Amel Farhan Swadi

Organizational entrepreneurial characteristics (OEC) have received less attention compared with the individual entrepreneurial ones. In addition, few studies examined this issue in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of OEC on the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of an organizational member. OEC are operationalized to include top management support (TMS), organizational culture (OC), and transformational leadership (TL). Two moderators are proposed in this study: the CEO’s education and company`s size. The data were collected via purposive sampling using a questionnaire; a survey included 206 SMEs in Iraq. The data were analyzed using AMOS. The findings indicate that the impact of EOC (B = 0.14) on OE is positive. Its dimensions TL (B = 0.14) and TMS (0.50) also impacted positively the OE. CEO’s education and company size moderated positively the effect of OEC on OE. Decision makers are advised to pay more attention to leadership style and adopt open culture as well as free expression and tolerance among SMEs in Iraq.