Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), and Performance in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): Gender Gap and Inter-Country Context

Vera Butkouskaya, Joan Llonch-Andreu and María-del-Carmen Alarcón-del-Amo
Additional contact information
Joan Llonch-Andreu: Business Department, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
María-del-Carmen Alarcón-del-Amo: Marketing Department, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Expanding and maintaining the number of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is directly related to sustainable economic, social, and individual development. However, SMEs are vulnerable to competition. Thus, this study focusses on the analysis of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as an antecedent of integrated marketing communications’ (IMC) successful implementation directed at improving SMEs’ performance, with additional focus on the institutional inter-country context. Considering the role of owner-managers in SMEs, analysis of the gender gap is also applied. The data from 315 managers’ surveys (in Spain and Belarus) is analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results show a positive relationship between EO, IMC, and performance among SMEs in both markets. However, these connections are significantly stronger in the case of male, rather than female managers in a developed market (Spain). There is no gender gap in an emerging market (Belarus). Moreover, and conversely, in a developing market, the EO-IMC-performance relations are more intensive when the manager is female. Further implementations are provided for practitioners and government organizations with a focus on the gender gap and inter-country differences.

Keywords: SMEs; entrepreneurial orientation; IMC capability; organizational performance; competitive advantage; gender; inter-country analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/7159/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/7159/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:7159-:d:407699

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().