How well do EO measures and entrepreneurial behavior match?

The Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) research stream is quite popular in investigating how companies act entrepreneurially and how EO relates to issues such as financial performance, innovation, and founder satisfaction. Part of EO’s popularity may be that it is measured using simple, widely-accepted items. Yet the idea of how to best measure EO has become a recent topic of debate. Part of that debate is that the items measure dispositions as much as behaviors and are self-reported, which means they are somewhat subjective. This paper investigates the relationship between subjectively-measured EO and actual entrepreneurial behavior as measured through objective data. To do so, the paper examines the relationship between EO dimensions and realized risk-taking behavior. Using a sample of 156 community banks headquartered in the southwestern United States, the paper uses banks’ risk-weighted asset ratio, which captures the riskiness of the bank’s portfolio, as a measure of sustained entrepreneurial behavior. The analysis finds that subjectively-measured EO risk-taking is strongly related to objectively-measured realized bank risk-taking. There was not a significant direct relationship with the other EO dimensions, though there was some evidence of a moderated relationship. The paper lends some credibility to current EO measures and suggests how additional research is needed to improve upon EO’s measurement.     

Systematic literature review on entrepreneurial orientation in nonprofit organizations – Far more than business-like behavior

While entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) is often considered as another business-like behavior, the present systematic literature review changes this perspective by revealing that the construct refers to several specific third sector organizations' qualities and leverages financial and mission goals simultaneously. EO as a strategic posture of organizations is already well established in management and strategy literature whereas corresponding insights in NPOs are indeed expanded, but fragmented. To develop this research stream, a systematic literature review was conducted, that analyses the results of 76 studies about EO in NPOs. Besides describing current findings, this paper generates a comprehensive overview of applied constructs, drivers influencing EO, and goals promoted by this strategic posture. The context-specific modification of the construct leads to the presumption that EO does not predominantly target business-like initiatives, but holds a lot of potential meeting NPO's core challenges, such as the fulfillment of various stakeholders' expectations or diverse resources acquisition. The discussion elaborates to what extent EO serves as a viable alternative to highly discussed third sector developments of business approximation.     

Culture and entrepreneurial orientation: a multi-country study

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has been proven as an essential attribute of high performing firms, and the role of culture has been highlighted for generating robust EO. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of culture by identifying differences among the selected nations in terms of EO dimensions. This is an empirical study based on the data collected from university students in the U.S., Korea, Fiji, India, and Malaysia representing nations with significantly different cultural contexts. The result showed significant differences among the nations in most EO dimensions. This implies that customized education approaches based on unique cultural context are needed for developing EO among college students.     

Entrepreneurial orientation in work groups – effects of individuals and group characteristics

This study discusses how the perceived entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of individuals, and in particular that of the work group leader impacts the perceived EO of the work group, which in turn improves the work group’s performance. Using a sample of 356 individual employees of five companies operating globally in diverse industries, the results of our structural equation model and multiple linear regression analyses indicate that both the group members and work group leader’s EO decisively encourage the EO of the work group, with a significantly positively effect on its performance. Furthermore, while work group heterogeneity shows a small but significant positive influence, a shared vision in the work group is found to have a clearly positive impact on work group EO. Accordingly, this study has crucial practical implications for work groups and their leaders aspiring to ameliorate work group performance through EO increasing measures with reference to the specific individual and group characteristics. From a theoretical perspective, this research contributes to the academic debate on the EO concept at individual and work group levels.     

The significance of sustained entrepreneurial orientation on performance of firms – A longitudinal analysis

This study focuses on the importance of changes in entrepreneurial orientation (EO) over time for subsequent firm performance, and the significance which inimitable resources (networks, governance system and unique competence) might have in this connection. Hypotheses are developed to test the effects that changes in EO level over a time period and resources have on subsequent firm performance. The study is based on data from 168 Norwegian SMEs, interviewed both in 2000 and 2003. The primary contribution of this study is that a change in EO over time (increased or decreased), may be of importance for a firm's performance represented by performance compared to competitors, and employment growth. A focus on entrepreneurial activities seems to be beneficial in the long run (increasing EO), while the opposite is the case if the EO level decreases. It is especially encouraging to see that firms focusing on EO (increased or the same) are positively associated with employment growth, one of the primary policy goals world-wide. Another contribution from this study is that resources that may be inimitable for firms have some influence on performance compared to competitors. Implications for policy-makers, practitioners and further research are discussed.     

