Mapping innovative work behavior and firm performance: evidence from Vietnamese ICT SMEs

The effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation Market Orientation, Marketing Capabilities on Firm Performance of entrepreneurs in the Northeastern region of Thailand

Manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the breeding ground for human capital competencies, creativity and innovation, which are important inputs for manufacturing competitiveness. In Kenya, manufacturing SMEs contribute 14% of gross domestic product (GDP), and train and employ 30% of the workforce. However, their growth and competitiveness are undermined by challenges in the firms’ operations management. Consequently, the firms struggle to survive as competitive enterprises, both domestically and globally. The purpose of this study was to establish how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) enhances the relationship between operations management and firm performance. Quantitative primary data were collected from managers of 83 firms registered by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers in the food and beverage sub-sector using a self-administered questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data for relationships between the study variables. The study found a positive relationship between operations management and EO, and between EO and firm performance. The study also found that EO is a mediator of the relationship between operations management and performance of manufacturing SMEs in Kenya. The study recommends that for manufacturing SMEs to effectively deploy operations management competencies and gain global competitiveness, they must engage EO as a strategy to foment organisational experimentation and exploration and commercialize the resultant innovations. At the macroeconomic level, the government should support manufacturing SMEs through enactment and promotion of policies that enable operations managers to exploit their firm’s EO stock.

Performance is a success or failure of an organization in performing their tasks and main functions to realize their vision, missions, goals and objectives. An organization must consider the factors that influence the performance of their organization. The aim of this research is to determine role of cost leadership strategy in mediating the influence of market orientation and entrepreneurship orientation on performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This research is conducted on Laundry SMEs in Denpasar City. Sample is 160 laundry SMEs, determined by using the probability sampling method. Data collection is conducted by utilizing questionnaires. The analysis technique used is the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Analysis result shows that market orientation and entrepreneurship orientation has a positive and significant influence on cost leadership strategy. Market orientation, entrepreneurship orientation, and cost leadership strategy has positive and significant influence on performance of SMEs. Cost leadership strategy is capable of mediating the influence of market orientation and entrepreneurship orientation on the performance of laundry SMEs in Denpasar City.
 Keywords: cost leadership strategy, market orientation, entrepreneurship orientation, SME performance

This proposed study seeks to explore the role of architectural marketing capabilities (AMC) in enhancing the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) dimensions and the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. SMEs play a critical role in Nigeria’s economy, contributing significantly to GDP and employment. However, despite their critical role, many Nigerian SMEs face persistent challenges in achieving sustainable performance. While EO has been recognized as a key factor driving SME success, its relationship with performance outcomes is often inconsistent. This study introduces architectural marketing capabilities as a key mediating factor that potentially bridges EO dimensions and SME performance. This study aims to fill the gap by examining how AMC can mediate the impact of EO on SME performance underpinning the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Innovation Theory. Marketing capabilities is not merely integrated as supportive tools but as strategic assets that reshape entrepreneurial efforts into tangible performance. A quantitative research design will be employed, using a structured questionnaires to collect data from SME owners and managers across different sectors in Nigeria. The study proposes the use of Structural Equation Model (SEM) to test hypothesized relationships and explore both direct and indirect effects. By examining the mediating role of architectural marketing capabilities, this research seeks to contribute to the theoretical advancement of entrepreneurship and marketing capabilities literature, particularly in the context of developing economies. Furthermore, practical implications will be drawn for SME practitioners and policymakers aiming to enhance firm competitiveness through strategic capability development. The study’s findings are expected to offer valuable insights into how Nigerian SMEs can better align their entrepreneurial strategies with robust marketing architectures to achieve sustainable growth and performance.

The current business performance of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) must be able to innovate in business strategies in a competitive era. MSMEs are at the forefront of contributing to Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and have a considerable role in the Indonesian economy. The study aimed to assess factors contributing to the business performance of MSMEs in Sidoarjo Regency, Indonesia. The total population was 277 MSME owners; using the purposive sampling technique with the Slovin formula, 144 respondents were obtained with an error rate of 5%. Data analysis used SEM-PLS with SmartPLS-3 software. The findings show that entrepreneurial leadership directly affects business performance and innovative work behavior, and innovative work behavior affects business performance. Then, entrepreneurial leadership influences business performance through innovative work behavior. Interestingly, there is no moderating effect of self-efficacy on the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on business performance. MSMEs need to have innovative work behavior to improve their business performance by applying entrepreneurial leadership to increase innovation in business strategies to compete and survive in a competitive era.

