The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, together with globalization and advanced technologies, has drastically changed the business environment and forced companies to become more innovative and agile in the way they run their business and respond to the needs and wants of customers. Survival highly depends on the adaptability of SMEs to this ever-changing complex dynamic environment by taking steps in implementing Big Data Analytics as the next frontier for innovation, competition, productivity, and value creation. Based on the grounded theory, this study employed a qualitative method via focus group discussion. Focus groups were conducted with 14 government agencies, SMEs associations, business owners, Chief Operating Officers (CEOs), academic and industrial experts and directors of SMEs in Malaysia. The study revealed the challenges of Malaysian SMEs in adopting Big Data Analytics Capability, presents the criticality of Big Data Analytics Capability to overcome the identified challenges, and develops a BDA Capability Ecosystem Model that integrates the internal enablers, external barriers and support to explain the adoption of BDA Capability for value creation and support the decision-making process. This paper is followed by some policy suggestions for companies’ owners, policymakers, government agencies, universities, and SMEs. This study directly impacts Malaysia’s economy as a whole by addressing Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity Vision 2030. This research contributes to industries that are still in the low value added category with low adoption of technology. Furthermore, it will ultimately lead to the realization of SMEs as ‘game changers’ to transition the economy to a high-income nation. This study proposes a model that could help SMEs improve their value creation performance, directly influencing the country’s GDP and employability.

Many private higher educational institutions (PHEI) are facing poor profitability, increased short term debts with under-resourced cash flow and insufficient funds that could lead to financial distress. To address the issues of ever-changing business environments and to deliver value propositions, PHEI should focus on their intangible assets to increase their capabilities to achieve frugal open innovation. The objective of this paper is to investigate the challenges faced by private universities from the practitioners’ points of view and offer a practical solution. This paper also attempts to identify whether there is a need for any changes in business model or operations required by private universities to sustain their competitive advantage in the current environment. This study is exploratory in nature due to scarcity of past literature on frugal open innovation in PHEI context. Interviews were conducted with experienced practitioners to elicit their experience managing challenges in PHEI. As a result, this paper sheds light on the ability of PHEI to formalize, capture, and leverage its intangible assets rather than only investing and managing tangible assets in order to achieve frugal open innovation. Frugal open innovation is the enabler for PHEI to focus on core functions, create closer integration with industry, local and international communities and promote greater efficiency in operations. This paper is novel because it seeks to contribute to the current debate in the literature, positioning frugal open innovation (FOI) within the sphere of intellectual capital research, through exploring the effect of intellectual capital on frugal innovation is mediated through the information technology capability. The result indicates that sales and operating planning (S&OP) can be panacea for the five main challenges faced by PHEI includes structural challenges, operational challenges, financial challenges, social challenges and technological challenges. We conclude that there is a role for intellectual capital to achieve FOI by influencing IT capabilities, thus warrants more research to fill this research gap.

Background: Given the persistent challenges to the higher education business model, private higher education institutions (PHEIs) are exploring myriad ways to increase enrolment and income, while aggressively managing spending. Many PHEIs are facing financial distress and struggling because of decreasing budgets and declining revenue. Thus, carving unique strategies that direct the institution to focus on its core competencies, making additional budget cuts without compromising quality, developing new revenue streams, embracing new technology, and offering affordable programs, will ultimately lead to financial success. Frugal innovation (FI) can shed light on these challenges. Methods: This paper presents a systematic literature review to investigate and analyse prior research that focused on FI within the sphere of intellectual capital (IC) and information technology capabilities (ITC) research, and their relationships in PHEIs. Transfield’s five phases were employed to extract journal articles published over a thirty-year period (1990 to 2020) from major online databases using keyword searches. Although an initial search generated 76,025 papers, the search for IC and FI yielded 41 papers, and finally only two papers were selected as they clearly related IC with FI. Results: There was a research gap in the literature published from 1990 to 2020 regarding IC applications to achieve FI. This work revealed that IC and ITC research for FI in PHEI remain insufficiently explored. Conclusions: Further research is required on the evaluation model of IC, ITC and FI, methodologies, empirical analysis, and the development of measurement metrics. A limitation to this study is the number of keywords selected.

Higher education institutions (HEI) are faced with increasing challenges related to shrinking resources, high operation costs, the COVID-19 pandemic, decreasing student enrolment rates, and pressure to contribute to regional development and economic growth. To overcome such challenges, academics must move beyond their traditional functions of research and teaching and engage in entrepreneurial activities. Through engagement in entrepreneurial activities, academics can contribute to frugal innovation (FI) in private HEI (PHEI). The literature in this context emphasizes that academic entrepreneurial engagement (AEE) will lead to innovation, the identification of opportunities for new business ventures, financial rewards for institutions and academics, an impact on the economy, and the enhancement of social welfare. This study presents a systematic review of the literature and adopts the Transfield five-phase strategy to review the literature on AEE from the past two decades (2000–2020). A total of 1,067 papers on FI are obtained, only five of which focus on AEE. Moreover, papers related to AEE for FI are few. The study presents the research gaps, challenges, and potential factors for further research in this context. We conclude that FI for AEE in PHEI can be a game-changer for future sustainability. Moreover, we believe that the outcome of this review warrants further research.

Higher education institutions (HEI) are faced with increasing challenges related to shrinking resources, high operation costs, the COVID-19 pandemic, decreasing student enrolment rates, and pressure to contribute to regional development and economic growth. To overcome such challenges, academics must move beyond their traditional functions of research and teaching and engage in entrepreneurial activities. Through engagement in entrepreneurial activities, academics can contribute to frugal innovation (FI) in private HEI (PHEI). The literature in this context emphasizes that academic entrepreneurial engagement (AEE) will lead to innovation, the identification of opportunities for new business ventures, financial rewards for institutions and academics, an impact on the economy, and the enhancement of social welfare. This study presents a systematic review of the literature and adopts the Transfield five-phase strategy to review the literature on AEE from the past two decades (2000–2020). A total of 1,067 papers on FI are obtained, only five of which focus on AEE. Moreover, papers related to AEE for FI are few. The study presents the research gaps, challenges, and potential factors for further research in this context. We conclude that FI for AEE in PHEI can be a game-changer for future sustainability. Moreover, we believe that the outcome of this review warrants further research.

Background: In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), digital taxation emerged as a tool for accelerating the economic growth of a nation. While Industry 4.0 focuses on enabling real-time decision-making with sophisticated technology to enhance productivity, digital taxation can serve as an important tool for improving business sustainability. Institutions of higher learning (IHL), which aim to design an IR 4.0 educational ecosystem, can embrace digital taxation, as they face various challenges with different resources. The literature indicates that frugal innovation through digital taxation in institutions of higher learning, can solve emerging resource challenges. Method: We present a systematic review of studies on digital taxation to promote frugal innovation published in the past three decades (1991 to 2021). We obtained a total of 21 papers from a ‘digital taxation’ keyword search, 10 of which were related to digital taxation. However, the 10 papers were not related to frugal innovation. Result: We present two major findings. Firstly, research on digital taxation for frugal innovation is scant. Secondly, challenges exist in digital taxation implementation, which requires further attention. Conclusion: We conclude this review with a recommendation for the conceptual framework, to highlight potential research warranting the attention of the research community.