TWO-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF STRATEGIC NETWORKING ON ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE AMONG SMEs

Original scientific paper Strategic networking (SN) is the process through which firms leverage specialization, efficiently allocate transformational resources and optimize support through information sharing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of strategic networking (SN) on entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance of Croatian SMEs, one of a dozen small, open and still-transitioning European economies. Financial and non-financial indicators were used in order to more precisely clarify the multidimensional aspect of the SN-EO-performance relationships. The external environment was assessed in terms of turbulence, hostility and dynamism, where its direct effect on SN and EO was tested. Research results indicate that defined structural model has a satisfactory fit level to empirical data and that structural coefficients lead to the acceptance of the research hypotheses. More importantly, the results yield some significantly new elements necessary for understanding the role of SN for the EO and performance of SMEs in a developing economy.