Understanding the obstacles to successful strategic management implementation in Ecuadorian SMEs

There is a growing concern about the lack of skilled municipal employees who can deliver essential services to under-resourced local communities in South Africa. However, coaching and mentoring appear underutilized to train municipal employees to improve service delivery to local communities. The study aims to investigate whether coaching and mentoring could capacitate municipal employees whose performance appraisal reveals a lack of skills to provide essential services. A cross-sectional research design was adopted to conduct a survey. The target population comprised 265 municipal employees, and a stratified random sample of 115 employees completed a questionnaire. The employees held positions of general managers, general assistants, and administrators, with varied years of experience. Cronbach’s Alpha indicated an overall high 0.8 questionnaire reliability score.
Using a quantitative method, responses from municipal employees were collected to examine their perceptions of the influence of training and development on employee performance and service delivery. Hypotheses were tested using the bivariant inferential statistical tests of correlation (r) and Chi-square (χ2). The results indicated that training and development were more likely to improve employee performance. Furthermore, the results showed that trained employees were more likely to improve service delivery. In particular, coaching and mentoring could be used to improve performance. Therefore, the study found that the municipality was not providing employees with relevant training and development to enable them to address poor service delivery. Finally, the study recommends that the municipality invests in training and development to enrich employees with new skills and knowledge to improve the quality of service delivery.

In Indonesia, where most business organizations are family-owned, culture influences family employees’ behavior. Filial piety, or honoring the seniors, is considered a significant cultural value that motivates the family employees to be committed to the business. This study aims to test the effect of filial piety on identity alignment, career interest alignment, and affective commitment. Quantitative analysis is conducted to test the hypotheses of this study using purposive sampling based on questionnaire survey responses from 270 junior family business employees. The study employs Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis with the SmartPLS software to test the hypotheses. The test result shows that: 1) filial piety has a positive effect on identity alignment and career interest alignment, 2) identity alignment has a positive effect on affective commitment, and 3) career interest alignment has a positive effect on affective commitment. The study illustrates how filial piety affects junior family employee behavior, an issue that has not been addressed before in Asian family business studies.

Acknowledgment
The publication of this study is supported by Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences (i3L) LPPM fund.

Making intellectual capital the strategic resource of an innovation-oriented organization under post-industrial economy formation requires improving the decision-making quality while choosing its development strategies. To a large extent, the effectiveness of strategic intellectual capital management depends on its methodological principles development, which determines the relevance of the subject chosen.
The purpose of the article is to form a methodical tool for substantiating the strategies of intellectual capital development in a research organization based on multi-criteria analysis.
As a methodological platform, the following methods for conducting research were chosen: an aggregated structural approach, in particular, the method of audit-evaluation by Brooking, to evaluate intellectual capital; SWOT analysis – to determine the strategic position of the company regarding its intellectual capital. To confirm the expert opinions consistency within the empirical studies framework, the concordance coefficient, estimated on the Pearson criterion, was calculated. The key to research is the multi-criteria analysis (SAW, TOPSIS, COPRAS) methods for evaluating, ranking and selecting strategic alternatives for the intellectual capital development of the research company.
Thus, the article takes a new view of using the scenario approach to the formation of an intellectual capital strategy. The strategy development stages are outlined, and the peculiarities of their methodological support are determined. In particular, the necessity to include into the test program for intellectual capital the estimation of its management efficiency is proved. The authors present an example of adapting SAW, TOPSIS, COPRAS methods for the evaluation and ranking of strategic alternatives to human, structural and market capital development.
Consequently, the results allowed to mathematically formalize the rating task and to form the optimal strategies portfolio of human, structural, market capital of organization, as well as to combine factors of the internal and external environment. Thus, the suggested methodological approach can be used by the heads of research organizations to develop and substantiate strategic management decisions to optimize their intellectual capital development.