Market and entrepreneurial orientations as predictors of small and medium enterprises’ performance in the COVID-19 era

  • Received February 18, 2022;
    Accepted May 4, 2022;
    Published June 7, 2022
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.18(2).2022.14
  • Article Info
    Volume 18 2022, Issue #2, pp. 161-173
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

The COVID-19 pandemic affected all sectors of the economy, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, it has been observed that while some SMEs succumb to the pandemic, others thrive. Therefore, the study investigates the influence of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation as well as their dimensions on the performance of SMEs in the COVID-19 era. A cross-sectional research design was adopted in the study. The data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 385 SME owners and managers in Lagos State, Nigeria. 328 copies of the questionnaire, representing 85.1%, were retrieved and used for the analyses. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that entrepreneurial orientation and its dimensions significantly influenced SME performance. Innovativeness and pro-activeness positively influenced performance, while risk-taking negatively influenced performance. Furthermore, the findings indicate that market orientation and its dimensions have no significant influence on SME performance during COVID-19. The insights from the findings will help SME owners and managers to run their operations in a challenging business environment. It will also help SME development agencies in their efforts to encourage SME growth and long-term viability.

Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the SME owners and managers who served as respondents for the study.

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    • Figure 1. Structural equation model of predictors of SME performance during COVID-19
    • Table 1. Demographic profile of the respondents and business
    • Table 2. Validity and reliability of measuring items
    • Table 3. Fornell-Larcker criterion
    • Table 4. Item cross-loadings
    • Table 5. Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) ratios
    • Table 6. R-Square
    • Table 7. Relationships of the first order constructs with their second-order constructs
    • Table 8. Hypotheses testing
    • Conceptualization
      Salome O. Ighomereho
    • Methodology
      Salome O. Ighomereho
    • Project administration
      Salome O. Ighomereho
    • Supervision
      Salome O. Ighomereho
    • Writing – original draft
      Salome O. Ighomereho
    • Data curation
      Sola T. Afolabi
    • Formal Analysis
      Sola T. Afolabi
    • Software
      Sola T. Afolabi
    • Writing – review & editing
      Sola T. Afolabi, Solomon A. Agada, Afolabi A. Ojo
    • Investigation
      Solomon A. Agada, Afolabi A. Ojo
    • Resources
      Solomon A. Agada, Afolabi A. Ojo
    • Validation
      Solomon A. Agada
    • Visualization
      Afolabi A. Ojo