Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation on the Relationship Between Relational Network and Competitive Advantages of Tunisian Contractors

This paper is devoted to analyze the impact of the relational network on the access to the external resources of contractors by integrating the mediating role of the entrepreneurial orientation in the packaging of these effects. Our results show that entrepreneurial orientation exerts significant and positive effects, both direct and indirect, on the competitive advantage of Tunisian small- and medium-sized entreprises (SMEs). The originality of our approach lies in the choice of the context in which our empirical analysis is applied and relative to the Tunisian context. In addition, a range of theoretical approaches has neglected the links between the relational network and entrepreneurial orientation but is highlighted in our paper. The results of this paper seem with high added value especially, for theories based on resources by integrating in our research a key factor conditioning the effects of access to resources on the competitive advantages namely entrepreneurial orientation.