EWC meetings. Increasing employee participation requires both management attention and initiatives on the part of employees. Full article

This work aims to analyze the impact of technological eco-innovation on the modernization and development of a local area. The role of eco-innovation would be to stimulate an innovative environment and spur a development of the territory and economic districts, and the diffusion of said particularities among wider geographic contexts, hence allowing a globalization model more observant of local specificities, and thus an open system able to develop economic and cultural exchange respecting local particularities. In recent years, smart city has asserted itself as a general model for the city of tomorrow, and sustainability has become a focal point in urban development policies. In this paper, we investigate how an integrated and intermodal methodology for the development of smart mobility systems—the European project “Life for Silver Coast”—is impacting the modernization and development of an Italian coastal area in Tuscany. The main focus of our paper is to understand how an integrated mobility network allows a transition toward a sustainable form of social relationship and a new economic pattern and could represent the starting point for a spatial, relational and institutional reorganization process that would lead to a change in the production and management dynamics of the local ecosystem concerning cultural, social and economic issues. Full article

Creativity is highly valued in all areas of life, and it must be supported in the academic environment for the future prosperity of all organizations. This is the primary source of creativity for practice. The research presented is based on answering the following questions: Are an organization’s members willing to increase their motivation if the organization’s motivational efforts improve? What elements in decision-making are used to support the creativity and motivation of the organization’s members? The paper proposes a novel taxonomy of decision-making factors influencing organizations’ sustainable creativity based on linking the findings from the authors’ surveys. Its application will lead to an improvement in the organizations’ processes, especially in the process of education and knowledge generation. The sociological inquiry was used as the main data collection method. Other methods applied included content analysis, practical cases analysis, and comparison. Methods of mathematical-statistical analysis and deductive-inductive approach were used in the evaluation. This resulted in the confirmation of the impact of creative decision-making approaches by employees and managers on sustainable motivation and creativity in the organization. The taxonomy of decision-making factors for the support of sustainable creativity reflects the results of this original research combined with the findings summarized in the discussion. Full article

This paper aims to develop a proposal for implementing the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in a large Portuguese company that operates in the textile sector, intending to promote its subsequent implementation. Through a qualitative research approach, a case study was carried out, using interviews, which allowed clarification of the strategic guidelines of the company under study. It was found that the organization under analysis has defined the main pillars for building the BSC: the mission, values and vision. It was also found that this is an organization with an open culture, concerned with developing efforts to create and implement tools that allow clear and fluid communication of strategic objectives in all sectors that incorporate it. It was also possible to assess that the BSC is a tool known to all employees. Everyone recognized that it would be a useful tool for improving organizational performance to meet strategic objectives. However, some factors were also found that can hinder its implementation, such as the availability of time, the organizational culture and everyone’s commitment to the execution of this strategic management tool. Full article

This paper addresses the issue of complexity in the administrative processes in public institutions; in particular, accounting routines and processes are examined. Back-office activities, although having a merely supporting role in the delivery of public services, are often quite complex and use a significant amount of public institutions’ resources. However, the literature reveals a scarce use of accounting data by politicians and citizens. While the relation between complexity and costs has been the subject of major research in the business world, this issue is still unexplored with regard to the administrative processes of public institutions. This paper is based on an in-depth analysis of two cases in the higher education sector. Full article

In this paper, we examine university discretionary interpretation of the 2020 social upheaval that emanated from George Floyd’s murder as an element of university social responsibility (USR) policymaking. The paper addresses two research questions: (a) What are university presidents’ implicit and explicit social justice responses to George Floyd’s death and the idealistic protests of 2020? (b) To what degree are principles of social justice embedded in universities’ intellectual roots and social responsibility? Using a sample of university presidents’ public statements in response to George Floyd’s death and the idealistic protests of 2020, we analyze the response and responsibilities of universities in the struggle for a just society. We cross-check mission statements and strategic plans to corroborate universities’ public statements with their institutional philosophies, mission, and action plans relating to discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities and systemic racism. We use critical discourse analysis and the Voyant Tool to perform a textual analysis of 62 university presidents’ letters and mission statements. They all denounced the dehumanization and inequitable treatment of Black people. An important implication of our work is the sharp difference in the depth and forthrightness of responses by university presidents across university types. Some presidential letters are forthright in their denouncement of the murder of George Floyd and systemic racism, while others were, at best, vague in their approach. Presidential letters disclose their institutions’ priorities, organizational identities, and social responsibility convictions. Overall, mission statements and strategic plans included addressing systemic racism and inequality. While there is no ordered symmetry between presidential narratives and institutional action, we anticipate social responsibility as a core institutional value. We argue for social justice anti-racist platforms as critical dimensions of USR. We call for university milieus that promote a fair and just society among all stakeholders. Full article

