In a world of globalization and transparency, many academic institutions are prioritizing the accreditation of their teaching and learning environments in order to achieve a strategic advantage over their competitors. This research examines the perceived benefits of accreditation from students’ perspectives and, in particular, assesses the extent to which accreditation adds value to students’ performance, academic motivation, and future career prospects. For comparison, the research also evaluates whether students’ knowledge of the strategic objectives of the program or college can have a similar impact on their performance, motivation, and career prospects. The research data were gathered from senior students at the College of Business at Alfaisal University, and the analysis was performed using structural equation modeling through the SmartPLS statistical package. The χ 2 statistic was used to determine whether or not gender affected the perceived value of accreditation on overall performance. The results suggest that students’ knowledge of the value of accreditation has a 60% higher impact on their overall performance than their awareness of the program’s or college’s strategic objectives. The gender of the student seems to have no bearing on these findings. The results highlight the value of accreditation and will help academic organizations develop awareness programs focused on this value. Such awareness programs have the potential to enhance the efforts of organizations trying to achieve accreditation by providing them with the direct support of their students.

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The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of transformational leadership on the entrepreneurship orientation (EO) – innovative performance relationship and to test innovative performance as a mediator variable between EO and firm performance. Structural equation modelling is employed to test a theoretical model utilizing a data set developed from a survey instrument administered to the most senior level manager of 127 enterprises within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Results show that innovative performance partially mediates the relationship between EO and firm performance. Results further suggest visionary leaders who absorb the uncertainty inherent in organization endeavours and who encourage organization members to independently use their mind to challenge the status quo spur organization members towards entrepreneurship. The study found that a reward system based on the results of innovative projects offers a counter-intuitive explanation that it may discourage the brightest talent from participating on endeavours with uncertain outcomes. The proposed study model is a valuable addition to appreciating the role transformational leadership plays within enterprises and therefore contributes to the expanding body of research investigating the ability of organizations to utilize a systematic effort of recognizing and exploiting new business opportunities for a sustainable competitive advantage.

The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play crucial role in supporting the economies of developing countries. However, with globalization and open market trends, SMEs need to compete with new entrants to maintain their market share and growth. The degree of technology adaptation and level of process sophistication help the SMEs to achieve their targeted level of growth through improvement of business effectiveness and efficiency. Access to finance is a critical success factor in such endeavor and supports the SMEs to alleviate growth constraints. This paper presents research data on the degree that access to finance impacts the abilities of SMEs to grow through improvement of process sophistication for enhanced business production. The raw data was gathered from over 400 firms independently using one unified assessment tool over a period of five years. This data is then analyzed using inferential statistics through one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate and compare the average scores associated with the research variables. Furthermore, the post hoc analysis is applied to assess the extent and direction of variation in the scores and moderated across different years. The results showed that the adopted level of process sophistication is positively correlated with the availability of technology with limited role played by access to finance. These relationships are discussed and analyzed in the context of local market growth, sophistication, financial capabilities, and financial facilities. The research aims to assist SME stakeholders and governing bodies in recognizing the impact of changes on macroeconomic scale from SMEs growth and sustainability perspectives.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of education and research quality provided by local educational institutions on the innovative adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) by the workforce in Saudi Arabia. The study tests whether this influence is mediated by domestic competition and/or the level of ICT penetration. A model was developed and tested using data collected from 119 CEOs of foreign companies in diverse local business sectors. The data is analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that educational quality exhibited a lesser contribution to the ICT adoption compared to research quality. These results are analyzed in terms of business environment, market constraints and pedagogical approaches in schools and universities.