Supply Chain Flexibility and Customer Responsive: A Perspective from SMEs

Abstract

The survival of any enterprise in today’s dynamic business environment is possible with exceptional performance. Therefore, this study has highlighted the antecedents of SMEs’ performance in Oman. It has investigated the relationship between supply chain flexibility and SMEs' performance, supply chain flexibility and customer responsiveness, and customer responsiveness and SMEs' performance. Moreover, it has examined the mediating role of customer responsiveness and the moderating role of market orientation in the relationship between supply chain flexibility and SME performance. We employed quantitative methodology, and the sample size for PLS-SEM analysis was determined to be 385. The results highlighted supply chain flexibility significantly influences SMEs performance (β: 0.185, t: 2.376, p ≤ 0.00) and customer responsiveness (β: 0.790, t: 40.207, p ≤ 0.00). Moreover, customer responsiveness significantly influences SMEs performance (β: 0.202, t: 2.870, p ≤ 0.00). Further, the findings demonstrated customer responsiveness's complementary partial mediating role in the relationship between supply chain flexibility and SME performance (β: 0.155, t: 2.857, p ≤ 0.00). Meanwhile, the moderating role of market orientation was found to be insignificant.