Acta Commercii

Orientation: The resilience of small businesses such as emerging contractor firms (ECFs) has been negatively affected due to problems from the environment like the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It is imperative for firms to navigate through this economic downturn by deploying learning capabilities to surmount these problems and boost resilience.Research purpose: This study examines the influence of learning capability on the entrepreneurial resilience.Motivation for the study: To establish the role of learning capability on entrepreneurial resilience of ECFs.Research design, approach and method: Using a quantitative research approach and a cross-sectional survey design, a structured close-ended questionnaire was administered to 400 owners and managers of ECFs. The results of the study were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 and Smart PLS software 3. Descriptive percentage analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), multiple regression analysis, and structural equation modelling (SEM) were performed on the data set.Main findings: The results suggest that all forms of learning have significant positive effect on entrepreneurial resilience (Transformative learning B = 0.2207, p 0.001; exploitative learning β = 0.2580; p 0.001; explorative learning β = 0.5316; p 0.001).Practical/managerial implications: The implications emphasise the different choices that small resource constrained firms must take in identifying and investing in those learning capability dimensions which best predict long term resilience.Contribution/value-add: The study demonstrates the significance of firms’ investment in learning, especially explorative learning to increase knowledge.

Felix A. Baah

Patient Rambe

Exploring learning capability on entrepreneurial resilience of emerging contractor firms

探索新兴承包商企业创业韧性的学习能力

Editorial Office

Acknowledgement to reviewers

致谢审稿人

Orientation: Gap analysis in the information system (IS) sector is difficult to assess.Research purpose: A gap analysis model based on SERVQUAL is proposed to assess the gaps in IS services.Motivation for the study: During coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), there has been an extensive use of distant learning and virtual meeting applications. Yet, there is no well-documented way to evaluate the IS service provided.Research design, approach and method: The proposed model adds a performance dimension covering the main characteristics of IS services. The model is tested on the internet service providers in Egypt as a case study. A questionnaire for the proposed model is developed, validated and distributed.Main findings: The questionnaire is statistically analysed to find whether there is statistical difference between the expectation and the perception for each factor. Then the data are tested to find whether the gender of the respondents, internet service provider and the status of whether the respondent pays for the service themself have a significant effect on the gap scores or not. Finally, an ordinal regression fit is introduced to estimate the overall satisfaction of the customers based on their gap score.Practical/managerial implications: Despite SERVQUAL being an adequate tool to analyse the gaps for different services, it needs some adaptation to fit different services. One important drawback of SERVQUAL analysis for the IS sector is that the dimensions of SERVQUAL do not fully cover the customer expectations in the IS sector.Contribution/value-add: This paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by introducing the ‘ISSERVQUAL’ model.

Raghda Taha

Khaled Abdallah

Yasmin Adel

Proposed enhanced gap analysis model for information systems sector (ISSERVQUAL)

提出的信息系统领域增强型差距分析模型 (ISSERVQUAL)

Orientation: The accounting labour market has undergone a metamorphosis in recent years, leading to new demands for generic skills. Universities have responded to the new demands by implementing several reforms in the accounting curriculum to address skills gap. Despite these major reforms, educational expectation gap is persistent in Botswana.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for skills development for employability in the competitive and dynamic accounting environment in Botswana.Motivation for the study: A skills gap was identified, implying the need for a framework for skills development for employability in the competitive and dynamic environment, thereby improving the graduate’s pervasive skills.Research design, approach and method: This study employs a qualitative research approach to extract and analyse key themes, quotes and insights from recent reports submitted to Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) by students and industrial supervisors. Utilising thematic data analysis, this research systematically examines the qualitative data gathered to elucidate the effectiveness of competency frameworks as perceived by both parties.Main findings: Institutions of Higher Learning in Botswana are mandated to equip students with job market-relevant skills. However, graduates often fall short in critical areas such as advanced cognitive abilities, socio-behavioural competencies and information technology (IT) proficiency, hindering their effective transition from academia to the workforce.Practical and/or managerial implications: The contribution and societal impact of this study are summed up in a proposed framework for skills development for employability in the competitive and dynamic accounting environment in Botswana.Contribution and/or value-add: The proposed framework is designed so that universities can equip students with soft skills needed in ever changing accounting environment.

