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The aim of this study is to examine the effects of innovativeness (INN), proactiveness, (PRC) and risk-taking (RIT) on the export performance of apparel small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the role of differentiation and low-cost leadership (LCL) strategies as mediating effects between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions and the performance of exporting firms. INN, RIT and PRC are considered EO dimensions.

A cross-sectional survey was carried out by providing a questionnaire to the owners, directors and senior managers of the apparel SMEs – the primary data of 550 treated by structural equation modeling (SEM) technique for final data analysis.

The study has revealed the positive dimensional effect of EO on export performance. For the mediation effects of differentiation and LCL, differentiation strategy (DS) positively mediates between INN, PRC and export performance. However, no mediation has been found between RIT and export performance. On the other hand, LCL has found positive effects between INN, RIT and export performance. However, the mediation effect was absent between PRC and export performance.

Limitations/implications- This study has been conducted on only Muslim owners, senior export managers and directors of apparel SMEs in Bangladesh. It has examined the two main competitive strategies as a mediator between EO dimensions and export performance. The findings of this study are based on one country data analysis.

EO, differentiation and low-cost leadership (LCL) strategy are resources and capabilities of an organization to create a competitive advantage to enhance performance. The factors of this research are helpful for SME practitioners.

The direct and indirect effects (differentiation and LCL strategy) of EO dimensions on export performance in an emerging country, i.e. the South-Asia region, is a pioneer study. Therefore, current research has theoretical and managerial implications for the international business and strategic management literature.

Access to finance and corruption are two major institutional obstacles hindering firm innovation in Africa whose implication on the fit between managerial characteristics and firm innovation has not been examined. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms may want to hire managers with a good fit when faced with institutional constraints and the authors suggest managerial level of education and experience within an industry could play a vital role in helping such firms innovate.

Secondary data was obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey on 17 African countries and a series of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to achieve the aim of the research.

The findings show that while managers with primary and secondary education had a negative relationship with firm innovation (product and process), managers with a university degree had a positive relationship. This relationship was also confirmed when the authors’ split the full sample into two sub-samples (the firms that are institutionally constrained by access to finance and corruption) and therefore confirm the institutional implications of managers fit for firm’s innovation.

While research on the effect of management characteristics on firm innovation has focused more on large firms and mostly from developed economies testing both direct and mediation effects, little research exists as to whether the institutional obstacles faced by small firms could influence the type of managers required to drive their innovation.