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The purpose of this paper is to explore whether innovation mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and supply chain resilience (SCR) in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Based on the structural equation modeling the relationships were tested in the proposed model. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from SMEs owners/managers in Yemen. Out of 384 questionnaires, 229 have been used in statistical analysis.

The results obtained reveal that both EO and innovation have positive and significant effects on SCR. In addition, innovation partially mediates the effects of EO dimensions (risk-taking and proactiveness) on SCR.

Managers and decision-makers of SMEs who want to enhance their firms' resilience to any supply chain disruptions are highly recommended to adopt EO, as well as to develop the innovative capability resulting from it.

The present study emphasizes previous results and provides additional evidence that SMEs' adoption of EO can reinforce their resilience within the supply chain through innovation in light of the disruptions facing supply chains in developing countries.

Although competitor orientation (CO) has been given great attention, its link to firm performance (FP) is still unclear. The reason behind this may be attributed to the fact that the CO–FP relationship depends on several contingencies. The purpose of this paper is to simultaneously explore the separate and combined moderating effects of marketing ethics (ME) and competitive intensity (CI) in the CO–FP relationship.

The participants in this study were managers or owners from 289 manufacturing SMEs located in two regions in Yemen (i.e. Sana’a and Taiz). Hierarchical regression analysis using PROCESS Macro V. 3.5 in SPSS was performed to analyze the data collected.

The obtained results reveal that ME in fact positively moderates the CO–FP relationship and, importantly, this effect is not influenced by CI.

The findings of this paper provide advantageous insights for managers and decision-makers for SMEs as it is expected that they demonstrate a greater commitment to the practice of ME in their firms. This has implications that with the practice of ME, it is expected that SMEs will be able to use the full potential of CO to improve their performance at a low level of CI.

This study contributes to widening the studies on CO, ME, CI and SMEs in a different context. In addition, it adds to the knowledge by exploring the combined moderating influence of internal (e.g. ME) and external factors (e.g. CI) when examining the CO–FP relationship.