A Conceptual Framework for the Influence of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Environmental Dynamism on Marketing Innovation Performance in SMEs

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework on the role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in enhancing marketing innovation performance in the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as it has been recommended to improve SMEs performance as a result of adopting the three principal business procedure. The paper was motivated by the importance of SMEs towards job creation, poverty reduction and economic development in most economies particularly among the developing countries. The SMEs sector has more flexibility in the face of environmental change when worldwide competition is becoming more powerful. At this edge of an economy, the level of innovation is the key to their success, growth, and survival. Thus achieving a workable marketing innovation system as well as improving services delivery are becoming critical. The existing literature demonstrates that the effectiveness of SMEs is reliant on the state of environmental influences. The environmental dynamism shapes the achievement of SMEs objectives and overall innovation performance. This study proposes the research framework on the effect of EO on marketing innovation performance. As postulated in the study, EO standin through the five measurements of autonomy, innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness enables a firm to act resourcefully and organize its resources in a way that contributes to marketing innovation performance due to the tendency to act autonomously, the trend to be aggressive toward competition, to proactively pursue market opportunities, and to have the willingness to innovate and bear the risk. On this basis, this study further postulated that environmental dynamism moderates the relationships between the five dimensions of EO and marketing innovation performance.