The effect of entrepreneurship orientation and learning orientation on SMEs' performance: an SEM-PLS approach

This study attempts to investigate the effects of entrepreneurial orientation and learning orientation on SMEs' performance. A total of 200 SMEs from the electronic and electrical sector, and 250 SMEs from food and beverage industries were chosen randomly. The results of this study show that entrepreneurial orientation dimensions (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking) and learning orientation have a significant relationship with SMEs' performance. In this context, entrepreneurial orientation makes a significant contribution to SMEs' performance when learning orientation is considered as an investment and a key factor for SMEs' survival.

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abstract: This paper aims to study the international expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging economy. Mathews’ (2006: 5–27) linkage–leverage–learning (LLL) model is the framework applied to analyse the process of international expansion of SMEs. To operationalise the study of the barriers, the LLL model was linked to the work of Leonidou (2004: 279–302). The data was collected from 125 SMEs operating in Ningxia, China, and then analysed using multivariate regressions; the models used the firms’ export intensity at the regional, national and international level as dependent variables. Four models were run: two analysing the internal and external barriers hindering firms’ international expansion, and the other two models studying the characteristics of Chinese international companies (state funding and ownership) as independent variables. The results show that 12 of the barriers defined by Leonidou (2004) are hindering the expansion of Ningxia’s SMEs, that the ownership from the state does not play an important role in this expansion, and that the support from the state in the form of funds is helpful in the first stages of the expansion (regional level) and the funds from private sources are key to cross the country’s boundaries.

title: On Cultural and Macroeconomic Contingencies of the Entrepreneurial Orientation–Performance Relationship
abstract: The relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance is among the best–researched topics in entrepreneurship research. These studies have been conducted in various national contexts. While a first meta–analysis by Rauch et al. finds no significant difference between EO's effects based on the continent in which the firm is based, the present study considers how national cultural and macroeconomic drivers impact the EO–performance relationship. Building upon 177 studies with data from 41 countries, the meta–analysis consolidates this literature stream, contributing to the evidence–based entrepreneurship research.

title: Market orientation, marketing capabilities, and firm performance
abstract: Drawing on traditional resource‐based theory and its recent dynamic capabilities theory extensions, we examine both the possession of a market orientation and the marketing capabilities through which resources are deployed into the marketplace as drivers of firm performance in a cross‐industry sample. Our findings indicate that market orientation and marketing capabilities are complementary assets that contribute to superior firm performance. We also find that market orientation has a direct effect on firms' return on assets (ROA), and that marketing capabilities directly impact both ROA and perceived firm performance.

title: Market orientation: Antecedents and consequences
abstract: This research addresses three questions: (1) Why are some organizations more market-oriented than others? (2) What effect does a market orientation have on employees and business performance? (3) D...

title: Market orientation, service quality and business profitability: a conceptual model and empirical evidence
abstract: The authors explore the relationships among market orientation, service quality and business profitability. Based on an empirical study of Taiwan’s security brokerage service industry, the research results show that there are positive associations among the three constructs. More market‐oriented brokerage service firms seem to enjoy superior service quality perceptions and greater profitability. Further examinations reveal that market orientation has a stronger effect on service quality than on business profitability. Also, the service quality‐profitability linkage is stronger than the market orientation‐profitability linkage. The results suggest that service quality is an intermediate factor in the market orientation‐profitability relationship and is a better indicator of the effectiveness of a market‐oriented campaign than profitability measures.

title: Process innovativeness in technology services organizations: Roles of differentiation strategy, operational autonomy and risk‐taking propensity
abstract: This paper examines the effect of differentiation strategy on process innovativeness in technology services organization (TSOs). In addition it examines the direct and moderating effects of two organizational constructs— operational autonomy and risk-taking propensity . Analysis of data from 102 firms in the mid-Atlantic region of the USA indicates that both differentiation strategy and operational autonomy are positively related with process innovativeness, while an organization's risk-taking propensity has no such relationship. In addition, operational autonomy moderates the relationship between differentiation strategy and process innovativeness, while no evidence was found for the moderating effect of risk-taking propensity on this relationship. Further sub-group analysis shows that in TSOs with high levels of operational autonomy, risk-taking propensity has a positive moderating effect on the above relationship. Post hoc analysis also establishes positive links among process innovativeness and firm performance.

