The purpose of this paper is to test the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation in the nexus between cultural diversity (CD) and firm operational performance (OP).
The population of the current study is foreign industrial firms listed in the tax directorate of the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI). A stratified random sampling technique was applied to select 136 firms in KRI, with a response rate of 57 per cent. Smart-PLS was used to examine the hypothesised relationships in the proposed framework.
The results indicate that CD is significantly related to a firm’s OP. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is, in turn, significantly related to a firm’s OP. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that EO plays a mediating role in the nexus between CD and a firm’s OP.
The study highlights the importance of CD and EO in supporting a firm’s OP. In addition, the findings will provide scholars and managers a deeper understanding of the role of EO as a mediator through which CD enhances a firm’s OP.
