Korea Trade Review (무역학회지)

Korea Trade Research Association (한국무역학회)
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The Effect of competitive strategy on Firms' Export Performance : Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation

중국 중소기업의 경쟁전략이 수출성과에 미치는 영향 : 기업가 지향성의 조절 효과를 중심으로

  • Sangyun Han (Department of Industrial Channel Management, Kongju National University) ;
  • Hongchao Liu (Graduate School, Department of Trade and Commerce, Daejeon University)
  • 한상연 (국립공주대학교 산업유통학과) ;
  • 유굉초 (대전대학교 대학원 무역통상학과)
  • Received : 2022.07.20
  • Accepted : 2022.08.29
  • Published : 2022.08.30
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Abstract

For venturing into international markets, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have not only emphasized internal resources but entrepreneurial orientation has also become the need of the day due to its significant role in increasing firm's competitive capabilities. Although research indicates that the competitive strategies can significantly impact export performance, minor attention is given to the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, business competitive strategy and export performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study scrutinizes the effect of each dimension of entrepreneurial orientation (i.e., innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness) and each of generic competitive strategies (i.e., cost leadership and differentiation) on the export performance of Chinese SMEs. And we investigated the moderating effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between the competitive strategies and export performance. We surveyed 217 Chinese SMEs through a structured questionnaire. For the data analysis and hypotheses testing, we used AMOS. 27. The findings display that differentiation and cost leadership strategies significantly improve export performance. The innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness also spur Chinese SME's export performance. Further we find that adding entrepreneurial orientation significantly improves our model of the relationship between the competitive strategies and export performance. Thus, our study extends the entrepreneurial orientation literature and provides interesting new insights into how entrepreneurial orientation helps firms create more successful export operations.

Keywords

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