Volume 18, No. 6, 2021
Market Orientation And The Sustainable Growth Of Firms: The Moderating Role Of Access To External Finance: A Study Of Manufacturing Smes In Kpk, Pakistan
Yasir Arafat , Dr. Muhammad Jehangir , Asfandyar Rahim , Sher Nawaz Khan , Shahid Ali
Abstract
Studies show that SMEs survival rate at the early stage of their start-up is very low as compared to bigger firms. This is particularly more prominent in developing countries and is also a huge problem for Pakistani SMEs, where the business environment is very unstable and hard to compete. This study examined using the Resource Based View (RBV) of firms, the effect of market orientation for the improvement in SMEs performance and achievement of sustainable growth (SG).We have taken Access to External Finance (AEF) as a moderator in the proposed relationship. The focus of the study was Manufacturing SMEs of KPK, Pakistan. A questionnaire was developed using the Likert Scale for the collection of data. The Partial Least Square Analysis (PLS-SEM) is used to examine the research model as it is most appropriate for the sample size. The response rate for the questionnaire was 33 percent including face to face interviews. The findings from 78 filled questionnaires from owners and managers from these firms are presented. The results show that Market Orientation (MO) is significantly positively associated to Sustainable growth of SMEs, which is consistent with previous research. Access to Finance also impacts positively the Sustainable growth variable. Further, it is revealed that Access to Finance moderates the link between Market Orientation and Sustainable Growth for SMEs.
Pages: 583-606
Keywords: Market Orientation, Sustainable Growth, Access to external Finance, Small and medium enterprises