The State of Vietnam continues to show the cumbersome, limited effectiveness of the public sector and the widespread corruption of public servants. Yet, it has been endeavoring to renovate national governance in the direction of good governance to improve the quality of public services to meet the requirements of an increasingly high level of education and social life democratization. Since 2018, the Vietnamese government has been applying the Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS) to measure people’s satisfaction with administrative services. This fact has received full attention from scientists, and there have been many studies on this issue. Therefore, this study has explored the impact of good governance on people’s satisfaction with administrative services by employing some variables of the SIPAS scale, including five dependent variables, namely: accessibility; administrative procedures; civil servants’ ethics and capacity; the results of the procedure settlement; the reception and handling of comments, feedback, and recommendations; and an independent variable, namely the people’s satisfaction, to add more evidence to previous studies and enrich the research literature. This study has been conducted through a cross-sectional survey using an intentional sampling technique (n = 500). The multivariate linear regression analysis technique was applied to prove the hypotheses. According to the research findings, all independent variables have a positive and significant relationship with the dependent variable. They imply that good governance initially has positive and significant effects on the Vietnamese people’s satisfaction level. Full article

Higher education institutions and universities have recently started to publish their sustainability and corporate responsibility reports. Yet, due to digitalisation and the benefits of digital reporting, websites offer organisations novel opportunities to communicate more updated, timely and interactive information than a periodic sustainability report. However, we know little about sustainability reporting practice within universities and their use of online communication. This study examines the relationship between sustainability reporting practices and web-based communication practices in Italian universities. We employed a qualitative enquire and content analysis of the sustainability web pages of Italian public universities by analysing their content and updates and their relationship with their adoption of sustainability reporting. Our results suggest there are risks to web-based media being used to replace sustainability reporting, resulting in a deinstitutionalising effect for sustainability reporting. This study contributes to the literature on sustainability reporting and disclosure in universities by exploring web-based university communication on sustainability issues and stimulating the debate on replacing sustainability reports with more timely and interactive forms of communication. Full article

This practitioner paper is based on the need to make sense of UN Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the city level and in an urban context. We examine the need to explain how to utilise the SDGs in strategic, tactical and operative urban development. We find that there are knowledge and practise gaps in how to localise SDGs in the urban context. This need and the lack of existing tools has led to the development of a strategic sensemaking process, which has been tested and developed with municipal and other practitioners, locally and globally. The paper presents findings from this process of development and from implementation pilots, including an SDG Sensemaking Tool (SST), a step by step iterative procedure to address these gaps. The main focus of this paper is the SDG Sensemaking process, which relies on analysing SDGs in relation to any given phenomena or project within or outside a city. The first results in this work-in-progress show that it contributes to an understanding on the complexity of how SDGs are related to the analysed phenomena, and catalyses the SDG localisation process, which helps make sense of how to navigate and measure progress in such complex environments. More research and applications are, however, needed, so as to further understand how urban governance can meet holistic, sustainable-development needs. Future work will, firstly, comprise further integrating SDGs into city-level strategies with a focus on the local, regional, national, and global impact on sustainable development and the actualisation of SDGs, and secondly, on further developing SST so that it can serve these purposes. Full article

