International Entrepreneurial Orientation and Performance of Romanian Small and Medium-sized firms: Empirical Assessment of Direct and Environment Moderated Relations

Abstract

Abstract The Europe 2020 Strategy claims entrepreneurship as catalyst of technological, social and economic output. In this sense, small and medium-sized firms with entrepreneurial orientation potentially represent the most dynamic actors of the European transition economies. Therefore, the study aims to identify the role entrepreneurial orientation can play in the creation of international performance in the case of Romanian small and medium-sized firms. The critical analysis of theoretical literature and empirical results impose, on one hand, the reconceptualisation of entrepreneurial orientation within the international business framework, on the other hand, the analysis of virtually unexplored potential relations between international entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. Besides the aggregated and multidimensional exploration of the research model, the complex relation of international entrepreneurial orientation with foreign sales and profitability performance measure is considered also in the framework of the contingency theory via the foreign market specific business environment dynamics and hostility.