ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION, NETWORKING AND FIRM GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM A TRANSITION ECONOMY

Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) has become an important research domain in the entrepreneurship literature to analyze the ability of firms to maximize the opportunities in the market. Similarly, considering the distinct context of firms in transition economies, networks have become an integrated part of analyzing firms in these contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of EO dimensions (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking) and networks on micro-, small-, and medium enterprises' growth. This study employs a cross-sectional study on 438 firm owners/managers in four sectors in the case of Kosovo. Findings show highly statistically significant and positive results for all three dimensions: proactiveness, risk-taking, and innovativeness, and a positive and statistically significant relationship between networking and firm growth. All control variables remain consistent regarding statistical significance after introducing EO dimensions. Only when introducing the networking variable does the variable denoting university-level education become negative and statistically significant compared to the non-university education of managers.