Gender and entrepreneurial orientation: a multi-country study

The purpose of this comparative study is to investigate the role of gender and culture in entrepreneurial orientation (EO) among students in the selected nations. EO dimensions are important variables in the study of organizational performance. We adopted Lumpkin and Dess’ EO dimensions. We statistically analyzed the collected data from 389 university students in the US (96), Korea (114), Fiji (80), and Malaysia (99). The results showed significant differences in most EO dimensions between genders and among the nations. Thus, it is important that customized approaches based on gender and unique cultural context are needed for developing EO among college students.     

The impact of entrepreneurial orientation on firm performance: the role of CEO position tenure and industry tenure

The relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and firm performance, despite generating significant scholarly interest, has remained mixed. These results may be attributed, at least in part, to the failure to sufficiently examine the potential impact of top management characteristics. The present study investigates how CEO characteristics (i.e. CEO industry and position tenure), impact the relationship between EO and firm performance within a sample of 579 US banks. As predicted, some support for a positive EO to performance relationship was found. In addition, the results strongly support, as posited, that CEO industry tenure positively moderates, and CEO position tenure negatively moderates, the EO to performance relationship. We also report evidence supporting the effect of EO, configured with CEO position tenure and industry tenure on firm performance. Our study suggests the EO–performance relationship is more complex than previous studies indicate. Implications for future research and practice are provided.     

Employee ownership heterogeneity and firm performance in China

Employee ownership (EO) has gained increasingly significant attention from both business practitioners and policy makers in China. Through the examination of the implementation of EO by China's listed firms from 1992 to 2017 with a total of 3,396 firms and 36,559 firm‐year observations, we explored the relationship between EO implementation and firm performance. In general, we found that over time, EO firms outperform non‐EO firms in China, and the influence of EO is only different in nuanced aspects in different time periods according to the change of policies. The data from the most recent period, that is, 2014–2017, indicate that EO adopters have higher performance than matched non‐EO firms both before and after adoption, but the relative performance does not increase after adoption. We further examined the interactive effect between EO and executive stock ownership (ESO) schemes and found that the adoption of ESO weakens the positive relationship between EO and firm performance. Regarding different types of EO, we found lower performance in companies with high return rights but no control rights, and we found better performance when high return rights are combined with control rights. We suggested policy and managerial implications on the basis of the findings.     

The relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation,Market Orientation and Performance in University Spin-Offs

The paper aims to examine the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), Market Orientation (MO) and performance in University Spin-Offs (USOs). Initially, the paper, assesses the existence of a moderating effect of MO in the relationship between EO and performance, next, it analyses the mediation role of MO between EO and performance. To strengthen paper results, we test our hypotheses on a cross-sectional sample of 162 Italian USOs using both perceived and objective performance. Findings suggest that there is no synergistic effect of MO and EO as mutually independent constructs. Instead, our evidences support the idea that EO and MO in USOs occur within the same learning process. Both EO and MO support USO performance, but MO cannot occur without EO as an antecedent condition. At the same time, a significant portion of the EO contribution to performance occurs through MO.

     

TMT conflict,organizational structure,and entrepreneurial orientation: An attention-based view

Drawing on the attention-based view, this study investigates the linkage of top management team (TMT) conflict to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the moderating effect of organizational structure in terms of formalization and centralization on the linkage. It finds that TMT cognitive conflict is positively related to EO, while affective conflict is negatively related to it. Furthermore, formalization positively moderates the linkage of TMT cognitive conflict to EO, while negatively moderates the negative linkage of TMT affective conflict to EO. Moreover, centralization does not significantly moderate the linkage of either TMT cognitive or affective conflict to EO. This study enriches our knowledge of the antecedents of EO, improves our understanding of the value of TMT conflict by distinguishing between TMT cognitive conflict and affective conflict, and introduces a novel insight—the attention-based view—to elaborate the TMT conflict-EO linkage.     

