The Impact of Industry Forces on International SME Performance in Iran: The Mediating Effect of Competitive Advantage

Shahab Sharfaei (), Jeen Wei Ong and Adedapo O. Ojo
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Shahab Sharfaei: Faculty of Business Administration, Prague University of Economics and Business, 130 67 Prague, Czech Republic
Jeen Wei Ong: Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Malaysia
Adedapo O. Ojo: Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Malaysia

Administrative Sciences, 2022, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: International small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) encounter several problems, including how to manage the industry forces in order to achieve their performance goals. Focusing mainly on international SMEs, we explored this issue by examining competitive advantage as a mediator in the relationship between industry forces and international SMEs’ performance. This study was conducted in the context of the Iranian market. Iran offers substantial economic opportunities to international SMEs since it has a population of 85 million people, a range of natural resources, and a sophisticated manufacturing industry. In Iran, an international SME is a firm with less than 100 employees that originated outside of Iran but has an entity inside the country. The partial least squares method was employed in analyzing the survey data collected from 166 international SMEs in Iran. The results indicate that industry forces have significant effects on performance, but competitive advantage does not have a mediating impact. The results of this study reaffirm that international SMEs should be aware of the consequences of industry forces in order to attain their performance goals. This is especially critical for some developing economies which are more characterized by ambiguities.

Keywords: industrial organization; SME performance; structural equation modelling; small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); developing economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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