Entrepreneurial and market orientations: The moderating role of social networks on post-entry performance of international new ventures

Abstract

This paper investigates whether entrepreneurial and marketing orientations (respectively EOs and Mos) impact – individually or collectively – international new ventures’ (INVs’) post-entry performance growth. Furthermore, we investigate whether such relations are moderated by the foreign social networks, both formal and informal, of international new ventures. Using a survey, we test our hypotheses on a sample of Italian high-tech INVs located in a cluster near Rome. A quantitative analysis is used to test the hypotheses. We found that EOs and MOs positively impact the post-entry international performance growth of INVs. Moreover, while informal foreign social network ties significantly moderate the impact of EOs and MOs, formal foreign social network ties do not have a significant moderating effect. Many theoretical and practical contributions are discussed in the paper.

The relationship between digital orientation, organizational ambidexterity, and growth strategies of rural SMEs in time of crisis

“…Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) can apply different growth strategies in pursuing growth (e.g., Eide et al, 2021), and ubiquitous digitalization is changing the environment in which SMEs, particularly rural SMEs, operate (Klein and Todesco, 2021; Singh et al, 2021; Troise et al, 2022), but the level of digital maturity in SMEs varies (North et al, 2020). Further, while prior studies examine different strategic orientations in relation to performance and growth, such as entrepreneurial orientation (Ferreira et al, 2021; Ince et al, 2023) and market orientation (Presutti et al, 2023), so far, little is known about the relationship between growth strategies and digital orientation (DO), i.e., the strategic positioning of an SME to take advantage of opportunities offered by digital technologies. Growth strategies, i.e., market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification, are now applied in an increasingly digital world, but there is a gap in our understanding of how growth strategies interact with DO.…”