The Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Innovation Performance in Nigerian Firms: The Mediating Effect of Knowledge Management

Abstract

Entrepreneurial orientation has grown in prominence as a productive structure that includes complex sets of interactions that drive economic actors’ competitive skills by inducing innovation. However few econometric indices have been carried out within emerging economies. Hence this paper seeks to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial orientations on innovation performance in Nigeria, using knowledge management as a mediating factor. Before doing so, we marry the insights of several pieces of works of literature on knowledge management, and innovation performance, stemming from Organizational Theory of Innovation, and Schumpeterian Theory of Innovation. A survey design was adopted for the study. A valid sample of 329 impacted the study using the Cochran formulae for sample size determination. The research employed the Partial Least Square method for the main analysis and the Ordered Logistic Regression method for robustness check. In this study, we accept all hypotheses due to their significant and mutual relationship to the measured variable. Though knowledge management capability showed an insignificant impact on innovation performance, it correlated strongly with innovation performance in the matrix analysis. Even though the knowledge management capability construct variable was statistically insignificant on the dependent variable, there was a positive correlation. This can further be investigated in future research to ascertain reality. Hence, this research is a call on policy ramification and blueprint approach not only for firms in Nigeria but in other jurisdictions striving for innovation performance. The research findings indicate that businesses with high entrepreneurial orientation can identify new opportunities and have higher inclination to successful performance.