Strategic orientations reconfiguring capability, environmental turbulence and export performance of SMES in Nigeria

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation (EO), export market orientation (EMO), learning orientation (LO) and export performance (EP) of SMEs in Nigeria. The study also aims at determining the mediating effect of reconfiguring capability (RC) as well as the moderating effect of environmental turbulence (ET) on those relationships. This study emanated from the fact that only few studies have examined how the integration of strategic orientations and RC in the turbulent environment can drive the SMEs’ export performance, and subsequently give rise to growth and employment creation. Based on a theoretical consideration a model was proposed and nine hypotheses were formulated. Survey questionnaires were used in the data collection and a total of 201 useable responses were received from the owner/managers of exporting SMEs in Nigeria. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed in the data analysis. The findings suggest that significant relationship was found to exist between EMO and EP, and between LO and EP, while RC mediates both the relationships between EO and LO on EP. In addition, ET was found to moderate the relationship between EO and EP, and between EMO and EP. The significant of this study can be seen in the incorporation of RC as a mediating tool to explain the relationship between EO, EMO & EO and EP. This suggests that SMEs could benefit from reconfiguring and renewal of their asset base and act in response to opportunities and threat to realize first order transformation in growth and employment creation. Besides, this study provides research conclusion on the appropriateness of LO and EMO when there is environmental turbulence. The study concludes with the discussion on the contributions, limitations as well as the suggestions for future researc

The integration of entrepreneurial orientation and dynamic capabilities in dynamic environment of small and medium enterprises (Nigeria’s export firms)

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries most especially in Nigeria have performed below expectation in their important roles of promoting and developing economic growth. This poor performance has been of great concern and disturbance to all the stakes holders (government at all levels, professionals, public and private sectors and international agencies). Responses to this critical situation culminated to yearly budgetary allocation, favorable policies, favorable pronouncement incentives and regulations giving by local government, state government and federal government.These efforts and interest of different levels of government and even international agencies to make SMEs sub-sector to be vibrant and leave to their expectation indicated that the crucial roles of SMEs are recognized and acknowledged for nation’s building. However, the situation become more disturbing, confusing and critical when the degree of poverty, unemployment and hunger that SMEs supposed to reduce continue to increase at alarming rate, in spite of all drastic measures and incentives provided yearly.This study realized it is high time to proffer sustainable solutions to SMEs particularly, introducing entrepreneurial orientations and dynamic capabilities as key variables that are necessary to improve the export performance of SMEs, building on the previous literatures that suggested the need for strategic orientations in order to exact great effect on firm performance in dynamic environment and recommend renewal and reconfiguration for SMEs

The Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Reconfiguring Capability and Moderation of Environmental Turbulence on Export Performance of SMEs in Nigeria

Entrepreneurial orientation encapsulate the firm –level process, practice and strategic orientation while dynamic capabilities view of firm consists of the structure routine and processes that constitute its ability to reconfigure its asset base to match the requirement of the changing environment. The aim of this research emanated from the fact that only few studies examined how entrepreneurial strategic orientation and reconfiguring capability impact on export performance of SMEs in turbulent environment. In order to fill this vacuum, this study delineated relationship among these constructs and employed PLS-SEM on data collected from 201 exporting SMEs in Nigeria. The findings of the study suggest that entrepreneurial orientation, reconfiguring capability, and environmental turbulent significantly related to export performance. Environmental turbulence moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, reconfiguring capability and export performance. This suggests that SMEs could benefit from reconfiguring and renewal of their asset base and act in response to opportunities and threat to realize first order transformation in growth and export performance. Besides, this study also provides research conclusion to the appropriateness of entrepreneurial orientation and reconfiguring capability when there is environmental turbulence and their lack of effectiveness when there is stability

The mediating effect of reconfiguring capabilities on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance of small and medium enterprises

The aim of this paper was to test the mediating effect of reconfiguring capabilities coupled with entrepreneurial strategic orientation on the export performance of SMEs. This is imperative due to weak recovery, and slows down in global economic growth; it becomes pertinent to employ fundamentals that can drive growth and employment creation in the short to medium term in uncertain environment. Building on prior researches which suggested that continuous improvement and regenerative dynamic capabilities of a firm would enhance firm performance, this study explored this objective through survey data from 201 manufacturing exporting SMEs in Nigeria. Our findings indicate that firm’s reconfiguring capabilities mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance and entrepreneurial strategic orientation also have positive and significant effect on export performance of SMEs. This re-established the fact that potential source of competitive advantage could always be achieved when reconfiguring capabilities are combined with entrepreneurship. Keywords: reconfiguring capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation, Small and Medium enterprises, export performance

The discovery of some promising putative binders of KRAS G12D receptor using computer-aided drug discovery approach

A prospective target for the therapy of solid tumors is KRAS G12D, the most prevalent oncogenic KRAS mutation. However, despite decades of research that focused on the identification of druggable compounds against this highly challenging therapeutic cancer target, no drug has been clinically approved for the treatment of KRAS G12D-driven cancers. Herein, we employed computational techniques such as molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate small-molecule compounds with the potential to bind putatively with KRAS G12D. The docking screening portrayed three compounds (Quercetin, Psoralidin, and Resveratrol) as promising drug candidates for the receptor target due to their higher binding affinities when compared with a known noncovalent, potent, and selective KRAS G12D inhibitor (MRTX1133). The stability analysis after 100000 ps molecular dynamics simulation suggests Quercetin as a more stable compound when compared with the other simulated chemical entities, including the referenced inhibitor (MRTX1133). In spite of our research findings, it will be too early to conclude the drug candidates can be advanced to the clinic for use with KRAS G12D cancer patients without extensive preclinical and clinical studies

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)