ENTRE-U: An entrepreneurial orientation scale for universities

The development of a new scale, ENTRE-U, that measures the entrepreneurial orientation of university departments is described. Governments, industry, and funding organizations challenge universities to become more "entrepreneurial", often in the context of increasing the commercialization outcomes of publicly funded research. The extant literature on corporate entrepreneurial orientation (EO) suggests this orientation is beneficial when organizations face dynamic or hostile environments. However, the EO concept and related empirical research focus on firms in competitive markets. Little is known about the nature of EO in other organizational contexts. ENTRE-U was developed to facilitate empirical research on EO within public universities. Interviews and a follow-up focus group with faculty members from departments in computer science, health science, and engineering at Canadian Universities elicited items for the new scale. A survey of university department heads provided data for statistical development of the scale. ENTRE-U consists of four dimensions – research mobilization, unconventionality, industry collaboration, and perception of university policies – that successfully predict department involvement in commercialization activities. Implications of the findings and opportunities for research using the ENTRE-U scale are discussed.     

‘Who Knows What?’ in New Venture Teams: Transactive Memory Systems as a Micro‐Foundation of Entrepreneurial Orientation

The increasing importance of entrepreneurial behaviour has led scholars to embrace the idea that an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is an important predictor of firm performance. While EO occupies a central position in strategic entrepreneurship research, scholars have yet to explore its origins in new ventures. Drawing on the knowledge‐based and cognitive views, we theorize that a new venture team's transactive memory system is a cognitive mechanism that spurs the development of an EO. In a field study of high‐tech new ventures in China, we examined the relationship between venture teams’ transactive memory systems (representing the distribution, integration, and utilization of the teams’ knowledge) and EO and the moderating influence of team‐, firm‐, and environment‐level factors. We found that the transactive memory system of a new venture team enhanced their EO and that this relationship was positively influenced by intra‐team trust, the structural organicity of a venture, and environmental dynamism. Our findings provide novel insights into the micro‐foundations of TMS in developing an EO in new ventures.     

External cooperation and entrepreneurial orientation in industrial clusters

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between external cooperation and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). This relationship is explored in cluster environment, wherein entrepreneurial organizations compete and cooperate simultaneously to pursue opportunities. The following hypothesis is tested: External cooperation is positively correlated with entrepreneurial orientation. The hypothesis is tested with a correlation analysis on a sample of 77 small-sized enterprises operating in the Malopolska region in Poland, wherein several clusters are active. Additionally, the regression analysis is conducted to examine the associations between inter-organizational cooperation and EO dimensions. The findings confirm that external cooperation is positively correlated with EO. This observation is confronted with a pro-competitive approach that is a constitutional element of the entrepreneurship concept. Moreover, the findings show that the correlation between external cooperation and a firm’s performance is stronger than between some other EO dimensions and performance. Additionally, the findings show the important role of relationships between organizations and their clients. In the paper, several remarks for development of the theory are discussed, including the need for incorporating inter-organizational cooperation into a set of entrepreneurial traits and reflecting it in entrepreneurial orientation scales. The findings confirm the importance of that direction of theory development that focuses on inter-organizational collaboration in the context of entrepreneurship.     

Market orientation as determinant of entrepreneurship: An empirical investigation on SMEs

Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and Market Orientation (MO) are considered key factors in ensuring firm longevity in the new competitive landscape. Despite extensive research during the past decade, most of the studies use samples that exclude small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which represent the majority of economic activity worldwide. Some studies do investigate this relationship in small companies but place little importance on the subtle differences between SMEs and large companies when measuring MO. This study empirically investigates the relationship between MO and EO on a sample of 2500 Swedish SMEs. A new measure of MO that takes into consideration SMEs specific conditions has been developed and used. Findings suggest that MO is the main determinant of EO in SMEs.     