Mainstreaming gender analysis into all aspects of policy making, including infrastructure and economic policy, is a key aspect to achieving gender equality. The main objective of this paper is to examine the impact of several public infrastructures on well-being by gender, applying the Capability and Subjective Well-being approaches. An index of access to infrastructure is constructed and its effect on well-being is estimated using a new survey dataset from Spain. The results from the logistic regression model show that access to infrastructure positively affects subjective well-being, particularly of female respondents. All dimensions of infrastructure matter more for women’s well-being than men’s. Important differences in the impact on well-being by the types of infrastructures analyzed and the impact differs significantly by age are obtained. The findings suggest that designing public infrastructure policies can contribute to reducing gender well-being gap. Full article

This study aims to identify the different research paths that help us understand the emerging aspects explaining how team diversity influences team performance. We also present future lines of investigation that could help us to understand this theme. The study is a systematic literature review (SLR) of articles collected from the Web of Science (WoS) database, within management or business categories, published between 1996 and 2020, considering knowledge diversity, team heterogeneity, team wisdom, cross-functional project teams, and team composition. This study enables the systematization of the existing literature. The framework presented is based on the reviewed articles and explains the articulation of the concepts of team diversity and team performance based on three literature clusters, namely: (1) Team Knowledge Diversity, (2) Diversity Effects and (3) Desirable Outcomes of Diversity. Therefore, this work enriches the systematization of the academic literature on this topic, providing an original framework and a future research agenda organized by literature cluster. Full article

This paper highlights the moderating effect of retailer CSR perception and CSR contribution type on the relationship between advertised reference price (ARP) and consumer evaluations. A two-by-three between-subjects factorial design is employed with the manipulation of ARP and CSR contribution type for hypothesis testing. Experimental results show that internal reference price, value of the deal, attitude towards the deal and purchase intention are higher for the exaggerated ARP than for the plausible ARP in the high CSR perception condition. Similar effects also occur when the retailer CSR contribution type is present in the reference price advertisement. Specifically, in-kind contribution exerts larger effects than money. This study contributes to a better understanding and crafting of integrative ARP and CSR strategies to influence consumers’ price perceptions, evaluations and intentions. Full article

Transparency within universities and public research institutes is an element of significant relevance in the Italian context. Over the years, the need for greater transparency has prompted the legislator to regulate transparency obligations in order to ensure a minimum level of information disclosure. Despite the normative obligation, Italian universities and public research institutes provide different levels of information. This circumstance requires an empirical analysis aimed at understanding the different levels of transparency of Italian universities and public research institutes, and the factors that can influence the amount of information disclosed. The results show a positive impact of the size and the internationalization on the level of the transparency of these institutions. Full article

The change management process in government institutions includes many challenges that require identifying the factors that may facilitate such a process. This study aims to examine the mediating impact of knowledge sharing (KS) on the relationship between employees’ innovative work behavior (EIWB) and change management phases in governmental institutions, based on Lewin’s model. The data were collected from 300 employees working in governmental institutions in Saudi Arabia using a structured survey questionnaire method. Structural equation modeling (SEM-PLS) with bootstrap procedures was used to test the research hypotheses. The results of the study demonstrated that KS has a significant mediating impact on the relationship between EIWB and the stages of change management (unfreezing, change process, and refreezing). Additionally, KS had greater mediating effects on the unfreezing and refreezing phases than on the change process phase. These results indicate the importance of promoting EIWB and encouraging a knowledge sharing culture for the successful implementation of change programs in governmental institutions. Full article

This research was designed to test and extend the model of emotional dissonance. Previous models of emotional dissonance, such as the Job Demand-Resource (JD-R) and the Stress-Strain-Outcome (SSO) models, are limited in that they do not account for the influences of work and work–family-related conflicts. The present paper focused on emotional labor carried out by married women working in call centers. We developed the model of emotional dissonance influencing intrinsic motivation and job stress, with the moderating effects of work overload and work–family conflict. The data of 468 employees analyzed using least square regression showed that that emotional dissonance is positively related to job stress, but is negatively related to intrinsic motivation. Both work overload and work–family conflict were found to be significant moderators that aggravate the positive relationships between emotional dissonance and job stress, and the negative relationships between emotional dissonance and intrinsic motivation. Theoretical and practical implications on emotional labor and emotional dissonance are discussed. Full article

