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Scholars have begun to pay more attention to green entrepreneurial concerns (GEC) and sustainable management of supply chain (SMSC) practices, but the impact of these factors on a firm’s competitive performance (FCP) remains unclear, especially post COVID-19. Although previous studies have examined GEC and SMSC practices, they have mainly focused on assessing their effects on general firm performance, not specifically on FCP and the post-COVID-19 perspective. Therefore, this study investigates the direct links between GEC and SMSC, and between SMSC and FCP from a COVID-19 standpoint. This paper also examines the mediating effect of SMSC on the GEC–FCP relationship, and the moderating effect of digital technologies on the GEC–SMSC correlation. This study is a survey-based empirical research. The survey forms or questionnaires were distributed to 330 companies in Yemen with a response rate of 83.9%. The conceptual framework was assessed with structural equation modeling. The analysis outcomes indicate that GEC significantly affects SMSC and then FCP. The outcomes also unveil that SMSC mediates the GEC–FCP relation. Furthermore, digital technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence and big data analytics) significantly moderate the relationship between GEC and SMSC. This paper contributes to the existing literature by (i) expanding the limited findings of previous SMSC works by delivering a novel factor of GEC to boost the FCP via SMSC post the pandemic; and (ii) increasing knowledge about the effect of digital technologies on advancing SMSC and later FCP post the pandemic. Different from other academic works that have observed SMSC as a direct predicting factor for firm performance, the research offers novel insights about the capability of SMSC to mediate the relationship between GEC and FCP, and digital technologies can support the incorporation of GEC and SMSC for companies’ internal operations, particularly in the era of uncertainty such as in the post-pandemic times.

Due to the important contribution of women to economic development, we propose to investigate the factors that affect women entrepreneurs’ success in Saudi Arabia. 271 women in Saudi Arabia participated in the study. A conceptual model is developed, while PLS-SEM software is used for analysis. The findings show a positive association between women’s empowerment as successful entrepreneurs and certain dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation, including economic factors, autonomy, innovativeness, and proactiveness. These findings shed light on the factors that influence women’s ability to become successful entrepreneurs and identify the dimensions and external factors in the entrepreneurial orientation model that are the best predictors of women’s success. This paper contributes to new knowledge on the conditions of women’s entrepreneurship by developing and validating an analytic model for promoting women’s entrepreneurship Saudi Arabia. From a policy perspective, the model can inform the design of training programs to support women’s entrepreneurship in the country. The study has practical implications and suggests future directions for research in this field$.$

The study of patterns of small firm strategic behavior, or strategic orientation, is gradually gaining prominence in the literature. Strategic behavior is a consequence of various antecedents, such as the prevalent management philosophy and environmental dynamism. It, in turn, determines the particular engineering stance adopted, structures and processes deployed, and ultimately, organizational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to critique, enhance and extend a model proposed by Aloulou and Fayolle (2005) that is focused particularly on the entrepreneurial orientation of small firms. A model is proposed for small firm strategic orientation that is based on a configurational approach, and applies the concepts of the adaptive cycle and the firm's lifecycle. The rationale for, and the various dimensions of the proposed model are described, and recommendations made for future research on small firm strategic behavior.

This study examines the interplay between entrepreneurial, technology and customer orientations and company performance using data from 164 software companies. To conduct the analysis, the study applies PLS (partial least squares) modeling to understand the direct and indirect effects of entrepreneurial, customer and technology orientations on the performance of a software company. The results indicate that entrepreneurial and customer orientations directly affect performance, but, in this context, they do not support the view that a technology orientation directly enhances performance. More importantly, results suggest that an entrepreneurial orientation positively affects both customer and technology orientations. It appears that software companies need a capability to serve customers well, but also need to recognize new business opportunities from within their current customer relationships. The results suggest that to achieve high levels of performance, software companies need to balance the elements of entrepreneurial proactiveness and innovation with customer needs.

