Title: Relationship between customer orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and firm performance in the Vietnam franchising industry

Authors: Bui Thi Thao Hien; Manimekalai Jambulingam; Muslim Amin

Addresses: Taylor's Business School, Faculty of Business and Law, Taylor's University, Selangor, Malaysia ' Taylor's Business School, Faculty of Business and Law, Taylor's University, Selangor, Malaysia ' School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Muma College of Business, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

Abstract: The franchising industry in Vietnam has received lots of attention from international franchise brands due to its high potential growth and encouragement from the Vietnam Government these recent years. Franchisee firms play important roles in the franchise system as they represent foreign franchise brands and connect directly to local customers. Hence, it is worth researching the determinants of franchisee performance, especially examining the roles of entrepreneurial orientation in the franchising industry based on franchisee perspectives. This study aims to investigate factors that affect franchisee performance through the mediating roles of customer orientation through the lens of the resource-based view theory. The findings show that the franchisee performance antecedents are customer orientation and entrepreneurial orientation, with two dimensions: risk-taking and innovativeness. Customer orientation fully mediates the relationship between innovativeness and franchisee performance. Theoretically, this research contributes to the franchising literature by adding the roles of entrepreneurial orientation and customer orientation based on franchisee perspectives.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation; risk-taking; innovativeness; customer orientation; proactiveness; firm performance; franchising; Vietnam.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2026.153500

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2026 Vol.40 No.1, pp.108 - 130

Received: 05 Oct 2022
Accepted: 28 Feb 2023
Published online: 12 May 2026 *

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