Public administration and public governance play a crucial role in society today by ensuring that social needs are met. Due to the constantly changing environment, public governance models have transformed many times, creating differences in public governance practices among public administration institutions, with combinations of contradictory structures and principles that coexist. Accordingly, this paper aims to provide an overview of different public governance models, extract quantifiable elements based on models’ principles and examine the extent of layering of different governance models at different levels of public administration in the specific case of the Slovenian administration. Thus, the main focus is on identifying the differences in characteristics of public governance practices between state administration and local self-government. The results show state administration institutions are more strongly characterised by the Neo-Weberian model’s principles. In contrast, local self-government institutions are more oriented to managerial public governance and Digital-Era Governance practices. Public managers may regard the results as additional resources for democratic and efficient governing. At the same time, they may provide policymakers with in-depth insights to consider while determining the trajectories of future public administration reforms. Full article

While there have been some attempts at investigating and theorizing social entrepreneurial action at the base of the economic pyramid, our understanding of the processes contributing to the formation of social entrepreneurial intention in contexts of extreme poverty remain limited. In this study, we aim to address this gap by providing a better understanding of the formation of social entrepreneurial intentions of youths at the base of the economic pyramid. Drawing on a qualitative grounded approach, we highlight the role of self-confidence, perceived self-efficacy and social ascension beliefs as important drivers in understanding the formation of social entrepreneurial intention of youths at the base of the pyramid. At a practical level, our study suggests that besides developing entrepreneurship-specific knowledge, support mechanisms should also pay attention to the development of different self-related beliefs of youths to enable the formation of social entrepreneurial intention at the base of the pyramid. Full article

The aim of this paper is to understand how sustainable entrepreneurship competence impacts entrepreneurial intentions in two educational contexts: in higher education and in secondary education. We applied the sustainable entrepreneurship framework, which includes six competencies of sustainable entrepreneurship, and the Theory of Planned Behavior. The data were gathered from seven European countries and consist of 486 responses from higher education students and 642 responses from secondary-level students. The results show that sustainable entrepreneurship competence (SEC) is a significant factor that can explain entrepreneurial intentions. It has a significant direct effect on entrepreneurial intentions in both educational contexts. Perceived behavioral control (PBC) moderates the relationship between SEC and entrepreneurial intentions; the effect of SEC decreases when PBC increases. The moderating effect was found only with higher education students, not with secondary-level students. This study demonstrates a connection between sustainable entrepreneurship competence and entrepreneurial intentions and contributes to a better understanding of the role of sustainable entrepreneurship competence in shaping students’ aspirations for an entrepreneurial career in different educational contexts. Full article

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a relevant topic for researchers and practitioners, widely explored with reference to companies. However, there are still few studies that address how higher education institutions integrate CSR practices into their strategy. This represents an important limitation since the university, through academic training and research activity, is the main promoter of CSR practices among different categories of stakeholders. Given the many benefits associated with the adoption of CSR, this study aims to explore the topic of CSR in universities, as they are institutions that act in the public interest and represent the ideal context for spreading the culture of preserving environmental and social, as well as economic, sustainability. The main purpose of this study is to explore, through the methodology of case studies, the type and effectiveness of the tools used by universities, specifically the University of Bari, to disseminate and integrate CSR into corporate strategy. Furthermore, this study aims to investigate how the university ensures the involvement of stakeholders, represented in particular by professors, administrators and students (stakeholder approach), in CSR initiatives. The analysis revealed the centrality of the investigated university in promoting CSR issues and sustainable territorial development. Finally, the study provides empirical evidence of the actions and methods of integrating CSR practices into corporate strategy and the ways in which stakeholders are involved. Full article

