Entrepreneural orientation and business performance of small and medium entreprises in Kerala role of individual and environmental factors

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in the social newlineand economic development of a country. SMEs have to plan and execute newlinetheir strategies to survive and prosper in a constantly changing business newlineenvironment, by engaging in entrepreneurial behaviours. One such newlinedistinguished concept of strategy making in strategic management and newlineentrepreneurship literature is entrepreneurial orientation (EO). newlineEntrepreneurial Orientation is a construct observed at organisational newlinelevel that has systematically been shown to influence both financial and nonfinancial newlineperformance along various dimensions. Therefore, it may be newlinepresumed that adopting EO may improve the business performance of SMEs newlinein Kerala. There is no entrepreneurship without the entrepreneur and newlinetherefore it remains worthwhile to study entrepreneurship at the individual newlinelevel because entrepreneurs are the energizers of the entrepreneurial process. newlineThus finding the right balance and relationship between the dispositional newlinecharacteristics of entrepreneurs to specific firm-level behaviours for newlineexplaining and predicting firm-level outcomes is essential for a complete newlineunderstanding of the entrepreneurship process. Researches have shown that newlinethe relationship between EO and performance is context-specific and has newlinesuggested that the external environment influences the degree of the newlinerelationship between EO and firm performance. This research seeks to newlineaddress the information gap by empirically studying the individual related newlinefactors leading to Entrepreneurial Orientation in small and medium newlineenterprises, the linkage between EO and firm performance, and the role of newlinethe environment as a moderator in EO- Performance relationships.Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from newlineentrepreneurs in the small and medium sector industrial units. Validated newlineinstruments were used to measure all the variables. After checking for newlinereliability and validity, data analysis was done using ANOVA for testing newlinethe impact of demographic variables.