Aniek Rumijati

The current business performance of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) must be able to innovate in business strategies in a competitive era. MSMEs are at the forefront of contributing to Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and have a considerable role in the Indonesian economy. The study aimed to assess factors contributing to the business performance of MSMEs in Sidoarjo Regency, Indonesia. The total population was 277 MSME owners; using the purposive sampling technique with the Slovin formula, 144 respondents were obtained with an error rate of 5%. Data analysis used SEM-PLS with SmartPLS-3 software. The findings show that entrepreneurial leadership directly affects business performance and innovative work behavior, and innovative work behavior affects business performance. Then, entrepreneurial leadership influences business performance through innovative work behavior. Interestingly, there is no moderating effect of self-efficacy on the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on business performance. MSMEs need to have innovative work behavior to improve their business performance by applying entrepreneurial leadership to increase innovation in business strategies to compete and survive in a competitive era.