Internal Versus External Orientation, Which Way for Competitiveness?

Abstract

Managerial cognition continues to attract interest from researchers in a bid to understand how it relates with performance of organisations. Drawing from the Social Cognitive theory we examine the relationship between managerial orientation (internal/external) and competitiveness of leather and textile firms in Kenya using a descriptive cross-sectional survey of a sample of 163 managers using a structured self-reporting questionnaire. The firms were moderately competitive (M = 3.86, SD = 0.40) and both internal and external orientation were significantly positively related with competitiveness (internal focus: r = .465, p = < .001; external focus: r = .406, p = < .001; combined internal/external orientation: r = .463, p < .001). Further, competitiveness was more strongly predicted by internal managerial orientation (Wald = 17.197, p < .001 < .05, exp (B) = 4.777) than external managerial orientation (Wald = 1.588, p > .208, exp (B) = 1.575). These findings have implications for the resource-based view of the firm which is an internal focus, and on where managers should prioritize actions between internal and external focus in order to achieve competitiveness.