Edmore Munjeyi

Danie Schutte

A framework for skills development for employability in Botswana’s competitive accounting environment

博茨瓦纳竞争性会计环境中就业能力技能开发的框架

Orientation: The argument rethinks current managerial practices in higher education.Research purpose: Satire beckons when normal science cannot reproduce itself or shift to account for different ways of doing things. When reality mimics satire, satire becomes an appropriate methodology. Such literary approaches can reveal what normal science cannot.Motivation for the study: To add to critical management studies and the combatting of academentia as an institutional condition.Research design, approach and method: The general methodology derives from both literary and business principles read through critical management studies and cultural studies. Autoethnography is shown here to be useful within accounting and management studies. The Semler and the Kalahari management practices explicitly specify the need to rethink ‘operational models’.Main findings: No findings are offered in the conventional sense. Rather, relations are analysed and conclusions result from my own internal dialogue as a central player in the case study. The ‘transformation’ objectives of governance were disconnected from educational purposes. The resulting dramatic narrative hopefully appeals to readers in terms of their own lived conditions: can readers insert themselves into the narrative in terms of their own experiences?Practical and/or managerial implications: Institutions to be managed as adhocracies. What has been learned after 20 years of transformation and restructuring, if anything?Contribution and/or value-add: An engagement with critical management studies from the perspective of cultural studies identifies some solutions. Like the former, the latter examines issues of power relations, in this case, relations subsisting within administrative systems rather than the more usual framing as being between classes, races, ethnicities and genders.

Keyan G. Tomaselli

Academentia, management and satire: ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’

学术、管理和讽刺：“好、坏与丑”

Orientation: Digital health delivers value in the form of efficiency, efficacy and transformation by automation and strengthening of global health care systems, according to the World Health Organization. Yet, sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) health care systems still experience an evident misalignment between their business models (BMs) and digital health value propositions. As a result, digital health interventions (DHI) are duplicated for similar purposes; several pilot projects hardly reach country-wide implementation and health security remains unattainable, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era.Research purpose: The study aims to conduct a scoping review highlighting how the value-add propositions of DHI could align with health care system BMs in SSA.Motivation for the study: The study was informed by the need to address the impact of health care business models on adopting Digital Health and advanced Industry 4.0 technologies for Health Security in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) context.Research design, approach and method: The paper followed Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage scoping review guide to identify publications on the value propositions of DHI in health care systems of SSA.Main findings: There is limited scholarly work focused on how sub-Saharan African health care system BMs cater to DHI in relation to the fast-paced advancements in technology. Drivers of value-add creation, inhibitors of digital health value capture and the requirements of BMs that support the value propositions offered by DHI were discussed.Practical/managerial implications: Findings can assist health managers to redirect the trajectory of integrating digital health value propositions interventions in SSA health care systems towards redressing recurrent challenges that inhibit technology adoption.Contribution/value-add: The paper highlights how the value-add propositions of digital health should be aligned to BMs of health care systems in SSA to ensure duplications are addressed and provide a move towards wide-scale implementations.

Oluwamayowa O. Ogundaini

Mourine S. Achieng

Alignment of digital health value propositions to business models in sub-Saharan Africa

撒哈拉以南非洲地区数字健康价值主张与商业模式的契合

Orientation: Entrepreneurial orientation (EO), knowledge management (KM), human resource management (HRM) and knowledge sharing (KS) are important aspects in driving innovation capabilities (IC) to improve organisational performance (OP).Research purpose: The purpose of this research was to analyse the mediating effect of IC on individual EO, KM, HRM and KS and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance.Motivation for the study: The fluctuation in batik business performance can be attributed to a lack of studies that examine the dynamic capability perspective in the context of batik SMEs in developing countries.Research design, approach and method: A quantitative approach was used for this study. A structured self-administrative measuring instrument was employed to collect the data. A non-probability sample of 297 participants was obtained. The collected data were then analysed using SmartPLS3 software.Main findings: Innovation capabilities have been verified to significantly mediate the relationship between HRM and KS on OP. Innovation capabilities mediated the relationship between KS and OP in a negative direction, whereas previous studies indicate a positive direction.Practical/managerial implications: Entrepreneurial orientation has the most prominent role in OP in batik SMEs. An EO allows business actors to optimise their creativity and innovation to develop ideas, which helps maximise the growth of OP in SMEs.Contribution/value-add: This study’s results support the concept that EO develops various skills, from managing uncertainty to tolerating risk and forming strong entrepreneurial abilities to improve business performance.

Muzakar Isa

Yulfan A. Nurohman

Rina S. Qurniawati

Innovation capabilities and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in Indonesia

印度尼西亚中小企业创新能力与绩效

Publication Information	Publisher: AOSIS (Pty) Ltd，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: Yes
Basic data	Year of publication: 2019，Proportion of original research papers: 0.00%，Self Citation Rate:N.A.， Gold OA Rate: 0.00%
Journal Fees	$Details
Average review cycle	网友分享经验：30 Weeks

Acta Commercii

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Exploring learning capability on entrepreneurial resilience of emerging contractor firms

Acknowledgement to reviewers

Proposed enhanced gap analysis model for information systems sector (ISSERVQUAL)

A framework for skills development for employability in Botswana’s competitive accounting environment

Academentia, management and satire: ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’

Acknowledgement to reviewers

Exploring learning capability on entrepreneurial resilience of emerging contractor firms

Proposed enhanced gap analysis model for information systems sector (ISSERVQUAL)

Alignment of digital health value propositions to business models in sub-Saharan Africa

Innovation capabilities and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in Indonesia

ISSN	1684-1999, 2413-1903
h-index	7