PurposeThe purpose of this study is to establish whether dynamic capabilities mediates the association between social capital and sustainable growth of full-service restaurants in Kampala, Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThis study is cross-sectional and correlational in nature. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data from 154 full-service restaurants in Kampala. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS.25) and Medgraph – Excel Version were used to conduct correlation, hierarchical regression and mediation analysis on the data in order to establish the mediating role of dynamic capabilities.FindingsStudy findings revealed that first, social capital and dynamic capabilities significantly predict sustainable growth of full-service restaurants, second, social capital is significantly associated with dynamic capabilities and third, dynamic capabilities significantly mediate social capital and sustainable growth of full-service restaurants.Originality/valueThe study confirmed that dynamic capabilities significantly mediate social capital and sustainable growth of full-service restaurants unlike the previous studies that focused on the direct association between the study variables in explicating sustainable growth.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of entrepreneurial networking and innovation in fostering the performance of small businesses using evidence from the global south. The study was cross-sectional and correlational. Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire survey of 368 small businesses and analyzed through correlation, hierarchical regression and mediation analysis using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). study findings indicate that entrepreneurial networking and innovation are significant predictors of small business performance. Results also indicate that innovation partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial networking and performance of small businesses. As such, this study contributes to the extant literature on the performance of small businesses as it provides initial empirical evidence on the efficacy of entrepreneurial networking and innovation in fostering the performance of small businesses, it further contributes to the recent literature on the mediation effect of innovation using evidence from the global south.