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When and how does creativity influence performance? An examination of SMEs in an emerging economy

Ahmed Agyapong et al.

Africa Journal of Management2025https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2025.2500919article
AJG 2
Weight
0.37

What the paper says

Underpinned by the resource-based view and social capital theories, this study examines the mediating role of innovation in the relationship between creativity and the performance of SMEs in an emerging economy. We propose additionally that the innovation created through the transformation of creative ideas influences performance within the boundary conditions of social network ties. We collected our data from two hundred and fifty (250) SMEs in Ghana using questionnaires and analyzed the data using Structural Equation Model in LISREL 8.50 and PROCESS in SPSS version 23. Our results show that there is a positive relationship between creativity and performance. The study further reveals that product innovation mediates the relationship between creativity and firm performance. Although we did not find enough evidence to support the notion that social network ties moderate the indirect effect of creativity on performance, through process innovation, the results suggest that the conditional indirect effect of creativity on performance through product innovation is positive and stronger at high levels of social network ties. The implications of these results are discussed.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2025.2500919

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@article{ahmed2025,
  title        = {{When and how does creativity influence performance? An examination of SMEs in an emerging economy}},
  author       = {Ahmed Agyapong et al.},
  journal      = {Africa Journal of Management},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2025.2500919},
}

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When and how does creativity influence performance? An examination of SMEs in an emerging economy

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.