“…In developing countries, micro, small, and medium-sized rms (SMEs) have traditionally been seen as a driving force for long-term economic growth and employment creation (Zaazou & Salman Abdou, 2021). Around 2.5 million SMEs operate in Egypt, accounting for 75 percent of the total workforce and 99 percent of non-agricultural private sector companies (Abdelkareem, 2020;Anter & Elnagy, 2019). Despite their importance, they are still facing several problems related to poor performance, low entrepreneurial spirit, and, weak execution of rm strategy (AlQershi, 2021; Chakraborty et al, 2019;Isichei et al, 2020).…”