Junguang Gao

Purpose: This study examines how gig economy participation drives startup innovation, especially in resource-constrained settings. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on job characteristics theory (JCT), resource-based view (RBV) and upper echelons theory (UET), this study integrates multi-level perspectives to explain how gig economy participation fosters startup innovation. Empirical insights are derived from data on 5,727 entrepreneurs from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Findings: Results show that gig economy participation significantly enhances innovation, particularly in emerging economies. These insights guide entrepreneurs and policymakers in leveraging the gig economy to drive innovation. Research limitations/implications: Our findings confirm a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial participation in the gig economy and startup innovation performance. This not only supports but extends prior work by conceptualizing the gig economy as a strategic resource within the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. In doing so, the study contributes to a paradigm shift in understanding how startups mobilize and exploit external resources in digitally mediated environments. By redefining gig work as an innovation-enabling input rather than a labor cost alternative, this research advances theoretical conversations around entrepreneurial resource orchestration in the digital era. Practical implications: For practitioners, this study underscores the strategic value of engaging with the gig economy to enhance innovation. Entrepreneurs and startup leaders are encouraged to integrate gig-based labor not only for operational flexibility but also as a source of specialized skills and rapid iteration. Importantly, psychological traits such as entrepreneurial self-efficacy must be managed to ensure optimal use of external resources. Furthermore, firms should consider aligning gig work structures with the principles of job characteristics theory (JCT), emphasizing autonomy, task identity and skill variety. Doing so can improve performance, foster creativity and enhance both participant development and organizational innovation outcomes. Social implications: For policymakers and regulatory bodies, our findings highlight the gig economy’s potential to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems, particularly in underdeveloped and emerging economies where formal resource channels are limited. A supportive and inclusive gig economy infrastructure – guided by oversight from government and industry associations – can improve worker satisfaction, create meaningful employment opportunities, and promote inclusive national development. Effective policy must therefore strike a balance between enabling innovation and safeguarding fair labor standards, ensuring that gig platforms contribute not only to entrepreneurial performance but also to social equity and economic resilience. Originality/value: The study clarifies how individual and institutional factors shape the gig–innovation link and provides strategic recommendations to maximize gig economy benefits, particularly across emerging markets, thus offering actionable insights for entrepreneurs, policymakers and platform designers.

The landscape of financial technology is undergoing a continuous evolution, driven by the relentless advancement of information technology. In this transformative milieu, digital finance has emerged as a novel financial paradigm, offering a blueprint for fostering inclusive finance. With a particular emphasis on its implications for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), this article harnesses a comprehensive dataset spanning the years 2011 to 2021, encompassing digital inclusive finance and SMEs listed on the SME board. Employing fixed effects models, this study performs a regression analysis to verify the driving effect of digital inclusive finance on SMEs’ innovation activities. The findings unequivocally affirm the potency of inclusive finance in ameliorating the longstanding financing constraints that have historically constrained the growth trajectory of SMEs. Furthermore, the study elucidated the nuanced nature of the promotional impact of digital inclusive finance on SMEs, contingent upon their distinct property rights and technological attributes. Specifically, the empirical findings unveil a discernible pattern wherein digital inclusive finance exerts a conspicuously stronger promotional effect on non-state-owned enterprises and high-tech SMEs’ endeavors in technological innovation. The conclusions derived from this research furnish a salient point of reference for governmental authorities engaged in the formulation and advancement of digital inclusive finance strategies, thereby imparting strategic guidance for the cultivation of innovation and holistic development within the SME sector.

The study examines how R&D staff improvisation capability is formed based on theory of micro-foundations, that is, how R&D individuals, experience and external knowledge gathering, and minimal structure interact and work on their improvisation capability together. The results show that: (1) R&D staff’s experience and external knowledge gathering have linear influences on their improvisation capability, respectively; (2) minimal structure has a curvilinear impact on improvisation capability; (3) minimal structure has a curvilinear moderating effect on the relationship between experience, external knowledge gathering and improvisation capability, respectively. The study suggests that managers keep minimal structure at the moderate level to promote their R&D people’s improvisation capability.

The question is whether the benefits of collaboration for innovation for small enterprises in China are comparable to or different from other developing countries—Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, and Nigeria—that have been surveyed by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). When it comes to innovation, the benefits of collaboration for small firms in China, as in Brazil and Indonesia, are found to be negligible, whereas the benefits are substantial in Thailand and Nigeria. The benefits are measured in terms of innovation. The findings contribute to understanding collaboration as a systemic property that benefits innovation in small firms that are embedded in institutions that moderate that benefit.