Author(s): Rakesh Gupta
Research in the field of firm level entrepreneurship defined as entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has resulted in the development of a rich body of literature in this field, but there are some concerns about the performance implications of EO on firm growth (Mantok et al., 2019). Past studies have highlighted the need to consider various contextual factors, which can act as moderating variable to throw better light on this gap in literature. There has been increasing clamour to integrate entrepreneurship and marketing disciplines as it is widely believed that EO represented through the dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking provide better customer value through customer orientation (CO), which leads in better firm performance. In the past, there have been few studies who have examined the role of CO as a moderating variable in influencing EO-Firm performance relationship. This resulted in exploring the moderating influence of customer orientation but on individual dimensions of entrepreneurial construct rather than the whole EO construct and small firm growth in the context of emerging economy like India. A total of 290 pen and paper questionnaires were circulated among owners/ senior executives of small and medium firms and finally a total of 189 valid responses were obtained. The study employed quantitative empirical approach with partial least squares structural equation modelling to analyse data. The study contributes to ongoing scholarly conversation by examining synergetic effect of entrepreneurial (long-term) and customer (short-term) orientations on small firm growth through specific dimensions thus showing interesting relationships in the context of emerging economies. The results revealed that small firms with limited resources should avoid pursuing both these orientations together to drive their growth.