Entrepreneurial orientation,market orientation,network ties,and performance: Study of entrepreneurial firms in a developing economy

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO), market orientation (MO) and network ties are typically modeled as separate antecedents of performance. However, the boundary conditions for such models are under-explored, as is their applicability to developing economy settings. Accordingly, drawing on institutional and social capital theories, the current paper argues that the performance benefits of EO and MO are complementary, and vary across different levels of social and business network ties. Using primary data gathered from entrepreneurial firms operating in Ghana, the study findings indicate that aligning high levels of EO and MO improves business performance, and particularly so when social and business network ties are well developed, since under these latter conditions, the performance benefits of aligning EO and MO are greatest.     

The moderating role of managerial ties in market orientation and innovation: An Asian perspective

This empirical study contributes to the extant literature by investigating the relations among market orientation, managerial ties and innovation simultaneously and interactively, from an Asian perspective. Our findings reveal that customer orientation and interfunctional coordination have a positive impact on innovation. Moreover, managerial ties play a moderation role in the market orientation–innovation linkage. Business ties enhance the relation between customer orientation and interfunctional coordination and innovation. On the other hand, business ties and competitor orientation have a negative interaction effect on innovation. In addition, political ties also dampen the relation between interfunctional coordination and innovation. Such results add new insights to the extant literature and provide implications for future research and marketing practices in Asia.     

The role of entrepreneurial orientation in service firms: empirical evidence from Austria

Entrepreneurial behaviour is becoming increasingly important for all firms, regardless of size, age, or industry sector. It is increasingly seen as one of the most important drivers for economic growth and corporate success. Nevertheless, no empirical research has so far concentrated on the role of entrepreneurial behaviour in service firms, although the service sector has become the most important (and the only growing) industry sector. This article therefore investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and corporate performance on the basis of an empirical survey of 310 service firms in Austria. Here, a significant positive relationship between EO and corporate performance could be identified, with a clear emphasis on innovative behaviour as the most important sub-dimension.     

Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance in non-profit service organizations: contingent effect of market orientation

Prior research indicates that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance. This study argues that the inverted U-shaped relationship may depend on the level of market orientation (MO). A moderated hierarchical regression based on a sample of 307 non-profit service organizations reveals that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between each sub-dimension of EO and performance. However, these relationships do not exist for each sub-dimension of MO. When both market intelligence generation and responsiveness are high, the relationship between innovativeness and performance will be in a linear form. Under the condition of high-market intelligence responsiveness, the higher proactiveness will lead to a higher performance level. These findings will better our understanding of the relationship between EO and firm performance.     

Organizational Ambidexterity and Innovation Performance: The Moderating Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation

The influence of organizational ambidexterity on innovation and the growth of enterprises has gradually become an important research topic in the field of strategic management and organization theory. This paper builds up a theoretical framework of the relationship between organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance with regards to corporate entrepreneurship orientation. We select 175 companies from high and new technology industries in China’s three large cities, Beijing, Tianjin and Dalian, as samples to carry out an empirical test. We find that the balance and complement of organizational ambidexterity are positively correlated with the innovation performance of enterprises; a corporate entrepreneurial orientation has a significantly moderating effect on the relationship between the balance dimension of organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance, yet it has no significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between the combined dimension of organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance.     

Competitor orientation in successful SMEs: an exploration of the impact on innovation

The impact of market orientation on organisational performance has been the subject of many studies illustrating variance with firm size. Although small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are inherently customer-oriented, research has identified that they have significantly lower levels of competitor orientation than large firms and that competitor orientation is significantly related to organisational performance. In addition, studies have illustrated that SME success is linked to innovative problem solving, new product development and resource optimisation. SMEs are inherently innovative in how they adopt creative approaches to overcome constraints associated with their size. Given that SMEs often neglect to focus on competitors, this study explores the relationship between competitor orientation and organisational performance through an innovation lens. This study uses a qualitative research approach to investigate seven successful SMEs as case studies. The findings indicate that SMEs seeking optimal organisational performance should pay close attention to direct and indirect competitors in order to identify opportunities and build sustainable competitive businesses.     

Entrepreneurial competencies and motivations to enhance marketing innovation in Europe

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) country profile variables were analyzed using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). This analysis identified which combinations of entrepreneurs’ competencies and motivations boost marketing innovation. Marketing innovation contributes to defining and reinforcing competitive advantages, goal setting, and business performance. The findings of this study can help policymakers design strategies to foster regional marketing innovation and economic growth.     

