Abstract Focusing on the theories of innovation, this study investigated a model of human capital (HC) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as the drivers of technological innovation capacity (TIC) and assessed the influence of TIC on firm performance (FP) in Iranian sports manufacturing firms. The theoretical model of the research was used to evaluate the data collected from 546 employees from 77 medium and large manufacturing firms in Iran. This study finds that HC and EO had a positive influence on the TIC of Iranian sports manufacturing firms. In addition, EO, HC, and TIC activities significantly influenced the performance of these firms. Furthermore, TIC did not mediate between EO and firm performance while the impact of HC on FP is found to be moderated by TIC. Considering the ongoing development of the proposed theories in entrepreneurship, innovation capability, and firm performance, the findings of this study offered a combination of structural equation modelling (SEM) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches and had important implications for industrial authorities in developing successful and sustainable sectors of manufacturing firms.

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