Construing drivers of firm competitiveness: coalescing pursuit of excellence with entrepreneurial competencies

Purpose The burgeoning population has an adverse impact on the employability prospects in the emerging economies and has triggered entrepreneurial activities to steer this predicament. The purpose of this study intends to explicate the major entrepreneurial competencies that drive firm competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach Three industrial estates were selected from the two major industrial districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. The study used a cross-sectional design and responses from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) entrepreneurs were collected by employing a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was applied to empirically validate the proposed hypotheses in the study. Findings The study discerns the enablers of firm competitiveness and pursuit of excellence. The results reveal that the need for achievement and locus of control competencies strikingly augment firm competitiveness while risk-taking capability and innovativeness competencies aggrandize pursuit of excellence competency. The study further adduces that pursuit of excellence partially mediates between the liaison of risk-taking capability and innovativeness on the one end and firm competitiveness on the other. Research limitations/implications The study demonstrates the compelling determinants of firm competitiveness and pursuit of excellence that might embolden training institutes and banks to emphasize the identified competencies for enhancing firm competitiveness and advancing loans. Originality/value There is a paucity of literature on "pursuit of excellence" and "firm competitiveness" regarding the MSME sector in India. Therefore, the study contributes to the literature by synthesizing these constructs in an epigrammatic conceptual model. The study is distinctive because it is one of the rare studies to explore the mediating effects of the pursuit of excellence entrepreneurial competency.