Do entrepreneurial companies make responsible corporate citizens? In this paper, we examine the relationship between companies' entrepreneurial orientation and their corporate citizenship. An empirical study consisting of 261 South Korean firms reveals that entrepreneurial orientation does not have direct causal effect on corporate citizenship. Analysis also shows that market orientation has full mediation effect between entrepreneurial orientation and corporate citizenship. The findings indicate that entrepreneurial companies may indeed act more responsibly if they are also market oriented. Practical implications are discussed.

In the context of public universities the use of the entrepreneurial orientation construct is not widespread and still there is no precise definition of what it means. It is, in fact, necessary to consider the peculiarities of universities and then adopt a coherent operationalization of the construct. The main aim of this paper is to identify the determinant attributes of the entrepreneurial orientation within the Italian universities. To this aim, the study moves from a recent and innovative definition of the public universities' entrepreneurial orientation proposed in the literature, and is based on survey data from 103 Italian university departments. A multiple regression analysis and an importance-performance analysis are used to investigate the relationship between the dimensions and the single items used to operationalize the entrepreneurial orientation and the entrepreneurial orientation perceived by the surveyed department heads. The findings show that not all the dimensions and the items considered affect in the same way the Italian university entrepreneurial orientation. Implications and limitations are discussed.

The literature indicates that small and medium scale firms are quite different with respect to their utilization of business practices. Thus, the study endeavours to address the relationships between the market and entrepreneurial orientation, and organizational performance. The study derived two hypotheses in relation to the relationship between market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation, and organisational performance in the attempt to examine how both the orientations contribute to the organizational performance of small and medium entrepreneurs in garment industry at Southern province, Sri Lanka. The sample of the study consisted of 175 respondents representing small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the Southern Province Sri Lanka. A structured questionnaire was administered to the sample respondents to collect data. The data were analyzed with Partial Least Squares path modeling (PLS) to test the hypotheses of the study. The results indicated that the hypotheses were statistically significant and all effects were in the expected direction.

In this study, we examine the ways in which three strategic orientations associated with the firm — entrepreneurial orientation (EO), market orientation (MO), and learning orientation (LO) — affect performance. We hypothesize and test a moderated-mediation framework relating these constructs using a panel dataset of large US retail firms over five years. Our primary finding is that LO mediates the impact of MO on performance and this relationship is strengthened under the moderating influence of EO. In other words, LO acts as a conduit through which the performance effect of MO arises and EO complements MO in terms of impact on performance.

This study addresses a current debate in the family business literature involving the extent to which the family business context hinders or promotes entrepreneurial behavior. The empirical evidence is provided by 155 small-sized firms, 82 family-controlled and 73 nonfamily-controlled, operating in an outermost region, the Autonomous Region of the Azores. This study analyzes the differences between family and nonfamily firms in regard to entrepreneurial orientation and how it is influenced by family participation. Results show that there are differences in entrepreneurship orientation and in two of its three dimensions, while revealing that family participation is negatively associated with entrepreneurial orientation and its three dimensions.

This research attempted to connect the links between leadership styles and virtual team effectiveness. Linking leadership styles with virtual team effectiveness can result in virtual esprit de corps, which has been ignored in the literature. A theoretical model is provided and presents these links based on leadership style characteristics. Each style characteristic is matched with an effectiveness dimension, which was culled from supporting studies in the virtual domain. What this research provides, that others did not, is a topical view of leadership in a virtual context. The conceptualization and development of these links contribute to researchers, team leaders and managers, organizational theory, small business strategy, and policy makers involved in virtual configurations.

Much of the prior research on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has focused on its determinants. This paper attempts to extend a point of view by which the EO allows to grasp the internal and external organizational conditions in order to update its business opportunities and innovate (Aloulou and Fayolle, 2005). The study examines the link between entrepreneurial orientation and innovation intensity through intellectual capital in a turbulent context. Research features were drawn in the light of the literature review and access to the ground. After stimulating the debate on the EO phenomenon and ensuring a critical revisit of its approach, the empirical basis was formed by 155 questionnaire surveys among industrial companies active in Tunisia. The mediating role of intellectual capital and the moderating role of environmental turbulence are highlighted while detecting the context specificities. Analysis reveals important contributions in the management research field.

