The influencing factors on performance of Malaysian halal food and beverage businesses

The current study on halal food and beverage businesses has generated a contentious discussion about problems related to business success. Nonetheless, this field of study is still restricted to theoretically-weak empirical research, and dependent on normative assumptions. As a result, there is a greater emphasis on empirically robust studies that take into account the many complicated factors that affect business success. Due to the inconclusive results of previous studies, further research on the determinants of business performance is necessary, namely entrepreneurial orientation, access to finance, and business environment especially in the Malaysian environment. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the level of entrepreneurial orientation sub- dimensions that affected the business performances among Malaysian halal food and beverage businesses. This study also served to identify the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance. Besides that, this study aimed to examine the mediating effect of access to finance and the moderating effect of the business environment in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance. Data from 444 business of halal food and beverage in Malaysia were collected through questionnaires, using a stratified random sampling technique, and later were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings of the study showed that the level of entrepreneurial orientation is high. Furthermore, the study found that entrepreneurial orientation has positively and significantly influenced business performance. Also, access to finance mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance. Meanwhile, the business environment did not moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance. Aligning with the framework highlighted by the Resource Based View (RBV) theory, this study emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurial orientation and access to finance for business performance. Moreover, this study found that a high entrepreneurial orientation ability increases the opportunity for halal food and beverage businesses to have access to financial resources that improve their business performance. The findings of this study provide important understandings to entrepreneurs, researchers and stakeholders to further understand the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance of halal food and beverages in Malaysia.