Internationalization of small medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): the effect of entrepreneurial orientation and firm resources on Hong Kong SMEs' export performance

Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have become one of the important drivers of the Hong Kong economy to stimulate innovation and create employment (HKSAR, 2012). As sparse studies were evident in the literature related to SMEs in the Hong Kong context, this dissertation aims to fill this gap by exploring the impact of firm resources and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on the export performance of SMEs in Hong Kong. Thus, this study seeks to understand which resources (i.e., human capital; management commitment; access to capital; organizational resources) and entrepreneurial orientation are most critical to the export performance of small firms. Apart from examining the EO-performance relationship, the external environment is a source of uncertainty. Thus, the moderating effect of market turbulence on the relationship between EO and export performance of SMEs will be investigated. This research aims to contribute to the theoretical and empirical knowledge involving the identification of the resource determinants of export performance of SMEs in the perspective of resource-based view (RBV). The central proposition of the RBV is that a firm’s superior performance relative to other firms can be achieved by acquiring, managing and exploiting firm-specific resources. RBV has proven to be a sound theoretical base, and this study extends the existing empirical literature by testing a resource-based model of export performance. Apart from being an influential framework in the strategic management field, RBV has been widely used in entrepreneurial studies to explain firm performance. Given Hong Kong’s unique entrepreneurial environment, it is definitely an interesting context to study. This study uses a cross-sectional, quantitative design based on data collected using anonymous survey questionnaires from 108 Hong Kong SMEs. The major findings indicated that the resource dimensions of human capital and management commitment were most critical to SMEs. Interestingly, EO was only significant in the manufacturing sample but not the overall sample, and unlike previous research, market turbulence did not moderate the EO-performance relationship and only slightly moderated the relationship in manufacturing SMEs