Entrepreneurial Orientation and E-business Capabilities of Manufacturing SMEs: An Absorptive Capacity Lens

Author

Raymond, Louis ; Bergeron, Francois ; Croteau, Anne-Marie ; St-Pierre, Josee

fYear

2015

fDate

5-8 Jan. 2015

Firstpage

3740

Lastpage

3749

Abstract

This research uses the absorptive capacity (ACAP) concept as a theoretical lens to study the effect of e-business upon the competitive performance of SMEs, addressing the following research issue: To what extent are manufacturing SMEs successful in developing their potential and realized ACAP in line with their entrepreneurial orientation? A survey study of 588 manufacturing SMEs found that their e-business capabilities, considered as knowledge acquisition and assimilation capabilities have an indirect effect on their competitive performance that is mediated by their knowledge transformation and exploitation capabilities, and insofar as these capabilities are developed as a result of a more entrepreneurial orientation on their part. Finally, the effect of this orientation on the SMEs´ competitive performance appears to be totally mediated by their ACAP.

Keywords

electronic commerce; knowledge acquisition; manufacturing industries; small-to-medium enterprises; ACAP concept; absorptive capacity lens; e-business; entrepreneurial orientation; knowledge acquisition; knowledge assimilation; knowledge transformation; manufacturing SME; Knowledge engineering; Knowledge management; Lenses; Manufacturing; Organizations; Technological innovation; SME; absorptive capacity; competitive performance; e-business capabilities; entrepreneurial orientation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

System Sciences (HICSS), 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on

Conference_Location

Kauai, HI

ISSN

1530-1605

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HICSS.2015.450

Filename

7070267