Abstract:
Export is one of the most important factors influencing economic growth.
Small and Medium – Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role to develop
export performance of Sri Lanka. The purpose of this study is to identify the
impact of entrepreneurial orientation and innovation capability towards export
performance of SMEs in Sri Lanka and also identify the impact of
entrepreneurial orientation on innovation capability of SMEs and measure the
mediating effect of innovation capability on relationship between
entrepreneurial orientation and export performance. There are limited
researches are available to identify the mediating effect of innovation capability
on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and export
performance. Accordingly, this study intended to test the mediating effect of
innovation capability on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation
and export performance. The operational population of this study is 3095 SME
exporters. Data was collected through the database maintained by the Sri Lanka
Export Development Board distributing questionnaires among 200 SME
exporters. In this context, 143 exporters were respondent. Both descriptive and
inferential statistics techniques were used to analysis the collected data using
SPSS 20. Study result revealed that direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation
and innovation capabilities on the export performance. Moreover, relationship
between the entrepreneurial orientation and export performance partially
mediated by innovation capabilities. According to the result, entrepreneurs are
encouraged to improve their educational level in order to improve the success
of businesses and also entrepreneurs should be more innovative to retain in the
export market. Further, product quality is important factor to compete with
other competitors in the export market.
