Title: The impact of entrepreneurial orientation on performance in sport firms: the mediating role of knowledge sharing and product innovation capacity

Authors: Seyed Mohammad Javad Razavi; Haywantee Ramkissoon

Addresses: Department of Applied Humanities, Kashmar Higher Education Institute, Kashmar, Iran ' Peer Review College, British Academy of Management, London, UK; UniSA Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia; School of Tourism and Hospitality, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa; Centre for Innovation in Tourism (CriT), Taylor's University, No. 1, Jalan Taylor's, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: Using product innovation capacity to customers gives corporations a competitive advantage in the market. This research examined a structural model of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and knowledge sharing (KS) as the drivers of product innovation capacity (PIC), and ultimately assessed the impact of PIC on corporate performance (CP) in sport firms. The theoretical model of the study was tested using data collected from 401 employees from 58 sport firms in Iran. Our findings show that EO and KS had a significant effect on PIC. In addition, EO, KS, and PIC activities significantly influenced CP. Our study contributes to the ongoing development of the proposed theories in entrepreneurship, innovation, and CP in suggesting a combination of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) approaches. This has important implications for industrial authorities in developing sustainable and successful sectors of sport firms.

Keywords: corporate performance; entrepreneurial orientation; knowledge sharing; learning; product innovation capacity; sport firms.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2026.151466

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2026 Vol.39 No.2, pp.221 - 241

Received: 17 Oct 2024
Accepted: 03 Feb 2025
Published online: 02 Feb 2026 *

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