Entrepreneurial Orientation and Organizational Performance

: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Capabilities

In this study, we identified the various mechanisms through which entrepreneurial orientation impacts firm performance. We proposed that entrepreneurial orientation assists organizations in building cultural, structural, human and technical knowledge capabilities, which in turn lead to sustainable competitive advantage. We tested our proposed hypothesis using data collected from 76 managers of small entrepreneurial firms. We found that cultural knowledge capabilities are the strongest mediators of entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance relationship. By bringing in knowledge capabilities in the literature of entrepreneurial orientation, we open new directions for research. Our findings have implications for theory as well as practice.