Antecedents of strategic orientations in Romanian SMEs: An institutional framing perspective

Abstract

Using data from 325 Romanian SMEs, we test the joint effect of perceived opportunities and threats in a situation of macro institutional change on strategic orientations. Our findings show that perceived threats moderate the impact of perceived opportunities on SMEs strategic orientation in such a way that perceived threats increase the positive association between perceived opportunities and the prospector strategic orientation, as well as the negative association between perceived opportunities and the defender strategic orientation. Implications of current findings for the framing perspective in institutional theory are also discussed and directions for future research are drawn.