نقش میانجیگری استراتژی رقابتی در جهت گیری بین المللی کارآفرینی  The mediating role of competitive strategy in international entrepreneurial orientation

1. Introduction In recent years, entrepreneurial orientation, internationalization, and competitive strategies continue to focus on academic and business interests (Cavusgil & Knight, 2015; Mathews & Zander, 2007). This study examines how competitive strategy mediates the effect of international entrepreneurial orientation on international performance. The international entrepreneurial orientation relates the first two concepts. International entrepreneurial orientation is an emerging research area that tries to analyze innovative, risky, and proactive behaviors from companies with international activity (Kropp, Lindsay, & Shoham, 2006). Covin and Miller (2014) discuss two conceptions of international entrepreneurial orientation; on the one hand, the use of traditional scales in an international context, and on the other, international entrepreneurial orientation as a subcategory of entrepreneurial orientation. This study examines entrepreneurial orientation according to the scale that Miller (1983) proposes. Most studies analyze the influence of international entrepreneurial orientation on the overall performance of the company. Nowadays, many companies, to maintain and even improve their levels of competitiveness, seek to develop their activity outside their original boundaries (Sapienza, Autio, George, & Zahra, 2006), thereby reducing their dependence on domestic or national markets (Ciravegna, Majano, & Zhan, 2014). One of the most important contributions from this study is the analysis of the influence of international entrepreneurial orientation’s influence on the international performance of the company using a multi-item scale that includes international intensity, perceived satisfaction with international performance, and the results from the internationalization (Balabanis & Katsikea, 2004; Etchebarne, Geldres, & García-Cruz, 2010). With this approach, the study seeks to shed light on the explanatory power of the entrepreneurial orientation approach to analyze the internationalization process from a different and dynamic perspective. Competitive strategy clearly affects the performance of the company by generating a competitive advantage (Porter, 1980). The analysis of the company’s competitive strategies can take different approaches (e.g., Miles, Snow, Meyer, & Coleman, 1978), although the Porter model is the most habitual. Moreno and Casillas (2008) argue that the average competitive strategy between international entrepreneurial orientation and international performance is in line with similar approaches from said mediation between entrepreneurial orientation and overall performance of companies.