Environmental intention is a key predictor of environmental behavior but there is little theoretical and empirical evidence on environmental intention, especially in developing countries. To address this gap, we study the environmental intention of industrial owner-managers in Tunisia. Based on Tunisia’s participation in sustainable development programs of the United Nations, it seems to be representative of developing countries. We study the environmental intention of owner-managers through a multidimensional concept rarely mobilized in the environmental field, namely, entrepreneurial orientation. We test our hypotheses in the textile-clothing industry, which is the source of significant amounts of water and air pollution and is among the priority industries designated by the Tunisian state as part of an environmental improvement program in 2014.

Based on a survey of 226 owner-managers, the results show that the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation, namely, innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking, are robust to predict the environmental intention of Tunisian owner-managers.

In this paper, we shed light on the entrepreneurial university in Tunisia through a quantitative survey of 532 heads of Tunisian universities to explore, identify and understand the factors that help a Tunisian university to become an entrepreneurial one. Our results showed that to become entrepreneurial, the university should adopt an entrepreneurial orientation, in other words, it should be innovative, autonomous, proactive, risk taker and competitive. In this context, a proposed conceptual model can be used as a tool for the universities wishing to initiate and implement an entrepreneurial orientation policy.

This research work investigates the simultaneous interaction of entrepreneurial orientation dimensions of the firm with the leader’s psychological factors for a better explanation of SMEs’ performance. The universal and contingency approach are reductionist and do not allow us to achieve the research objective. So, to study the simultaneous interaction between a great number of variables, we are mobilizing for this purpose the configurational approach and particularly, the perspective of alignment (fit) as “configuration”. Indeed, we are pursuing a quantitative methodological approach and conducting a field survey through a research questionnaire distributed to 100 industrial Tunisian SMEs.

The results of this research reveal a taxonomy of four configurations of industrial Tunisian SMEs significantly different from each other and which have different effects on performance. The configurations are named, the “Leader”, the “Creative”, the “Ambitious” and the “Conservative”.

The failure ratio of new ventures across the globe pushes researchers towards finding solutions, but the response is not effective. This research project surveyed 297 new manufacturing enterprises from China to find factors that significantly contribute to the success of new ventures. The results indicated that intellectual capital significantly sustains performance and sustainable competitive advantage in new ventures. The relationship between intellectual capital and new venture performance is partially mediated by a sustainable competitive advantage. Information technology capabilities do not positively impact new venture performance and competitiveness. Entrepreneurial orientation has a significant influence on differentiation strategy and new venture performance. Sustainable competitive advantage does not mediate the path between entrepreneurial orientation and new venture performance, but it fully mediates the association between market orientation and new venture performance. This study recommends that new enterprises focus on intellectual capital, entrepreneurial orientation, and market orientation to acquire a sustainable position in the competitive market. New ventures should also evaluate their technological capabilities to understand why they do not play a vital role. Further implications have been stated.

Despite progress in recognising the popularity of explaining a university’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO), the literature still lacks clear and systematic means of evaluating and measuring university EO. This study seeks to assess the different ways of measuring university EO and develop recommendations for future research to address this gap. Based on a systematic EO review of empirical research were identified three thematic groups: (i) EO and academic entrepreneurship, (ii) EO and entrepreneurial universities, and (iii) EO and academic spinoffs. These results allow for a greater understanding of the research topics and develop an integrated framework, thus helping to measure and refine operationalisations of EO that can help formulate future quantitative studies and increase the empirical accuracy of the field.