Asymmetric roles of business ties and political ties in product innovation

This study investigates the asymmetric roles of business ties and political ties in innovation processes. The study posits that business ties strengthen organizational competence and enhance the environmental fit. In contrast, political ties increase the environmental fit but ossify organizational internal routines. The study uses an extensive survey on 766 Chinese firms across multiple sectors to test hypotheses. The empirical results provide strong supports for hypotheses by showing that: (1) business ties have a positive impact on product innovation, indicating that despite different types of business ties, they share common features in enhancing product innovation; (2) political ties have an inverted U-shaped relationship with product innovation, indicating that the positive effect of political ties on product innovation would diminish as the costs of political ties outweigh the benefits.     

Market orientation,product innovation and export performance: evidence from Chinese manufacturers

Based on resource-based view (RBV), this study examines the impact of marketing-related resource (market orientation) and innovation-related resources (innovation orientation and innovation resources) on exporters' performance (new product performance and overall export performance), as well as moderating role of environmental turbulence in the market orientation and export performance link. The questionnaire survey conducted among 220 manufacturing exporters reveals that there exist positive relationships among the constructs in question. This research departs from the majority of past research investigating the relationship among market orientation, product innovation and business performance in three aspects: (1) it examines the impact mechanism how market orientation improves new product performance and export performance through innovation orientation and innovation resources based on RBV, (2) it distinguishes among three constructs involved in product innovation activity, and (3) it extends the research from domestic markets to export markets. We conclude by discussing our contributions, the implications, and possible future extensions.     

Entrepreneurial orientation,access to financial resources,and product performance in the Greek commercial TV industry

In this research article, the authors draw on the theoretical insights of the strategic entrepreneurship literature and examine the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, access to financial resources, and broadcasted product performance using survey data from Greek television enterprises. Data were based on companies' chief executive officers. Results of Bayesian path analysis indicate that access to financial resources fully mediates the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on product performance. Recommendations for further research are discussed.     

New entrepreneurial ventures in a globalized world: The role of market orientation

The present study examines the performance consequences of a market orientation for new entrepreneurial ventures in a globalized world. We show that market orientation indeed positively impacts the performance of new entrepreneurial ventures, regardless of their geographical setting. While market orientation turns out to be a general success factor in a globalized world, the strength of the performance relationship however is contingent to the national culture as one major differentiator between geographical settings. The effect turns out to be stronger in collectivist and high uncertainty avoidance cultures. Findings are derived based on large samples with German and Thai new entrepreneurial ventures. Partial least square is applied as the method of analysis.

The role of entrepreneurial marketing in new technology ventures first product commercialisation

This paper sheds light on the importance of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) in the context of new technology ventures (NTVs) first product commercialisation. This study explores the role of EM expressed as the degree of complementarity between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and market orientation (MO) in driving firms’ innovation activities including competence exploration and exploitation in achieving first product performance (FPP). The results of a survey drawn from Indian NTVs identify a significant effect for the complementarity of EO–MO on exploratory and exploitative innovation activities. Furthermore, the findings indicate a positive effect of both exploratory and exploitative activities in enhancing FPP and the contingency role of marketing capabilities (MCs) in enhancing the impact of competence exploration and exploitation in first product commercialisation.     

An analysis of social media marketing strategy and performance in the context of fashion brands: The case of Taiwan

This study examines the social media strategy and performance of fashion brands. Drawing upon the resource-based view, the study explores the influence of entrepreneurial orientation, innovation orientation, and market orientation on social media strategy and performance. Analysis was conducted using data on 207 Taiwanese fashion brands. These data were collected from a mail survey. Structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis were used to test the empirical relationships proposed in the research hypotheses. The results indicate that social media strategy affects performance; entrepreneurial orientation and innovation orientation affect social media strategy; entrepreneurial orientation positively affects performance; and innovation orientation and market orientation positively affect performance.     

基于环境不确定性和企业家导向的中国企业品牌战略决策研究

This study investigate factors affecting brand strategic decisions in Chinese companies in regard to two factors: environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurial orientation, with the model of environmental management strategies. Based on prior literature and empirical analysis, this study proposes a contingency framework, which indicated that under what conditions Chinese companies prefer to adopt what kind of brand strategies, such as own-brand manufacturing, acquired brand, licensed brand and original equipment manufacturing/original design manufacturing.      

