The moderating effect of corporate governance on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientations and business performance of women owned enterprises in North-western States of Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the moderating effect of corporate governance on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance of women-owned enterprises in the northwestern states of Nigeria. However, the nature and existence of this potential relationship were found to be mixed, which prompted this study to re-examine the relationship. Methodology: The data were collected from a field survey of the women-owned enterprises in the northwestern region of Nigeria. A total of 222 questionnaires were returned, but only 210 were usable for data analysis from the target respondents, which consist of women owners/managers of businesses in the selected SMEs. This study employed the quantitative survey research approach and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) algorithm and bootstrap techniques to test the hypotheses. Results and conclusion: Results obtained support the hypothesis on the direct influence of the entrepreneurial orientation and its proxies, such as innovativeness, competitive aggressiveness, autonomy and corporate governance, on business performance. Similar results regarding the moderating effects of corporate governance on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance were also found. Interestingly, the findings indicated that corporate governance positively moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance. Implication of findings: Finally, this study has succeeded in validating the aforementioned conceptualisation as well as advancing significant theoretical and practical contributions to the researchers, entrepreneurs and regulatory authorities for further understanding of the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and business performance.