Entrepreneurial orientation, executives' individualism and firm performance: the moderating role of executives' individualism

Some studies have found that firms have more entrepreneurial orientation (EO) performs better. Others have failed to find this positive relationship. This raises the problem of whether EO is always an appropriate strategic orientation or if its relationship with performance is more complex. This study examines how executive' individualism impact the relationship between EO and firm performance within a sample of 218 US small and medium-sized firm (an SME). Executives' individualism is used as the moderating variable for explaining the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. The results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation is positively related to firm performance and, executives' individualism plays a moderating role in this relationship. The results strongly support firms with an EO that have executives with high individualism will have higher performance than those that have executives with low individualism. The study suggests the EO-performance relationship is more complex than previous studies present.