Ecologies of innovation among small and medium enterprises in Uganda as a mediator of entrepreneurial networking and opportunity exploitation
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Cogent Business & Management
Abstract
Researchers have noted a significant body of knowledge on the role of small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) in both advanced and transition economies. Previous studies on opportunity
exploitation have explored a range of predicator variables, including: information asymmetry, prior
knowledge, experiential learning, personality traits, and social networks, while ignoring ecologies
of innovation (Dimov, 2010; Kuckertz, Kollmann, Krell, & Stöckmann, 2017).
Ecologies of innovation (EoI) involve the interaction of individuals in creating the knowledge
needed for value creation in any business. Ecologies of innovation transform emergent, tacit
knowledge at their boundaries so that employees on all sides can appreciate the collective
enterprise of innovation, and how their different knowledge fits in (Schmidt, Müller, Ibert, &
Brinks, 2018). Knowledge workers in ecologies of innovation can generate intense, often intuitive
ways of opportunity exploitation (Acton, Foti, Lord, & Gladfelter, 2019). This study intends to bring
out this oversight into view that ecologies of innovation were left out as a mediator, yet there is no
way you can exploit an opportunity without ecologies of innovation. In this study, we posit that
ecologies of innovation mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial networking and opportunity
exploitation.
Description
Keywords
Entrepreneurial networking, Ecologies of innovation, Opportunity exploitation, SMEs
Citation
Samuel Mayanja, Joseph M. Ntayi, J. C. Munene, James R. K Kagaari & Balunywa Waswa | (2019) Ecologies of innovation among small and medium enterprises in Uganda as a mediator of entrepreneurial networking and opportunity exploitation, Cogent Business & Management, 6:1, 1641256, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2019.1641256