The ability of an organisation to endure in the face of critical changes in the business environment and resist disruptions and catastrophic events is a key factor explaining how to be able to manage organisational crises. The resilience of family firms is considered a major capacity that allows them to pass through difficult times and to be sustainable (Miller and Le Breton-Miller, 2005). Although the academic literature argues that family firms are more resilient than non-family firms, the reasons for this presumed superiority are still not clearly identified. In addition, while family firms are a significant component of the economic landscape, research has evidenced variations in this organisational form such that some family firms seem to be more resilient than others. In this research, we highlight two entrepreneurial features that may explain why family firms are resilient in times of crises (and why family firms are heterogeneous in terms of their resilience capacity). We propose a model that aims to test the effect of entrepreneurial orientation and commitment to learning on a family firm’s resilience while considering the moderating effect of a family-to-firm identity fit. More precisely, we first hypothesize that entrepreneurial orientation and commitment to learning positively influence a family firm’s resilience capacity. Then, we suggest that family-to-firm identity fit would negatively moderate these relationships. The empirical investigation is based on a sample of 76 Tunisian family firms. Data were collected through a survey and analysed through Smart PLS modelling. Findings show that the family firm’s commitment to learning is positively associated with family firm’s resilience. However, contrary to expectations, entrepreneurial orientation has no significant effect on family firm’s resilience. Finally and unexpectedly, we found that the more the family is oriented towards preserving family members’ identification with the firm the more commitment to learning would positively influence a family firm’s resilience.

Entrepreneurship, in many low-developed economies, plays an important role in defeating external distress. It is crucial in such situation that entrepreneurial firms resist and even grow. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how entrepreneurial orientation brings about organisational ambidexterity through the mediation role of intellectual capital in the context of a developing country. This paper reports research results combining a qualitative and quantitative evaluation. The exploratory study is based on qualitative case studies and in-depth interview data collected from 15 Tunisian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the industrial sector. Then, the methodology included a survey of 155 SMEs using a questionnaire and structural equation modelling analyses. The results reveal that SMEs leverage internal and external resources to pursue ambidexterity separately or simultaneously. The data were gathered from a sole informant from every firm. Consequently, more in-depth longitudinal study may be requisite to expand deeper insights into the used variables. SME managers need to focus on the specific barriers to ambidexterity and design effective mechanisms to advance the drivers of ambidexterity. The mechanisms to realize ambidexterity as branded in this study will assist SMEs in particular, and firms in general. A new shape of organisation is an open design allowing more outer acquaintance and resources to be riveted, which is claimed as a novel model for organisation. This study combined the concepts of entrepreneurial orientation and intellectual capital as the basis of innovation ambidexterity. Human, organisational and relational capitals are the intermediate mechanisms to explain the effect of entrepreneurial orientation. Moreover, the Tunisian specific context adds more novelty to this study.

The current study built and empirically tested a model of the relationships between selected organisational variables, Organisational Learning (OL) capability and performance in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Theoretical advances in the OL domain have been based on the experiences of large organisations in the western hemisphere. In response, the study focuses on analysing the OL capability of SMEs in a transitional economy, namely Malaysia. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyse the datasets from 256 manufacturing and services SMEs. Statistical results showed that entrepreneurial orientation and human-capital development practices have direct positive effects on SMEs' OL capability. It was further found that human-capital development practices mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and OL capability. This implied that while entrepreneurial orientation fosters the need for a strong OL capability, human-capital development practices serve as the mechanisms for developing such capability. Lastly, empirical evidence was provided to support the notion that OL capability enhances the performance of SMEs.

This study assessed the influence of internal knowledge sourcing on MNEs subsidiaries’ service innovation performance. It also considered the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation, as well as the mediating role of exploitative learning. Empirical analysis was based on primary data gathered from 156 MNE subsidiaries. Various validity and reliability checks were conducted before the presentation of the actual analysis, which was conducted using Ordinary Least Squares approach, run using SPSS (v. 20). Findings indicate that, exploitative learning partially mediates the relationship between internal knowledge sourcing and MNE subsidiaries’ service innovation performance. Entrepreneurial orientation however, dampens the positive relationship between internal knowledge sourcing and exploitative learning. This study adds to the existing debate in the arena of knowledge-based view of the firm.