Does the level of competition influence the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and service quality?

Abstract

In times of economic instability and increasingly competitive environments, organisations need to differentiate themselves and find the best version of themselves. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is increasingly present in organisations in general and constitutes an opportunity to improve performance in the sports associations sector. Sporting clubs are organisations of great qualitative and quantitative relevance, although few studies have approached their entrepreneurial character as an opportunity to seek success in achieving their goals. Although the positive relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and organisational performance has been well established, the moderating role of other variables in this relationship has not been studied to the same extent. The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between EO with its constitutive dimensions (innovation, proactivity and risk-taking), with service quality (SQ) considered as the performance variable. The study has been approached considering entrepreneurship orientation from both a one-dimensional and multidimensional point of view, taking into account the discrepancies observed in the literature. The moderating role of the competition level (CL) of Spanish basketball clubs in this relationship was analysed as well, and this analysis was performed using the PROCESS macro, designed to test moderation by directly evaluating the importance of the indirect effect of the independent variable (X; EO INNO, RISK, and PROAC) on the dependent variable (Y; SQ) through a moderator: CL (M). The study was carried out with 103 Spanish basketball clubs (61% from the national category and 39% from the regional category). The results show significantly higher results in proactivity and EO in national sports clubs. There is also a relationship between all the variables studied (innovation, proactivity, risk taking, EO and service quality). The variables that best explain service quality are risk taking and entrepreneurial orientation. However, there is no moderating role for the competition level in the relationship between innovation, proactivity, risk taking and EO, with service quality.