READ ME File For 'Survey data on Survey data on entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance of Chinese SMEs in strategic alliances'. Dataset DOI: 10.5258/SOTON/D3549 ReadMe Author: ZHEBING ZHOU, University of Southampton, 0009-0006-3042-5749 Date that the file was created: June, 2025 ------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- This research looked at entrepreneurial orientation, network capability and knowledge management practices on firm performance in Small and Medium Enterprises as defined by the Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (2021). Small enterprises, which have fewer than 100 employees and an operating income of less than 100 million yuan; and medium-sized enterprises, which have fewer than 500 employees and an operating income of less than one billion yuan, were surveyed using an online survey. This data is used for PhD thesis of Zhebing Zhou who is the PhD student in Business school, University of Southampton. This data was collected by questionnarie via iSurvey tool. The questions in this survey ask for information in relation to self-assessment of participants company's entrepreneurial orientation, network capabilities, knowledge management, alliance innovation，performance and success and firm performance. The survey was distributed using the i-survey software after being translated into Chinese (for more information on the translation process see p49 of the thesis). The sample selection process encompassed enterprises from several regions in China with differing levels of economic development. For more information on the methodolgy for sampling firms, see chapter 2 of the thesis, pp49-51. This study was approved by the Faculty Research Ethics Committee (FREC) at the University of Southampton (Ethics/ERGO Number: 73224). Geographic location of data collection: People's Republic of China Date of data collection: July 2022 to November 2022 -------------------------- SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION -------------------------- Licence: CC BY This dataset supports the thesis: Zhebing Zhou (2025) "The impact of entrepreneurial orientation, network capability and knowledge management practices on firm performance: the perspective of strategic alliance", University of Southampton, PhD Thesis, 232pp. -------------------- DATA & FILE OVERVIEW -------------------- This dataset contains: 73224_English Survey V4.0 19.08.2022: this is the original English language version of the survey used in the research. All survey questions are included. Section 1 (demographic information) is collected via multiple choice responses. Section 2 (company information) uses both multiple choice and a five point Likert scale. Sections 3-7, covering entrepreneurial orientation, network capabilities, knowledge management, alliance innovation，performance and success and firm performance, use a seven-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 "strongly disagree" to 7 "strongly agree." 30668042 data: This dataset contains all the data used to generate the figures included in the main text. It contains the results from the survey as completed in iSurvey. The data is an excel document and can be analysed by SPSS and AMOS. For more information on what codes mean for any given question, see below. -------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION -------------------------- Column M - Gender - Q1.1 1=Male 2=Female 3=Other 4=Prefer not to say Column N - Age - Q1.2 1=18-29 2=30-39 3=40-49 4=50-59 5=60 or older Column O - Education - Q1.3 1=Bachelor 2=Master 3=Doctor 4=Other Column P - Years working - Q1.4 1=Under 2 years 2=2-5 years 3=6-10 years 4=11-20 years 5=Over 21 years Column Q - Job Category - Q1.5 1=Ordinary employees 2=Basic manager (e.g. Group leader) 3=Middle manager (e.g. Department director) 4=Senior manager (e.g. CEO, CTO and COO) Column R - Company_ownership Q2.1 What is the type of ownership structure of the organization you are currently working for? 1=State-owned enterprise 2=Non-state-owned enterprises 3=Not clear Column S - Company_age Q2.2 What is the age of the organization you are currently working for? 1=0-5 years 2=6-10 years 3=11-15 years 4=16-20 years 5=21 years and older Column T - Company_employees Q2.3 How many full-time employees are in your organization? 1=Less than or equal to 10 employees 2=Between 11 and 100 employees 3=Between 101 and 500 employees 4=More than 500 employees Column U - Company_industrial_sector Q2.4 Which industrial sector does your company belong to? 1=Software industry 2=Information transmission industry 3=Information technology services industry Column V - Company_region Q2.5 Where is your organization located in China? 1=Eastern coastal region (Developed region) 2=Central Region (Medium developed region) 3=Western Region (Underdeveloped region) Column W - Company_innovation_percentage Q2.6 What percentage of your firm's investment in innovation accounts for its total investment? 1=Below 10% 2=11%-20% 3=21%-40% 4= 41%-60% 5=Over 61% Column X - Company_innovation_category Q2.7 What is your organization's innovation focus on? 1=Product innovation 2=Process innovation 3=Technological innovation 4=Business model innovation 5=Service innovation Column Y - Company_industry_competition Q2.8 How competitive is your company's industry? 1=weak 2=somewhat weak 3=neutral 4=somewhat strong 5=strong Column Z - Company_growth_past_three_years Q2.9 How has your company grown and improved over the past three years? 1=very little 2=little 3=neutral 4=significant 5=Very significant Column AA - Company_alliance_experience Q2.10 To what extent does your organization have experience forming or participating instrategic alliances? 1=Never 2=Rarely 3=Sometimes 4=Often 5=Always Column AB - Company_alliance_year Q2.11 How long has your company been in a strategic alliance? 1=Below 2 years 2=2-5 years 3=6-8 years 4=More than 8 years Column AC - Company_alliance_catagory Q2.12 What type of strategic alliances is your company more involved in? 1=Horizontal alliance (cooperating with firms that operate as competitors in the same area) 2=Vertical alliance (cooperating with firms that in the same supply chain) Column AD - Horizontal_alliance_catagory Q2.12b Which of the following horizontal alliances is your organization more involved in? 1=Horizontal symmetric alliance (cooperating with a similar-size firm) 2=Horizontal asymmetric alliance (cooperating with a larger firm) Column AE - Vertical_alliance_catagory Q2.12c Which of the following vertical alliances is your organization more involved in? 1=Upstream alliances (cooperating with upstream partners, e.g. suppliers) 2=Downstream alliances (cooperating with downstream partners, e.g. dealers) Column AF - Company_alliance_type Q2.13 Which of the following alliances is your company more involved in? 1=Marketing alliances 2=R&D alliances 3=Both of above alliances Column AG - Company_alliance_mechanism Q2.14 What is the main mechanism for the partnership within the alliance in which your companyparticipates? 1=Formal mechanism 2=Informal mechanism Column AH - Company_alliance_devotion Q2.15 To what extent does your organization devote resources to strategic alliances? 1=Weak 2=Slighly weak 3=Neutral 4=Slightly strong 5=Strong Column AI - Company_exiting_alliance_experience Q2.16 To what extent does your organization have experience exiting a strategic alliance? 1=Never 2=Rarely 3=Sometimes 4=Often 5=Always Column AJ - Company_exiting_alliance_tendency Q2.17 To what extent does your company want to exit the strategic alliance it is currently participating in? 1=Weak 2=Slighly weak 3=Neutral 4=Slightly strong 5=Strong Columns AJ-EE cover sections 3 through 7 and use the same scale for all answers 1 =strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=slightly disagree, 4=neutral, 5=slightly agree, 6=agree, 7=strongly agree.