This study examines whether the entrepreneurial orientation of CEOs of small and medium-sized companies plays a mediating role between the internal innovation capabilities of companies in the growth and maturity stages and corporate growth. The results are as follows. First, a company's innovation capability positively affects entrepreneurial orientation. Second, a company's innovation capability positively affects growth intention. Third, entrepreneurial orientation had a positive effect on growth intention. Fourth, entrepreneurial orientation was found to mediate the relationship between a company's innovation capability and growth intention. These research results confirmed that entrepreneurial orientation influences the growth intention of small and medium-sized enterprises' innovation capabilities. In addition, it suggests the need for policy and practical measures to strengthen innovation capabilities and entrepreneurial orientation for SMEs to grow and survive.

Venture capital plays a vital role in investment platforms, entrepreneurship, and the growth of emerging industries. Its impact on firm value generates improved returns for stakeholders. By addressing financing challenges, reducing costs, and enhancing internal governance and stock liquidity, venture capital has the potential to enhance firm value. This study explores the relationship between venture capital traits and the value of Chinese firms listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), offering valuable insights for corporations, venture capital investors, and policymakers. Empirical tests conducted on GEM-listed companies between 2011 and 2020 demonstrate the significant role of venture capital in certification, supervision, and value-added services. It effectively boosts the value of listed companies, primarily through improved governance and stock liquidity. The presence of venture capital, including its quantity, background, and proportion, directly contributes to enterprise value while indirectly creating value through governance and liquidity channels.

This study presents research results useful for contributing to export competitiveness and corporate performance by efficiently utilizing ESG management and supply chain finance. Using Korean and global cases and samples, we investigate the effect of ESG management on supply chain finance, firm value, and export growth through case studies and empirical analysis. As a result of the case studies, it is confirmed that the importance of ESG management in actual companies is increasing, while practical support such as cost and tax is needed as practical restrictions still remain. Empirical results using panel analysis show that firms with high ESG performance have positive results in export competitiveness and supply chain management. Specifically, we find that ESG ratings are positively related to supply chain finance and export performance, and this relationship is particularly strong for SMEs and environmental ratings. These findings provide academic and practical implications for exporters’ ESG management and supply chain finance operations, which may positively affect export competitiveness.

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of organizational strengths and weaknesses among employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To achieve this, 271,166 online company reviews from Jobplanet platform were collected, and topics were extracted using Structural Topic Model (STM). The analysis involved examining the proportion of topics mentioned in the overall documents, differences in topics based on the overall company ratings, and correlations between topics. The results revealed that in the corpus related to strengths, topics such as flexible use of annual leave, good colleagues, satisfactory salary, and pride were identified, aligning with the typical characteristics of SMEs. This differed from negative social perceptions such as low reputation and low wages. In the corpus related to weaknesses, topics mentioned by SME employees included internal politics, boundary-less tasks, inefficient work systems, lack of welfare programs, and a shortage of growth drivers. Additionally, a qualitative analysis of the documents revealed that SME employees express satisfaction with welfare benefits in the context of comparisons with larger companies. The significance of this research lies in its use of a large text dataset, its coverage of both strengths and weaknesses of SMEs, and its contribution to providing a foundation for a more systematic understanding of the work environment in SMEs. Furthermore, the study offers new perspectives on addressing the aversion to employment in SMEs based on the research findings.

Systematic reviews of SME research are crucial for guiding academic research and policy-making. However, the surge in SME research necessitates a quantitative review that employs unstructured text from numerous articles. This study aims to identify major research topics from 4,643 academic articles published between 2011 and 2022 in seven international SME journals using topic modeling and to outline promising topics. The results of our topic modeling are as follows. First, we identified a total of 16 research topics. We then presented the main arguments based on representative studies in each topic. Additionally, we identified five promising research topics by observing the relative proportion of topics in total papers over time: entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial orientation and capabilities, entrepreneurship education, financing, and social problem solving. Moreover, this study provided an overview of the most highly cited recent articles in each of these topics. The study's findings are expected to aid scholars in grasping general research trends and developing promising research themes within the SME fields.