The Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on SMEs’ Performance: The Case of the Northern Region of Morocco

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a real actor not only in the development of society but also in societal change and its emergence leads to a more open economy where innovation, business creation, and multiplication of innovative projects have become, in all sectors, engines of wealth, growth and employment. 
 Nowadays, entrepreneurship has given birth to several concepts. One such concept, entrepreneurial orientation (OE), is the subject of our article, which according to (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996; Wiklund & Shepherd, 2003), means the strategic decision-making of companies on the entrepreneurial level. Thus, any company with an entrepreneurial orientation must be characterized by risk-taking, innovation and proactivity. Hence the multidimensional particularity of this concept. This entrepreneurial orientation is essential for any company wishing to renew itself, develop and improve its performance in a dynamic, changing and uncertain environment.
 Ultimately, the purpose of this article is to elucidate through a survey based on a questionnaire conducted in the field with 130 SMEs in the northern region of Morocco. The study showed a favorable result confirming our central hypothesis.
 Therefore, our work would be respectively theoretical and practical. The first part will be devoted to the conceptual foundations of our study while highlighting the literature review through the presentation of different research works and then exposing the methodology adopted and the main features of our sample. Consequently, our second part will be devoted to presenting and discussing the empirical results obtained.