Modelling the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation,organizational integration,and programme performance in local sustainability

Empirical analyses testing the impacts of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) remain lacking in public sector research despite strong normative expectations for public managers to foster a culture of innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, and accountability in their organizations. Drawing data from a nationwide survey of the US local governments, this research uses structural equation modelling to examine relationships between EO, organizational integration processes, and performance in the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) programme. The study finds that EO positively influences programme performance, but does so indirectly by enhancing knowledge sharing, interorganizational collaboration, and performance information use. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Examining the relationship between customer and entrepreneurial orientation on nascent firms’ marketing strategy

Is entrepreneurial marketing (EM) a ??one type fits all?? approach? Research suggests that EM is especially suitable for small firms. However, it is obvious that??despite their size??small firms show a myriad of different characteristics. In this paper, it is argued that different firm characteristics can be seen in different business orientations, namely customer orientation (CO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO). In turn, different amounts of EO and CO lead to different forms of EM strategy. The Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) serves as source to investigate relationships between EO, CO, and respective marketing strategies among nascent firms. The study suggests that innovativeness is strongly related to the importance of several marketing strategies, such as developing new or advanced product or process technologies. However, other strategies, such as lower prices or convenient location, are not related to either significant levels of CO or EO. The paper offers two main implications. Firstly, small business founders have to be aware of the fact that certain strategies cannot come ??out of nowhere??. This paper shows that running proactive marketing strategies that aim for ongoing innovativeness require the existence of an underlying EO. Secondly, there are different forms of ??small firm EM??; a finding that requires further research in the future.     

Commitment to Sustainability in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: The Influence of Strategic Orientations and Management Values

Ecosystem degradation and social sustainability have become important issues in the corporate sphere during the last few decades. However, research discussing corporate social responsibility and related concepts has often focused on larger companies, sometimes neglecting the specifics of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between two common strategic orientations, market orientation (MO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO), in relation to sustainability commitment, sustainability practices and management values in SMEs. Questionnaire responses from 450 Swedish SMEs were analyzed, confirming the influence of MO, EO and sustainability practices on commitment to sustainability, implying that firms committed to sustainability see both market and entrepreneurial advantages of sustainability. The results also show that different parts of MO and EO differ in importance for commitment to sustainability among SMEs. Implications concern the importance for firms and policymakers to work with sustainability issues using both internal and external perspectives. © 2015 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

Patenting Strategy of Entrepreneurial Orientated Firms in New Zealand

Patenting is regarded as an important area for firms wanting to capture the strategic value of intellectual property. Further, patents are often used as a proxy for innovation— i.e., a firm with a large number of patents is said to be innovative. At the same time, a firm that is innovative is also said to have an entrepreneurial orientation (EO). In spite of this apparent linkage between an EO and patenting, little empirical evidence strategically links the two constructs. This paper addresses this gap by providing one of the first studies examining the relationship between an EO and patenting.     

Can environmentally oriented CEOs and environmentally friendly suppliers boost the growth of small firms?

The core question addressed in the natural resource‐based view (NRBV) of the firm is how to develop and exploit resources beneficial for both the natural environment and firm performance. Due to the resource constraints and increased competition facing small manufacturing firms, achieving this is a challenge for such companies. Building on the NRBV and resource orchestration literatures, we examine the relationship between green purchasing capabilities (GPCs), CEO's environmental orientation (EO), and firm growth. Results from 304 Swedish small manufacturing firms indicate a significant relationship between GPC and growth, and this relationship is positively moderated by the EO of the CEO.     

Fostering green product innovation through green entrepreneurial orientation: The roles of employee green creativity,green role identity,and organizational transactive memory system

Developing new green products is critical to an organization's achievement of sustainable goals as well as competitive advantage. This study aims to unravel the mechanisms through which organizations with green entrepreneurial orientation (green EO) can foster green product innovation. The dataset for testing these mechanisms was garnered from employees and managers who worked in manufacturing firms based in an Asia-Pacific market. Through a multilevel analysis of the data, the study revealed the positive nexus between organizational green EO and green product innovation. The results of the study further lent credence to employee green creativity as a mediation path for such a relationship. Furthermore, employee green role identity and organizational transactive memory system were found to fortify the linkage between green EO and employee green creativity. These results suggest to organizations how to optimally translate their green entrepreneurial strategy into new green products that met customer preferences and societal expectations.