SMEs are one of the pillars of the economy that continues to move daily in carrying out its business activities. Each business field has different characteristics, but striving to develop a business and earn income is one of the main capitals to continue to advance. There are so many obstacles faced by MSME players to compete in the market so the management of business breakthroughs is important to support business development. Maintaining a business existence requires a strong entrepreneurial spirit so that it can achieve the desired business goals. Also, market orientation and entrepreneurship could positively impact SMEs' performance. In this study, it is explained that innovation also plays an important role in improving the performance of SMEs. A conceptual structural model that includes aspects of Market Orientation (MO), entrepreneurial orientation (EO), Innovation (I), and SME Performance (SMEP) is developed based on the concept and relationship results from the literature. This study examines the influence of entrepreneurial and market orientation on whether it has a direct or indirect impact on SME performance. This study investigates whether entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation affect the performance of SMEs using innovation mediation. The population of this study is Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the city of Pacitan, East Java engaged in food and beverages, services, and production, with a sample of 100 SMEs. In research using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis tools. and it is expected that this research will have an impact on SMEs in the city of Pacitan, which focuses on how entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation have an impact on SME performance, both directly and indirectly, and how Innovation as a mediating variable can have a direct or indirect impact on entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation on SME performance.

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the effects of a creating shared value (CSV) orientation as well as market and entrepreneurial orientation on small business performance. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lack knowledge-based resources, because of limited business history, experience, and budgets. The effects of entrepreneurial orientation and CSV are examined from a resource-based view. Empirical evidence of the moderating effect of CSV and learning orientation on firm performance is lacking, especially in SMEs in South Korea. We collected 300 samples from SMEs, and analysed the data using quantile regression, which explores the effects of covariates at various quantile levels of a conditional distribution. This differs from previous studies on SMEs, which dealt with the conditional mean (ordinary least squares). The results confirm the significant and positive effects of CSV orientation on firm performance and that entrepreneurial orientation and the moderating effects of learning and CSV orientation are more effective for firms in the mid to upper quantiles in terms of performance. We also examined whether the effects of entrepreneurial and CSV orientation differ for firms with low and high performance using quantile regression. The results indicate that strategic orientations need to be different in low and high-performing businesses. The results address the heterogeneity of SME performance in strategic orientation analyses.

In recent times, the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has generated increased interest because of their crucial contribution to the national and global economies. Against this back drop, this study empirically investigated the impact of entrepreneurial behaviour on the performance of SMEs in South-West, Nigeria. Specifically, this study evaluated the combined impact of entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial competency, entrepreneurial mindset, and social network on the performance of SMEs. This study adopted a survey research design. The population of this study consisted of one hundred and forty-nine thousand, three hundred and seventeen (149,317) registered SMEs in operation with Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) as at the end of December, 2021 in South West, Nigeria. This study adopted a tabular approach proposed by Gill et al. (2010) Gill et al. (2010), as cited in Taherdoost (2017), to arrive at a sample size of six hundred and fifty-nine (659) respondents. This study employed multi-stage sampling technique, involving stratified sampling, proportionate sampling, and simple random sampling. The primary data used for the analyses were collected from the respondents through the use of structured questionnaire, and responses were analysed using descriptive and multiple regression analysis. The results revealed entrepreneurial behaviours (entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial competency, entrepreneurial mindset, and social network) had a significant and positive impact on the performance of SMEs (Adjusted R2 = 0.878, p< 0.05). This study concluded that entrepreneurial behaviours enhanced the performance of SMEs in South-West, Nigeria. The study recommended that SMEs’ owners and managers should adopt an entrepreneurial approach, including entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial competency, entrepreneurial mindset, and social network strategies. By doing so, they can develop more innovative products and services, outperform competitors, improve output, and retain customers in their operating sector.

The primary objective of this study is to critically examine the effect of strategic orientation on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Three most comprehensive constructs, namely, entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and interaction orientation were adopted to present a holistic picture of the effect of strategic orientation on firm performance. This study adopts a cross-sectional design and uses the stratified random sampling method to select the potential respondents. The complete data were collected from 473 entrepreneurs who operate in the service sector in Malaysia. Findings of this study show that entrepreneurial and market orientations have a positive effect on superior firm performance. As entrepreneurial orientation is shown to be the construct sharing a positive relationship with all the other constructs in the model, it has been identified as the most significant strategic orientation. SMEs in Malaysia should therefore focus on adopting strategies in market orientation by appropriate marketing efforts, and in entrepreneurial orientation where the entrepreneur needs to adopt a proactive stance to counter challenges in the market of new products and changing customer preferences.