市场导向、组织学习创新及组织绩效:基于珠江三角洲企业的实证研究

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among market orientation, learning orientation, organizational innovation and organizational performance through a structural equation modeling approach. This study uses a sample of 143 companies in the Pearl River Delta region of China. Results show that (1) market orientation has no positive direct impact on organizational performance; (2) market orientation has a direct impact on learning orientation; (3) learning orientation has a direct impact on administrative and technical innovation; (4) market orientation has a direct impact on organizational innovation by learning orientation; (5) administrative innovation has a positive direct impact on organizational performance while technical innovation does not impact on organizational performance directly; (6) technical innovation has a positive impact on administrative innovation; (7) learning orientation has an indirect impact on organizational performance through influencing organizational innovation; (8) market orientation has impact on learning orientation, which has an impact on organizational innovation, which in turn has an impact on organizational performance. Managerial implications are discussed, along with suggestions for further research. Translated from Guanli Shijie 管理世界 (Management World), 2006, (2): 80–94, 143     

Family firm performance: The influence of entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity

This article investigates the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity on family firm performance. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) was used to analyze empirical data for 218 Spanish family firms. Absorptive capacity positively mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family firm performance. This total mediation effect suppressed the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation on family firm performance. A major implication of this finding is that for family firms to improve their performance through entrepreneurial orientation, absorptive capacity must act as a mediator.     

The Impact of Environment Uncertainty and Effectual Flexibility on Entrepreneurial Resource Combination: The Moderating Effect of Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy

Entrepreneurial resource combination is widely recognized as a key enabling factor to a new venture’s survival and growth, but how and why resources are integrated remain elusive. Borrowing from the theory of resource combination proposed by Sirmon, Hitt and Ireland (2007), this study empirically examines how environmental uncertainty impacts entrepreneurial resource combination. We also examine the mediating effect of effectual flexibility on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurial resource combination to see how new ventures utilize flexibility to neutralize the threat of environmental uncertainty. The moderating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy is also examined to see how entrepreneurs’ self-cognition affects these relationships. Examining data from 287 new ventures, we find that both environmental dynamism and environmental hostility have significantly positive influence on entrepreneurial resource combination (including entrepreneurial resource cohesion and entrepreneurial resource coupling). We also find that flexibility mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty (including environmental dynamism and environmental hostility) and entrepreneurial resource combination. Empirical studies also show that entrepreneurial self-efficacy positively moderates the relationship between environmental dynamism and flexibility but negatively moderates the relationship between environmental hostility and flexibility. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Network embeddedness,headquarters entrepreneurial orientation,and MNE international performance

The aim of this paper is to examine the role played by external and internal network embeddedness in the headquarters entrepreneurial orientation of multinational enterprises (MNEs), and the role of the latter in MNE performance. Drawing on responses from CEOs in a sample of 143 European MNEs, our study offers evidence for the antecedent role of network embeddedness on headquarters entrepreneurial orientation on the one hand, and for the positive impact of headquarters entrepreneurial orientation on international performance on the other. Our findings contribute to the network view of MNEs in the international business and international entrepreneurship literature by disentangling the complex phenomenon of entrepreneurship in MNEs, partly explained by its multiple embeddedness in external and internal networks, and by studying its impact on international performance.     

The effects of entrepreneurial orientation and marketing information on the performance of SMEs

In this study, we investigate the effects of entrepreneurial orientation and marketing information on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises. We build and test a causal model using data obtained from Singaporean entrepreneurs and find support for most of our hypotheses. The results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation plays an influential role on the acquisition and utilization of marketing information, and also has a direct effect on firm performance. The utilization of information regarding marketing mix decisions (particularly the Promotion and Place elements) positively affects firm performance, and it partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. The implications and future research directions are discussed.     

A comparative analysis of the entrepreneurial orientation/growth relationship in service firms and manufacturing firms

This article builds on the recently increasingly mentioned notion that entrepreneurship in the service sector is a worthwhile, but clearly underresearched topic. Using a sample of 1,612 small- and medium-size enterprises from the four German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, and using structural equation modeling, this article finds that service firms have a significantly higher entrepreneurial orientation (EO) than manufacturing firms – both on the overall level as well as for each of the three sub-categories proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking. With regards to the positive relationship between a firm's EO and its growth aspirations, nevertheless, no significant differences could be identified. Accordingly, this study shows that EO is a strategic orientation of highest value for service firms as well, under the premise of growth-orientation.