Enhancing SME performance in East Java through competency development, leadership, entrepreneurial intent, and resilience

Academic resilience and emotional intelligence are considered important personal resources for furthering students’ academic performance. However, many educational organizations seem to trivialize the performance implications of these constructs in teachings and curriculum. Consequently, it can decrease not just their academic performance but also their employability, as they lack the generic competencies to adapt and survive in a stressful context. Even so, empirical evidence on integrating academic resilience, emotional intelligence, and academic performance remains unexplored in the Nigerian university context. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the linkages between academic resilience, emotional intelligence, and academic performance in Nigeria. The partial least square (PLS) modeling method was utilized for testing the stated hypotheses with data collected from 179 final year undergraduate students in the regular B.Sc. Business Administration and B.Sc. Marketing program at Delta State University, Nigeria. From the PLS results, the study reported that academic resilience was positively related to emotional intelligence (β = 0.125, p = 0.007), academic resilience (β = 0.231, p = 0.000) and emotional intelligence (β = 0.260, p = 0.000) were positively related to academic performance, and emotional resilience mediated the positive relationship between academic resilience and academic performance (β = 0.057, p = 0.005). While academic resilience predicted academic performance, it also predicted emotional intelligence, which affected academic performance significantly and positively.

Given the rapid and sustained growth of Aspen over the past decade, the main aim of this study is to identify and analyze the growth strategies, adopted by Aspen over the period from 2004 to 2014. The research method used was a descriptive study through a single case study of Aspen by analyzing secondary data in the form of publicly available company reports and presentations, as well as financial results, issued between 2004 and 2014. The study finds that, guided by strategic and visionary leadership, Aspen adopted a number of growth strategies including (i) organic growth, as a key factor in creating incremental value for Aspen and its stakeholders, (ii) inorganic growth, in the form of carefully planned and well executed acquisitions, aligned to the Group strategy, (iii) extending territorial coverage through global expansion, particularly into emerging pharmaceutical countries, and (iv) ongoing investment in production capabilities as a means of achieving a strategic advantage. Despite the challenges of intense competition, restrictive legislation, pressure on medicine prices, currency volatility and market specific risks, Aspen has delivered double-digit earnings growth to its shareholders for 16 consecutive years.

Work creativity manifested in innovative workplace behavior (IWB) and employee work engagement is fundamental to maintaining firm’s sustainability and competitiveness. In this regard, this study investigates the supporting effect of innovative leadership on IWB and employee engagement by maximizing employee vigor, dedication, and absorption. The study data were collected using a questionnaire-based technique, and the questionnaires were administered to 150 respondents working in mobile phone companies in Southern and Central Iraq. The results were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and SmartPLS software. The study results revealed that inclusive leadership and work engagement were significantly related to IWB, and work engagement played a mediating role between inclusive leadership and IWB. The findings further indicated that inclusive leadership behaviors such as openness, accessibility, and availability motivated the subordinates to be engaged in IWB. To promote IWB, company leaders need to effectively engage their followers by taking pride and satisfaction in employee output, which might help employee work engagement and IWB.