MSMEs play an important role in the national economy, they face significant challenges in the era of digitalization and rapidly changing environmental dynamics. The role of entrepreneurial orientation in MSMEs is very important to encourage business actors to have good business performance. However, previous studies have found inconsistent results in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance. This phenomenon creates a research gap, so researchers try to overcome this inconsistency by using the social media adoption variable as a mediating variable. This study aims to test the mediating role of social media adoption and the moderating effect of environmental competitiveness and environmental dynamism in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial marketing on business performance in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Data analysis was carried out using quantitative methods and sampling techniques using the purposive sampling method processed using SEM-PLS on 200 MSMEs in Indonesia. The research findings show that entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial marketing have a positive and significant effect on MSME business performance. Furthermore, mediation of social media adoption contributes to increasing marketing effectiveness, thereby strengthening business performance. It was also found that environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance, while environmental competitiveness has no significant impact on MSME business performance. This study provides practical implications that MSMEs need to be more proactive in adopting social media, utilizing it for brainstorming ideas, seeking information, and developing creative, adaptive entrepreneurial strategies, to be able to increase MSME competitiveness in a changing environment and market, so that they can maintain, even improve their business performance.

This study aims to examine the influence of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. The research method used is a quantitative method with a survey approach. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to 200 MSME actors in the trade, service, and creative industry sectors selected using purposive sampling techniques. The results of the study indicate that both market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation have a positive and significant effect on MSME performance. Entrepreneurial orientation has a greater influence than market orientation. The conclusion of this study states that both orientations are strategic elements that need to be considered by MSME actors to improve their competitiveness and business performance. Keywords: Competitiveness, Market Orientation, Entrepreneurial Orientation, MSME Performance

Retailing is an essential economic, social and cultural activity, and a strong retail sector makes a significant contribution to local, state and national economies. Small retailers contribute to their local areas by providing a variety of goods, employment opportunities, and an alternative to offerings from multinational corporations. In a shrinking global market retailers, particularly small retail firms, operate in increasingly volatile and competitive trading environments. Although the challenges facing the retail industry have been widely addressed in both the academic and trade literature, the accumulated research in the area of retailing has concentrated on the performance of large retailers. There is a dearth of research focussing on small retail firms and only a limited number of studies examining the resources utilised by high performing small retailers. Using the lens of R-A theory to address this gap in the research, this study aimed to empirically investigate the relationship between firm resources (informational, relational, physical, financial, human and organisational) and performance in small retail firms by identifying which resources are associated with higher levels of firm performance. This study further examined the effect of three mediating factors (strategic orientation, strategic planning capability and entrepreneurial orientation) and two moderating factors (customer orientation and environmental hostility) on the relationship between resources and performance. This study used a quantitative methodology. Data were collected via a mail survey delivered to 2,013 small retailers throughout the island State of Tasmania, Australia. Completed surveys were received from 401 small retailers; with 322 surveys returned as undeliverable this provides a response rate of 23.7%. The findings confirmed that two of the six proposed resources – informational (business) resources and access to financial capital – were important for firm performance. A third resource – informational (web) resources – was found to be negatively related to firm performance. Strategic planning capability was found to be positively related to firm performance, as well as to strategic orientation (a prospector orientation). Strategic planning capability positively mediated the relationship between informational (business), physical, relational, and human and organisational resources and performance. The findings further show that a firm’s strategic orientation is important for firm performance. While both a prospector orientation and a defender/analyser orientation were found to be positively related to performance, firms with a prospector orientation reported higher levels of performance. While no relationship was found between entrepreneurial orientation and performance, the study confirmed a positive relationship with a prospector orientation and with strategic planning capability. Similarly, customer orientation was not found to be related to firm performance; however, there was support for the moderation effect of customer orientation on the relationships between physical resources and two of the proposed mediators: a defender/analyser orientation and entrepreneurial orientation. No relationship was found between owner/manager perceptions of environmental hostility and firm performance; nor did environmental hostility moderate the relationship between resources and performance. The findings have implications for both retail theory and retail practice. This research contributes to the small retail firm literature, and extends the use of R-A theory in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and retailing. Through the development of a conceptual model, this research contributes to the extant research on small retailer resources and performance by confirming specific resources related to higher levels of firm performance, and by highlighting the mediating or moderating effect of several factors on the relationship between resources and performance. From a practical perspective, the findings of this study have significant implications for the retailing industry by assisting small retail firms to identify which resources and strategies can lead to higher levels of firm performance.

