Entrepreneurial Orientation, Marketing Capability, Marketing Innovation and Market Performance: The Serial Mediating Roles of Innovation Capability and Sustainable Competitive Advantage Among Vietnamese SMEs

This study investigates the effects of entrepreneurial orientation (EO), marketing capability (MC) and marketing innovation (MI) on market performance (MP) through the serial mediating roles of innovation capability (IC) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) among Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Grounded in the resource-based view and dynamic capability theory, and extending a model originally validated among Egyptian travel agencies, a research framework comprising six latent constructs was developed and tested. Survey data were collected from owners and managers of 568 Vietnamese SMEs and analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 4. The measurement model satisfied all recommended thresholds for indicator reliability, internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity and collinearity. The structural results show that EO strongly develops MC (β = 0.648) and, together with MC, builds IC (β = 0.391 and β = 0.436); EO, MC, IC and MI all significantly enhance SCA (β = 0.208, 0.173, 0.378 and 0.267, respectively); and SCA exerts a dominant effect on MP (β = 0.814). All single and serial indirect effects are significant, confirming that IC and SCA serially transmit the effects of EO and MC to market performance. The model explains 71.4% of the variance in SCA and 66.2% of the variance in MP, with satisfactory effect sizes, predictive relevance and model fit. The findings extend resource-based and dynamic-capability explanations of SME competitiveness to Vietnam and yield practical guidance for entrepreneurial culture, customer analytics, innovation systems and advantage-building strategy.