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Despite being acknowledged as the primary catalyst for economic development, entrepreneurship in emerging markets contends with multiple constraints. The availability of unexploited business opportunities certainly raises the entrepreneurial potential of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Entrepreneurial orientation strategy strongly supports SMEs to improve their position in the market by instilling the courage to explore new prospects and take risks, promote innovation, act proactively on the market, and establish autonomy and competitive aggressiveness as norms in their operations. This research focuses on the entrepreneurial orientation approach as a key firm-level phenomenon and its influence on business performance in emerging markets. More specifically, the study elaborates on SMEs’ risk-taking, innovativeness, pro-activeness, autonomy, and competitive aggressiveness under the moderating influence of unexploited opportunities. A multiple-case study technique was used to develop the five propositions generated from the conceptual framework of the study. Six companies operating in the private healthcare sector in North Macedonia actively participated in the research, contributing a substantial body of data. According to the study findings, the unexploited opportunities have a reasonably large effect on SMEs’ entrepreneurial orientation activities and corresponding performance. Nonetheless, despite the hostile entrepreneurial environment, SMEs have demonstrated boldness in taking risks, initiating innovation, and continuity in taking proactive actions in the private healthcare industry.

The unavailability of resources has often been stated as one of the main limitations for SMEs’ growth in developing countries. The aim of this study is to address how the position of limited resources impacts the relationship between the entrepreneurial orientation of SMEs in developing countries and their business performances. For this purpose, a conceptual framework has been created, delivering six theoretical propositions aiming to test the impact of limited resources on SMEs’ courage for exploring new opportunities and taking risks, promoting innovation, act proactively on the market, and set autonomy and competitive aggressiveness as standards in their operations.  Derived propositions have been elaborated by applying a multiple-case research strategy. Six companies from the private healthcare sector in North Macedonia have participated in the research and contributed to the same with a valuable set of data. Study results have indicated relatively low threats from the limited resources to the entrepreneurial orientation dimensions and the business's success correspondingly. Businesses have mainly been financed through their own resources and bank loans, and in some cases through grants as a result of collaboration with innovative and other SMEs supporting funds. Nevertheless, despite the unenthusiastic level of available resources, entrepreneurs have shown courage to take risks, initiate innovation and act proactively in the private healthcare market.

The wage level that employers cannot legally go below by setting a floor limit on wages is called the "minimum wage". In other words, the minimum wage is usually the lowest wage determined to meet the basic needs of workers. This wage is set to raise the living standards of workers and to reduce poverty. As a result of the increases in food prices in international markets in 2021 and especially in 2022, a food crisis emerged in the world economy in 2022. While the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were overcome in 2021, the prices increased as a result of increased demand, on the other hand, at the beginning of 2022, the Russia-Ukraine tension triggered the food crisis while pushing food prices up. While rising prices affected fixed incomes the most, it became necessary to increase the minimum wage. Increasing the minimum wage encourages consumption by reducing poverty and increasing fixed income (workers) well-being. The increase in the minimum wage encourages consumption by reducing poverty and increases the welfare of the fixed income (workers), and on the one hand, increases the costs of the producers and leads to a decrease in production and unemployment. While increases can help improve workers' living standards, they can also have negative effects, such as reducing worker numbers or increasing costs for some businesses. The main purpose of this research is to examine that while increasing the minimum wage in the inflationary period is inevitable, it will again increase the general level of prices and trigger inflation.