This study investigates how foreign technology adoption and the institutional context of democracy interact to shape innovation outcomes among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on World Bank Enterprise Survey data covering 45,542 SMEs across 63 developing countries (2006–2022), we find that both foreign technology adoption and democratic institutions independently stimulate SME innovation. Moreover, democracy moderates the returns to innovation from foreign technology. Specifically, democracy reduces the positive impact of foreign technology adoption on SME innovation. These relationships remain robust to alternative measures and endogeneity checks. By demonstrating that democratic governance not only fosters innovation directly but also amplifies the innovation-enhancing effects of foreign technology, this study advances theory on institutional environments and capability development in SMEs. The results highlight the importance of policies that jointly strengthen democratic institutions and facilitate cross-border technology diffusion to enhance SME innovation in developing economies. This study investigates how foreign technology adoption and the institutional context of democracy interact to shape innovation outcomes among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using World Bank Enterprise Survey data on 45,542 SMEs across 63 developing countries (2006–2022), we find that foreign technology adoption and democratic institutions independently stimulate SME innovation. Moreover, democracy moderates the returns to innovation from foreign technology. Specifically, democracy reduces the positive impact of foreign technology adoption on SME innovation. These relationships remain robust to alternative measures and endogeneity checks. By showing that democratic governance not only directly fosters innovation but also reduces SMEs' dependence on foreign technology for innovation, this study advances theory on institutional environments and SME capability development. The results highlight the importance of policies that jointly strengthen democratic institutions and facilitate cross-border technology diffusion to enhance SME innovation in developing economies.
Digital transformation is increasingly recognized as a vital driver of competitiveness, yet the precise organizational factors that most strongly influence its success remain ambiguous. This study addresses this gap by examining how strategic, operational, organizational, and cultural factors jointly relate to digital transformation outcomes, and by uncovering the mediating role of innovation success in shaping overall company success. Drawing upon data from 279 organizational key informants in Germany with substantive involvement in digital transformation, this study develops a holistic framework that not only identifies key organizational factors relevant for digital transformation success but also compares their associations with transformation success when considered simultaneously. The findings reveal numerically larger associations for cultural and operational factors, whereas strategic and organizational factors exhibit smaller coefficients, with the organizational-domain association only marginally significant (p < 0.10). Although bootstrap-based parameter-difference tests do not support a statistically established ranking of the four domains, the results underline the relevance of all four domains while suggesting that cultural and operational conditions may warrant particular attention depending on firms’ specific transformation context. Furthermore, the results reveal a significant indirect association between digital transformation success and company success through innovation success, accounting for around 60
An authorized medical device may still need outside capital before its sponsor, the firm responsible for it, can manufacture and launch it. The paper asks what public U.S. records can show about whether authorization timing relates to access to that capital, and what a credible test needs. It does not estimate a financing or commercialization effect. The data combine 52,910 successful authorizations for submissions received in 2008–2024, a monthly capital-market measure, and a prototype match of 510(k) applicant names to Form D notices of private securities offerings. Among submissions received through 2022, the longest tenth accounts for 49.4–57.4 percent of days above the pathway median. Receipt-to-decision durations include applicant-response periods and do not measure unexpected or agency-caused delay. The market measure takes similar values in neighboring months. Its nine high periods, runs of two or more high months, last two to nine months; its relevance to individual sponsors is untested. As an observability diagnostic, the Form D prototype shows how name linkage can mislead. Records in the longest-duration quartile less often have a notice within a year (2.1 versus 3.1 percent in the shortest). Their applicant names, however, also appear less often among issuers (8.7 versus 14.4 percent), and among records with a name found, the notice share is not lower. About 11 percent of outcome windows are incomplete, and amendments count as notices. The contribution is to document these measurement requirements and to specify a sponsor-level test with validated identities, decision-date forecasts at receipt, and dated capital events.
Universities and research organisations increasingly expect scientists to expand their roles beyond research and teaching through various forms of knowledge transfer. As these activities extend scientific work across organisational and institutional boundaries and embed scientists in heterogeneous role expectations, they may enrich scientists’ work while also creating integration strain. Despite extensive research on the antecedents and outcomes of knowledge transfer, little is known about how engagement in knowledge transfer activities is associated with scientists’ job satisfaction. Given the relevance of job satisfaction for individual performance, collaboration, productivity and retention, this study addresses this gap by examining associations between seven specific knowledge transfer categories and job satisfaction using cross-sectional survey data from 1,658 scientists in German universities and research organisations. The findings provide the clearest evidence of an inverted U-shaped association for cooperative knowledge development, although evidence for a decline at high engagement is less robust across alternative specifications. Continuing education is positively associated with job satisfaction. Curvilinear associations for several other knowledge transfer categories emerge in separate models but do not persist in the joint model, while technology transfer exhibits an exploratory U-shaped pattern contrary to our expectation. Taken together, our findings reveal heterogeneous and partly nonlinear associations between knowledge transfer engagement and job satisfaction and highlight the importance of accounting for scientists’ broader knowledge transfer portfolios.
Business incubators and accelerators (BIAs) play a central role in regional entrepreneurial ecosystems by providing mentoring to support new venture development, yet mentoring outcomes vary considerably. While prior research documents mentoring benefits, limited attention has been paid to how mentors and ventures are matched or how these processes shape outcomes. This study conceptualizes mentor–venture matching as a dyadic, co-constructed process and examines how alignment between mentors and ventures shapes the formation and evolution mentoring relationships and their outcomes. Drawing on a multi-stage qualitative research design involving interviews with program managers, twenty mentors, and twenty-one new ventures across twelve Belgian BIAs, as well as follow-up interviews with ventures, the study identifies distinct yet complementary selection criteria on both sides of the dyad. Mentors evaluate ventures based on experiential alignment, deep-level personal characteristics, and venture-specific attributes, whereas ventures assess mentors based on expertise, interpersonal qualities, and value alignment. The findings show that alignment across these dimensions is associated with different mentoring outcomes, ranging from short-term problem solving to access to networks, investment opportunities, and long-term professional collaborations. This study develops a process model explaining how early-stage matching conditions shape the depth, durability, and strategic value of mentoring relationships over time. By linking matching processes to differentiated outcomes, the study advances a dyadic perspective on entrepreneurial mentoring and contributes to research on entrepreneurial ecosystems by demonstrating how BIAs act as intermediaries shaping how mentoring relationships influence access to resources within entrepreneurial ecosystems.
