Why does entrepreneurial orientation affect company performance?

© 2019 Strategic Management Society Research summary: To better understand why entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is positively associated with company performance, we propose and test a reconceptualization of how the components of EO (risk-taking, innovativeness, proactiveness) combine in driving performance. Drawing on financial economics theory, our conceptualization highlights that all three components positively contribute to performance, but in different ways. Risk-taking has a direct positive relationship with performance, which can be understood through the risk–return tradeoff that is central in financial economics theory. The relationship between risk-taking and performance is conditional on the level of innovativeness and thus innovativeness contributes to performance through its effect on the type of risk-taking. Proactiveness contributes to performance through its positive effect on the level of risk-taking. Managerial summary: This study analyzes three key drivers of company performance: risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness. We show that constructive risk-taking is the central driver of company performance, mirroring the principle of risk and return in financial investment settings. Risk- taking that is associated with innovation has a particularly strong positive relationship with performance, consistent with innovation being a driver of growth and profitability. More proactive firms tend to take on more risk and thus also perform better than less proactive firms

Corporate Entrepreneurship:From Structures to Mindset

Corporate entrepreneurship dispersed throughout an organization and leveraging the entrepreneurial potential of all its employees bears significant benefits for those organizations that embrace it. However, it appears more difficult to instill and requires strong investment in the development of human capital and entrepreneurial mindset among the employees and across the organization. In this chapter, we discuss the essence of corporate entrepreneurship mindset and show that across an organization, there might be different entrepreneurial mindsets that correspond to different people, opportunities, and contexts. Although different, they all lead to enactment of entrepreneurial projects. This chapter, thus, contributes to the discussion regarding the nature of corporate entrepreneurial mindsets, and their development and stimulation within an organization, from both academic and practical view

Sharing and shaping : a cross-country comparison of how sharing economy firms shape their institutional environment to gain legitimacy

New technology firms such as Uber and Airbnb have recently spurred the advent of the sharing economy (SE). Faced with institutionally diverse environments, SE firms apply various market and non-market strategies through which they actively legitimize their products/services. In-depth qualitative analyses of several regulative, normative, and cognitive institutions in the Netherlands, the UK, and Egypt reveal that similar institutional strategies have different effects in different country contexts. In countries with lower degrees of institutionalization, SE firms can address grand societal challenges and leverage the power they gain to shape government regulations and public perception to their advantage. In countries with higher degrees of institutionalization, firms with disruptive and transformative strategies (e.g., Uber) can provide rapid but short-term gains, whereas firms with more relational and additive strategies (e.g., Airbnb) may allow for more sustainable legitimacy gains. Furthermore, the extent to which acting locally and addressing the needs of the community leads to legitimation largely depends on whether the national government leaves the regulation of a new service or product to local authorities or takes an active role in establishing standards nation-wide. These findings pave the way for a future contingency theory of country institutional environments and firm institutional strategies

Work context and employee behaviour as antecedents for intrapreneurship

Contains fulltext : 112217.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access) Contains fulltext : 112217-1.pdf (author's version ) (Open Access)05 mei 201324 p