In this rapidly changing and competitive business environment, a concerted effort is required to achieve competitive economic advantages. Entrepreneurial ecosystems have emerged as crucial drivers of firm growth and competitiveness, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises. Grounded on the resourced view, network, and dynamic capabilities theory, the study will address a significant gap in the literature by exploring the different ecosystem dimensions and their interactions with firm-level adaptability and technological adoptions to shape performance outcomes. The present study will investigate synergetic relationships between entrepreneurial ecosystems, dynamic capabilities, and digital transformation and their collective impacts on business performance. To achieve these objectives, a mixed-method approach was adopted, and data will be collected from a sample of SMEs across the manufacturing industry, providing both contextual relevance and generalizability. Firstly, the study will use MCDM approaches to identify and prioritize key factors and subfactors within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Furthermore, SPSS and PLS-SEM were used to test the conceptual model and examine the relationships between elements. The expected findings of the study identified that the entrepreneurial ecosystem positively influences SMEs&rsquo business performance, with dynamic capability mediating this relationship by enchanting firms&rsquo ability to sense, seize, and reconfigure resources. Additionally, digital transformation significantly moderates the relationship, amplifying the effects of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and dynamic capabilities, particularly in digitally matured SMEs. Besides, this study will help generate practical recommendations for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders to design targeted strategies and policies to foster a conducive entrepreneurial ecosystem, develop dynamic capabilities, and effectively embrace digital transformation to improve business performance.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial ecosystem, dynamic capability, digital transformations, firm performance, SMEs