The mediating effect of reconfiguring capabilities on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance of small and medium enterprises

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to test the mediating effect of reconfiguring capabilities coupled with entrepreneurial strategic orientation on the export performance of SMEs. This is imperative due to weak recovery, and slows down in global economic growth; it becomes pertinent to employ fundamentals that can drive growth and employment creation in the short to medium term in uncertain environment. Building on prior researches which suggested that continuous improvement and regenerative dynamic capabilities of a firm would enhance firm performance, this study explored this objective through survey data from 201 manufacturing exporting SMEs in Nigeria. Our findings indicate that firm’s reconfiguring capabilities mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance and entrepreneurial strategic orientation also have positive and significant effect on export performance of SMEs. This re-established the fact that potential source of competitive advantage could always be achieved when reconfiguring capabilities are combined with entrepreneurship.

Keywords: reconfiguring capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation, Small and Medium enterprises, export performance.