Universities are expected to have a leading role in the advancement, promotion, and achievement of the 2030 UN Agenda, embedding the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across their four dimensions (teaching, research, campus operations and governance, and community outreach) and in their reporting cycles from a whole-institution perspective. In this landscape, academics and practitioners have started to assess universities’ commitment toward the global goals. Nonetheless, research on university SDG disclosure is still in its infancy, being limited to descriptive studies, single case studies, or national contexts. This paper aims to analyse SDG disclosure in the university context from a cross-country perspective. Specifically, it investigates the internal and external factors affecting the universities’ disclosure choices through an OLS regression technique based on multiple and complementary theoretical frameworks (i.e., legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory, and institutional theory). Starting from the Times Higher Education (THE) world university ranking, the sample comprises 844 universities in 81 countries observed over the course of 2021. The empirical findings show a significant and positive impact of the institutional macro-context, university size, age, and diversity on SDG disclosure. The results aim to contribute to the debate by the academic community and policy makers on the universities’ commitment to fostering the awareness, collaboration, measurement, and achievement of SDGs. Full article

The aim of the present study is to investigate the extent to which perceived organizational support and coworkers’ conflict and work-family conflict play a role in the performance of three types of organizational citizenship behaviors. A cross-sectional design was used comprising a sample of 164 health support workers working in Portuguese elderly care facilities. Using structural equation model findings showed that perceived organizational support is linked with organizational citizenship behaviors, directly and indirectly, via work-family conflict. Furthermore, coworkers’ conflict was also related with organizational citizenship behaviors, directly and indirectly via work-family conflict. The linkage between perceived organizational support and coworkers’ conflict through work-family conflict can offer new insights into how to enhance organizational citizenship behaviors by active management. These findings can help elderly care organizations and their managers to design better workplace conditions where organizational support and coworkers’ conflict can be better managed allowing workers to have more control over work-family conflict and promoting organizational citizenship behaviors. Full article

This study aims to empirically verify whether the entrepreneurial strategic orientation of social enterprises has any effect on organizational effectiveness with the mediation of dynamic capabilities. In the consideration of social enterprises’ features, strategic orientation consisted of social value orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and market orientation. Dynamic capabilities consisted of absorption capacity and coordination capacity, and organizational effectiveness was comprised of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. An online questionnaire survey targeted 228 employees of Korean social enterprises. The survey results were analyzed using a structural equation. As a result of the analysis, entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation significantly affected absorption capacity, but social value orientation did not affect it. Social value orientation and market orientation significantly affected coordination capacity, but entrepreneurial orientation did not affect it. Absorptive capacity and coordination capacity affected organizational effectiveness, and the hypotheses were adopted. Consequently, it was revealed that market orientation had the most significant effects on social enterprises’ dynamic capabilities and organizational effectiveness. It was confirmed that social value orientation and entrepreneurial orientation revealed differences depending on the absorptive capacity and coordination capacity of dynamic capabilities. Full article

Administrative simplification is a particular approach that is considered a key aspect to ensure the quality of regulations and legislation. The appropriate organizational and structural approach to managing, coordinating, and monitoring administrative simplification is an important factor. The institutional framework for managing and coordinating administrative simplification initiatives has been the subject of discussions in the Government of Kosovo for several years. The objective of this paper is therefore to analyze the institutional set up in the central administration, as well as gaps and challenges, and their implications for the implementation of such reforms in Kosovo. It also presents the context of the reforms implemented by the Kosovo state administration to simplify administration and reduce administrative burdens. Particular attention is paid to the importance, status of implementation, and administration of the Law on General Administrative Procedures. Several recommendations and options have been made based on the findings of this study, the authors’ first-hand experience, and best comparative international practice. Full article

A start-up is a relatively new and attractive entrepreneurial form that is being explored in a broader national economy and industry context. However, there is little knowledge about its strategy, which is mainly represented by the business development strategy. The main goal of the research is to deepen and expand knowledge about the strategic background of start-ups, which is preparation and condition for a development strategy and later a business strategy, too. The partial goals of the research are in-depth and detailed knowledge of the content and novelty of the business idea, the quality of the internal environment of the start-up, the nature of the external environment of the start-up, and the content of the goals. The research sample contains 147 start-ups operating in Slovakia. Each start-up was researched by a member of the research team, who personally recorded the statements of the founder. The research results are based on qualitative analysis and synthesis of statements of the founders of start-ups. The main result of the research is a summary view of the strategic background of the examined start-ups, which expresses the peculiarities of the start-up business making and documents the possibilities and motives of the start-up’s strategizing. The summary of knowledge about the strategic background of the start-up is synthesized into a strategic balance sheet, which expresses the strategic perspective of the start-up, the possibilities of survival, explains the potential failure, and provides a solution to the identified imbalance. The practical use of the results consists of providing a model of the strategic balance, which is the result of field research of real and functioning start-ups. The originality and value of the research lie in the direct collection of qualitative data, immediate knowledge of business reality, and the synthesis of results into a comprehensive and at the same time detailed picture of the strategic background of the start-up. Full article

