The Influence of Entrepreneurial Marketing on Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Tanzanian SMEs: A Lower-Order Dimensional Analysis

Abstract

Although entrepreneurial marketing is increasingly recognised as multidimensional, limited understanding remains of whether its individual behaviours exhibit equivalent relationships with competitive advantage, particularly when behaviours associated with the same broad dynamic-capability process are considered separately. This study examines the associations between five lower-order dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing (EM)—proactiveness, innovativeness, resource leveraging, customer intensity and value creation—and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) among food-processing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Guided by Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT), cross-sectional survey data from 255 SMEs were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) in the SEMinR package in R. Customer intensity showed the strongest statistically supported association with SCA, followed by resource leveraging and proactiveness. The hypothesised relationships for innovativeness and value creation were not statistically supported. Collectively, the five dimensions explained a substantial share of the variance in SCA. The findings show that entrepreneurial behaviours associated with the same broad DCT process need not possess equivalent competitive relevance, highlighting behavioural heterogeneity in how dynamic capabilities are enacted. For SME managers and policymakers, the results particularly support capability development around customer engagement, resource mobilisation and proactive market sensing while cautioning against assuming that innovation or value creation automatically translates into competitive advantage.