ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF E-BUSINESS IN MALAYSIA: THE MODERATING ROLE OF EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

There has been relatively little research that examines the relationship between the external environment and their consequences on the organizational performance of e-business in developing countries. This research represents an attempt to do so from the Malaysian e-business perspectives. This research examines the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and organizational performance and on the role of the external environment as a moderator between the relationships. The consideration of putting moderator factors in this research allows more precise descriptions of the relationship between the two variables mentioned and the outcome of the research. This study was grounded by Resource-Based View theory as the underlying basis. This study adopted a quantitative approach where 400 questionnaires were distributed to the target population and 381 were returned. Structural Equation Modelling was performed on the quantitative data using SMART PLS 3.0. The quantitative findings indicated that entrepreneurial orientation variables of innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy have significant effects on financial and non-financial organizational performance. However, the moderating effect of the external environment on the relationship was found not significant. This study concluded that entrepreneurial orientation and the external environment are vital to promoting the organizational performance of e-business in Malaysia. These findings able to serve as a guideline for e-business owners or founders to improve their organizational performance thus compete in the digital sphere.