The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of total quality management (TQM) between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and SME export performance in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan. This study was originated from the fact that only a few studies have examined on how the firm’s intangible resources and capabilities such as EO and TQM drive SMEs’ export performance. Some questionnaires in Likert scale were used to collect the data and 364 usable responses were received from the owner/managers of exporting SMEs. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for the data analysis. The findings reveal significant relationship between EO and TQM with SME export performance. Furthermore, this study found the complementary mediating role of TQM between EO and SME export performance of manufacturing sector of Pakistan. This study has implications for owner/managers of SMEs. The results offer a better understanding regarding EO and TQM implementation to SMEs owner / managers. Thus, owner/managers of SMEs can take better decisions for the implementation of TQM practices. Furthermore, to the best of researcher’s knowledge, this study is the first work, which examines Pakistan`s SMEs export performance in association with the TQM as the mediating factor between EO and SME export performance.

This paper has been retracted.

This paper investigates the influence of total quality management (TQM) on export performance of manufacturing sector of Pakistani’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The data was collected from manufacturing SMEs participating in exports and three hundred sixty-four (364) responses were received and further used for statistical analysis. The statistical SEM analysis was evaluated through Smart PLS-3. The results of the study show that TQM had an influential role in SMEs’ export performance. Firms with the higher-level implementation of TQM will be more successful in the international market and can achieve better export performance. Thus, the study reveals that TQM is a valuable and dynamic intangible resource which can increase the SME export perfor-mance. The study presented the relationship between TQM and SME export performance and pro-vided some insights for the practitioners and the researchers. In other words, practitioners and re-searchers will be able to make a better decision about the implementation of TQM. Furthermore, the current study contributed to the literature of TQM and SME export performance, empirically. The absence of TQM can affect the firm performance in the international market.