Entrepreneurial strategic orientation and export performance of Thai small and medium-sized enterprises

This study investigates in the context of Thailand the relationship between a key but most disputed entrepreneurship concept, i.e. entrepreneurial strategic orientation (EO), and business performance of exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study followed a contingency approach in examining the existence of the EO concept, its association with performance, as well as the influences of contingency variables critical to the study context. The study is hypothetical-quantitative and explanatory in nature. A paper-based questionnaire was designed to collect via survey the data important to the study. The data was obtained from 202 exporting SMEs in Thailand. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via AMOS, as well as Tests of Differences in Means including Independent Sample T-test and Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), were techniques employed for data analyses. The findings obtained from the SEM analysis showed that the EO concept did not exist in the context of Thailand and only one attribute of EO, i.e. proactiveness, was found to be crucial to export performance of Thai SMEs. The study also discovered that export environment hostility significantly moderated the relationship between proactiveness and export performance. The T-test results showed that only Thai SMEs with high proactiveness were likely to achieve high export performance. In addition, with the twoway ANOVA, the interaction effect between proactiveness and export environment hostility upon export performance was demonstrated, i.e. enterprises that were proactive when operating in less hostile export environments were high-performing. The findings also indicated that the enterprises that possessed a top manager with external locus of control (LOC) tended to achieve a higher level of performance than those with an internal LOC top manager. With the discovery of findings different from those provided by previous research, this study strengthens understanding of the EO concept and its relation to performance of SMEs in a context different from those frequently investigated in the past. Furthermore, the study is amongst the earliest that examines firm-level entrepreneurship from an international perspective in which there still is scarcity and fragmentation of knowledge. Theoretical, empirical, and praxis contributions and implications emerging from this study may help to consolidate normative theories and research in entrepreneurship for future scholars, as well as possibly helping to a particular extent to offer guidance useful to entrepreneurial practitioners.