The Roles of International Entrepreneur Orientation and Geographical Scope Level to Determine International Performance: A Case in the Malaysian Halal Food Industry

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of geographical scope level as a moderator of the relationship between international entrepreneurial orientation and the international performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Malaysian halal food industry. Most of the previous studies have discovered that there is a positive relationship between international entrepreneur orientation (IEO) and the international performance. Unfortunately, many studies were focused on developed countries and high technology industry. Furthermore, the role of geographical scope as a moderator also been excluded in the majority of studies from both international business and international entrepreneurship. This study offers an alternative in developing countries and other industry settings that influenced through the Islamic religious factor in producing special dietary requirements for Muslim consumers, which is known as the halal food industry. This study is a quantitative research designed using the survey method. The result of the survey shows that there is a significant relationship between two groups of small and medium enterprises towards their geographical scope level, international entrepreneur orientation, and international performance. Moreover, SMEs that export to wider geographical scope achieve higher international performance and growth as global exporters compare to those SMEs that operates within a narrow scope only gets to attain lower performance and growth as international exporters.

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