Purpose – This study aims to contribute to the literature by addressing two research questions: is there a relationship between e-commerce adoption and performance of SMEs? And, more importantly, does the degree of entrepreneurial orientation moderate the relationship between e-commerce adoption and SME performance? Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from a sample of 55 manufacturing and service SMEs located in the state of Texas, USA, between 2008 and 2009 using a structured questionnaire. Customized questionnaires were mailed out to the owner-managers of 55 SMEs. A moderated regression analysis was conducted to test the two hypotheses. Findings – The results suggest that e-commerce adoption has a significant, positive influence on SMEs' average sales growth rate and that adopters of e-commerce technology have significantly higher average sales growth rate than non-adopters. The results also indicate that e-commerce adoption positively affects SMEs' annual sales growth rate even more when the sample firms have higher level of entrepreneurial orientation. Overall, the results of this analysis indicate the importance of e-commerce adoption as well as SMEs' entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of SMEs. Research limitations/implications – The findings of this study can be useful for SMEs in general as a means of understanding how e-commerce adoption positively affects the firm's performance. Such a relationship suggests that e-commerce adoption is an important factor that can enhance firm's internal processes and ultimately performance. Therefore, e-commerce adopters should continue to utilize this technology while non-adopters should consider harnessing the potential of this technology to further streamline their operations and effectiveness. Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the role of e-commerce adoption and entrepreneurial orientation in small firm performance.

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are currently the largest segment of national economic actors. Small industry plays an important role as a tool for the community as a solution to survive the economic crisis. SMEs can help the government to reduce the number of unemployed. So that in Indonesia, small businesses are often associated with government efforts to reduce unemployment, fight poverty and equalize income. Many products produced by MSMEs are currently able to compete in the domestic market. Some MSMEs still have various external and internal weaknesses, such as being less creative and innovative in creating new products, and not knowing what the market needs. The purpose of this study is to determine whether product, price, promotion, and location have a joint effect on the marketing performance of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. This study used a quantitative approach and the sample this study was only taken from as many as 80 UMKM consumers. The data analysis technique used is the validity test, reliability test, normality test, linearity test, and homogeneity test. Testing the analytical model in this study using multiple linear regression analysis, t-test, f test, and r determination. Based on the results of the study using the t-test, it was found that the product had a significant effect on the marketing performance of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, the price had no significant effect on the marketing performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the promotion had no and no significant effect on the marketing performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. , location has a significant effect on the marketing performance of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. From the f test, it is found that product, price, promotion, and location together have a significant effect on the marketing performance of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, organisational orientation, and innovation performance of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in KwaZulu Natal province. To instil innovation culture, an organisational architecture of SMEs should accommodate both organisational and entrepreneurial factors in order to create a synergy that is likely to achieve innovation objectives of SMEs. The empirical investigation was based on a quantitative study and used a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from owner-managers of 308 small and medium firms in the manufacturing sector. The provincial SMEs database from the Kwa-Zulu Natal Department of Economic Development and Tourism was used and it contained an estimate population of 1255 SMEs. This study found that there was a positive and significant correlation between entrepreneurial orientation and organisational orientation dimensions. It further established that organisational and entrepreneurial dimensions were correlated with innovation performance dimensions in the SMEs. An aptly entrepreneurial orientation is proven to be grounded in a related organisational orientation. This implies that an organisational strategy, its culture, structure, systems and the management style in SMEs strengthen the entrepreneurial strategy leading to improvements in the standard of the product, the process, the market position and the business model of SMEs. In the same context, other organisational factors such as available rewards, SMEs’ age, size and ownership provided another dimension and an insight into the innovation performance of SMEs. Based on the findings, the researcher suggests two models: the proximity model of the correlation between entrepreneurial orientation and organisational orientation and the new model of innovation performance for SMEs. The managerial implication is that the success of an entrepreneurial strategy of an SME is rooted into organisational orientation dimensions: culture, structure, strategy, systems and management style of owner-managers. However, an organisational orientation is proven to be driven by a mindset which, if entrepreneurial, leads to an entrepreneurial orientation and consequently achieve an innovation performance of SMEs. With such variables, the study recommends new approaches in line with the suggested models in support of manufacturing SMEs and the manufacturing sector in terms of managerial decision-making about firms’ innovation performance and competitiveness at organisational and sectorial levels.