“…Some studies have found a direct relationship between EO and performance (Alarape, 2013; Kraus, Rigtering, Hughes, & Hosman, 2012; Lomberg, Urbig, Stöckmann, Marino, & Dickson, 2017) while others have claimed an indirect relationship (Jiang, Liu, Fey, & Jiang, 2018; Karami & Tang, 2019; Kohtamäki, Heimonen, & Parida, 2019). Considering the recent theories and arguments, many researchers believe that EO does not directly contribute to firm performance, but it first creates and crosses market orientation (Amin, Thurasamy, Aldakhil, & Kaswuri, 2016), networking ability (Karami & Tang, 2019), organization culture (Jeong, Ali, Zacca, & Park, 2019), and so forth. In addition to the indirect relationship, studies have also suggested that several moderators such as government financial incentives (Khattak & Shah, 2020a) and observation capacity (Kohtamäki, Heimonen, & Parida, 2019).…”