Entrepreneurship is considered a key driver for economic growth. Therefore, more and more studies are investigating the role and effectiveness of entrepreneurship education. In this context, the present study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of entrepreneurship programs, with a learning-by-doing approach, on the entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial characteristics (entrepreneurial attitude, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial mindset, core self-evaluation) and entrepreneurial skills (creativity, financial literacy, marshaling of resources, planning, teamwork). The study has analyzed a short intensive online entrepreneurship program, which adopts a learning-by-doing approach and targets students from different European technical universities, with different levels of education and different entrepreneurial backgrounds, giving them the opportunity to work on different types of projects. Pre- and post-course surveys were conducted in order to perform qualitative analyses on the effectiveness of the program. The results show that the entrepreneurial intention and perception of the entrepreneurial characteristics and skills of the students increased after participation in the program. In addition, our findings reveal that the program appears to be more effective for MSc students than for PhD ones and for students who had never attended any entrepreneurship program before, while there is no difference in the effectiveness of the program in terms of gender. Full article

This study aims to fulfil a gap in the literature, delivering a road map to understand the course and nature of the fair value accounting literature, further showing how the 2008–2009 financial crisis affected it. Bibliometric methods analyze 377 documents retrieved from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Results show a heavy increase in fair value accounting literature starting due to the 2008–2009 financial crisis, further showing a shift from fair value accounting regulations to topics such as fair value measurement, earnings management, value relevance, and banks. Results provide further evidence about relevant themes, showing that topics related to financial crises stay relevant, even during times of growth. Full article

The new public management reforms have led to significant changes in higher education institutions (HEIs) regarding the management accounting and control (MAC) of these organizations. Therefore, this paper provides an overview of the main studies on MAC in these types of organizations through a systematic literature review (SLR). The PRISMA guidelines were followed, and data were collected from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The final sample encompassed 50 articles, published between 1981 and 2020. The results show that MAC research tends to focus on management control systems and performance evaluation systems. They also suggest that, although the development and implementation of various MAC tools are crucial for HEIs, such implementation often is partial. This is due to the stakeholders’ perceptions/attitudes regarding the importance of such tools. The results also indicate that institutional theory is the most addressed one. Most of the time, HEIs implement MAC tools due to external pressures. By synthesizing the main trends in MAC, this SLR intends to provide a theoretical contribution to the literature in this research field. Several themes for further research are suggested, such as assessing the relationship between MAC and the management of “knowledge” and intellectual capital in these institutions, and addressing sustainability issues. From a practical viewpoint, HEI managers can obtain important insights to apply the most appropriate tools to their institutions. Full article

This research aims to examine the mediating role of the use of the e-commerce and moderating influence of entrepreneurial competencies on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study data were collected via a structured questionnaire comprised of a seven-point Likert scale from practitioners serving at the top and middle-level positions in Pakistani SMEs. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied on 250 useable returned questionnaires. The results showed that the association between the use of e-commerce and firm performance is positively significant. Moreover, the use of e-commerce mediates the positive association between technological readiness, adoption cost, and firm performance. However, the moderating role of entrepreneurial competencies does not appear as significant between the use of e-commerce and manufacturing SMEs’ performance. The present study is the first to explore entrepreneurial competencies as a moderator between e-commerce adoption and firm performance. The empirical outcomes of this research provide useful theoretical and practical implications for the managers and practitioners to understand the underlying factors for the successful implementation of e-commerce in the SME sector to enhance firm performance. Full article