Enhancing the emphasis on incorporating sustainable practices reinforces a linear transition towards a circular economy by organizations. Nevertheless, although studies on circular economy demonstrate an increasing trend, the drivers that support circular economy practices towards sustainable business performance in the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) sector, especially in developing nations, demand exploration. Accordingly, the study examines circular economy drivers, i.e., green human resource management, in establishing sustainability performance and environmental dynamism as moderating variables. The study engaged 207 SMEs and 621 respondents who were analyzed utilizing structural equation modeling. The analysis indicated that sustainable business performance was affected by green human resource management and a circular economy. Subsequently, the circular economy mediated the linkage between green human resources management and sustainable business performance. The environmental dynamism moderated the linkage between green human resources management and the circular economy.

Today it is obvious that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is more than just a volunteer activity, it is also related to the operation of the firms and to competitive advantages. Many factors influence CSR and CSR-competitiveness relations; firm size could be the most crucial one. Originally CSR is related to large companies, although smaller firms can be active in CSR mainly in different ways with different background. Based on this idea the paper aims to explore the correlation between small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitive advantages. An interview research was conducted among thirty SMEs in a Hungarian city of Győr in 2021/22 to reveal how owner-managers interpret CSR, competitiveness and their relations. As SMEs cannot provide exact data on this topic the personal perception method was used to explore the CSR-competitiveness relation. A moderate relation was observed between CSR and competitiveness and the research revealed that different methodologies have to be applied for SMEs than large companies which results from the fact that SMEs’ CSR is less formal and lacks exact data.

Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) emphasizes the identification and exploitation of business opportunities, while entrepreneurial action learning (EAL) underscores the acquisition of knowledge through practical experience and continuous improvement. Breakthroughs in both aspects contribute to maintaining flexibility, adapting to changes, and enabling success in competitive markets. The key to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lies in a clear Entrepreneurial Orientation, a focus on Entrepreneurial Action Learning, and the cultivation of innovation spirit through continuous practice and experience accumulation, thereby enhancing entrepreneurial performance (EP). This study aims to explore the impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on the Entrepreneurial Performance of SMEs, clarify the mediating role of Entrepreneurial Action Learning between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Entrepreneurial Performance, and investigate the variability of Entrepreneurial Performance among different industries. By means of data collection from 598 SMEs, data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The analysis results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation has a positive impact on entrepreneurial action learning and entrepreneurial performance, and entrepreneurial action learning has a positive impact on entrepreneurial performance. The study also found that entrepreneurial action learning partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial performance. There are certain differences in entrepreneurial performance among different industries. This study enriches the relevant literature in the field of entrepreneurship. Additionally, research on entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial action learning, and entrepreneurial performance in specific regional contexts is very limited, making this study valuable for subsequent research in related areas.

The development of the personal innovative competences in workers is of capital importance for the competitiveness of organizations, where the ability of the employees must respond in an innovative way to diverse situations that arise in specific contexts. Considering this, the question arises: How do innovative employees' competences affect the sustainable development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)? Therefore, the objective of this work is to present a multi-criteria method based on the Analytic Network Process (ANP), to relate innovative personal competences and the sustainable development of MSMEs. An instrument was applied to groups of experts from 31 Ecuadorian fruit-exporting MSMEs, to develop a multi-criteria decisional network that allowed identifying the innovative personal abilities that have the greatest impact on the sustainable development of these organizations. The results demonstrate the relevance of the elements of innovative personal competencies, with a cumulative participation of 39.15%, Sustainable Export Development with 32.18% and Improvements with 28.66%. It also presents three types of analysis: i) Global to establish the weight of each variable; ii) Influences, to establish solid cause-effect relationships between the variables and iii) Integrated. The most relevant innovative personal competences for sustainable development and improvements for exporting SMEs are teamwork, critical thinking, and creativity within the international context.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of innovative organizational culture on innovativeness through human resource management and the innovative skills of personnel. The population of this study comprised small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand from both the manufacturing and service sectors. Purposive sampling was employed to gather information from entrepreneurs, executives, or department managers of SMEs through an online questionnaire distributed via email, obtaining a total of 440 responses. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation models (SEM) for hypothesis testing. The results indicated that SMEs in this context had a moderate level of innovative organizational culture, human resource management, innovative skills, and innovativeness. Moreover, the structural equation model was consistent with the empirical data, revealing that innovative organizational culture has a direct influence on innovativeness. Furthermore, human resource management and the innovative skills of personnel were found to be partial mediators in the relationship between innovative organizational culture and innovativeness. The indirect effect through these two variables was greater than the direct effect. These findings confirmed the relationship between innovative organizational culture, human resource management, innovative skills, and innovativeness among SMEs in Thailand, leading to guidelines for businesses to improve their innovativeness.

This study aimed to analyze the effect of training programs on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and the Optimism of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The research was conducted at Babakan Madang MSMEs, Bogor Regency, assisted by Human Resources Education and Training Center (P2SDM) under the Community Service Institution (LPPM) at IPB University (IPB). The sample size was set at 100 SMEs with a purposive sampling method. Data was obtained by distributing questionnaires and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study were as follows: 1) Reactions in the training program did not affect the ESE of MSME actors, 2) Learning in the training program affected the ESE of MSME actors, 3) Behavior in the training program did not affect the ESE of MSME actors, 4) Results in the training program does not affect the ESE of MSME actors, and 5) ESE affects the Optimism of MSME actors. The effect of ESE on the Optimism of MSME actors is greater than the effect of learning in training programs on the Optimism of MSME owners.