The Effect of Entrepreneurial Market Orientation on Firm Performance: The Case of SMEs in Egypt

This research aims to investigate the influence of Entrepreneurial Market Orientation (EMO) and its component items on SMEs performance in Egypt. It also aims to investigate factors that might affect EMO-performance relationship. EMO conceptual model has been developed, and twelve hypotheses have been proposed in order to test the model and the study variables. The study used mixed research design. Qualitative data obtained from 25 face-to-face interviews was analyzed using content and frequency analysis. Quantitative data collected from 403 surveys was analyzed with IBM (c) SPSS (c) Statistics Version 20 using bivariate correlation and linear regression analysis. Results confirmed the validity of the proposed model and that EMO and its component items have significant positive impact on SMEs performance. Study results did not support the moderating effect of external environment and firm characteristics within EMO-performance relationship. However, data revealed that external environment have direct effect on performance, and that service firms are more likely to succeed in the Egyptian market. The findings contribute to EMO literature, as up to now no significant amount of research has been conducted related to this field of study, and few in the Egyptian context. Findings will help academics to make proper directions for future researches in different settings and contexts regarding EMO. The research also contributes to a better knowledge of factors affecting performance of Egyptian SMEs. Findings are valuable to entrepreneurs and SMEs stakeholders to more consider entrepreneurial market orientation strategies in order to enhance firms' performance.