title: Perceived risks and choices in entrepreneurs' new venture decisions
abstract: Risk plays an important role in entrepreneurial decision-making, yet the literature lacks sufficient empirical research to assess the ways in which elements of risk perceptions influence the entrepreneurs' venture decisions. Given the failure rate of new ventures and the rapidly-changing markets in which new ventures are founded, a better understanding of risk and its role will improve the quality of decision-making in high-risk environments. Drawing on economics and behavioral decision theory, it is argued that risk perceptions of entrepreneurs, venture characteristics, contextual effects, and characteristics of individual entrepreneurs play key roles in entrepreneurs' decisions to enter new ventures. An experimental study was conducted and a sample of entrepreneurs in the U.S.'s fastest growing firms were asked to make choices among a series of hypothetical new ventures. CEOs of 540 firms of the fastest growing public companies were contacted, all of which were male with a mean age of 47.7. The independent variables used included the variability and the degree of hazard of the ventures' anticipated outcomes. A 2 x 2 full factorial within subjects experimental design was used to manipulate the variability and hazard associated with the outcomes of new ventures. The sampled subjects did not choose ventures with a high degree of variability, but seemed willing to accept a considerable degree of hazard, or potential downside, in the new ventures in their pursuit of potentially significant gains. The results also suggest that the differences in entrepreneurs' new venture choices were influenced by differences in risk, but also by differences in the entrepreneurs' perceptions of the risks. It is recommended that investors entrust their new venture investments to entrepreneurs whose risk inclination best match the needs of both the opportunity at hand and the investor's objectives.

title: Exploratory Learning, Innovative Capacity, and Managerial Oversight
abstract: When adaptation requires innovation, or the creation of variety, exploration is crucial. High levels of exploration thus imply variance-seeking rather than mean-seeking learning processes. In a study of 56 new business development projects, given high exploration, organizational learning was more effective when the projects operated with autonomy with respect to goals and supervision. As degree of exploration decreased, better results were associated with less autonomy on both counts. This contingent effect persisted even when I controlled for the emergence of deftness and comprehension.

title: Entrepreneurial Orientation, Risk Taking, and Performance in Family Firms
abstract: This article focuses on risk taking as one important dimension of entrepreneurial orientation and its impact in family firms. Drawing on a sample of Swedish SMEs, we find that risk taking is a distinct dimension of entrepreneurial orientation in family firms and that it is positively associated with proactiveness and innovation. We also find that even if family firms do take risks while engaged in entrepreneurial activities, they take risk to a lesser extent than nonfamily firms. Moreover, and most importantly for our understanding of entrepreneurial orientation in family firms, we find that risk taking in family firms is negatively related to performance. Both theoretical and practical implications of our findings are provided.

title: A success versus failure prediction model for small businesses in Singapore
abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential success and failure of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  An exploratory business success versus failure (S/F) prediction model is introduced, modeled after the Lussier prediction model, using data from Singapore. Using logistic regression analysis, it is found that the Lussier model ( Findings - The Lussier model accurately predicted 85.6 percent of the surveyed firms and explained 25 percent of the variance of contributing factors to S/F, and the exploratory model explained 86.3 and 38 percent of the same, respectively. SMEs regard the top four most important factors contributing to their business S/F as: employment, training, and the retainment of high-quality staff members; prevalence of good products, services, and optimum timing in introducing these in the marketplace; excellent relationships with customers and availability of top managers with good leadership qualities.  It is surprising that while pursuing their respective business activities, the SMEs surveyed in this study regarded government policy and the availability of business finance, amongst other factors, of lesser importance compared to the above-mentioned four broad variables.  This paper establishes benchmarks that could be helpful to decision makers for improving future business-related policy formulation and research. Business leaders could pursue their goal of ensuring business successes with better personnel management and leadership training by, for example, taking more business management and leadership courses and personal development. Government public policy makers and others could utilize such a model to assess a firm's potential for success so that society could benefit via the allocation of limited resources toward higher potential firms.

title: Strategic Orientations in Management Literature: Three Approaches to Understanding the Interaction between Market, Technology, Entrepreneurial and Learning Orientations
abstract: Market, technology, entrepreneurial and learning orientations have attracted major scholarly interest within their specific streams of literature for some decades. These strategic orientations are seen as principles that direct and influence the activities of a firm and generate the behaviours intended to ensure its viability and performance. Prior studies have argued that firms should develop and use multiple orientations, yet the relationship between different orientations has received only fragmented attention. This paper presents a systematic review of this literature, covering 67 scholarly articles published between 1987 and 2010 which investigate multiple orientations. The paper contributes first by summarizing the current state of knowledge on the interplay between these orientations. Many of these relationships have not been studied to any great degree, and there are research gaps in the information available on the relationships between entrepreneurial, technology and learning orientation in particular. Secondly, the paper contributes to further theoretical and empirical enquiry by synthesizing the empirical findings into a three-approach framework. The sequential, alternatives and complementary approaches to perceiving the relationship between orientations all suggest areas for further research. The sequential approach could further contribute by developing better constructs for explaining the orientation of the firm; while the alternatives approach could increase its relevance to management through the exploration of contingency settings and comparative studies. The complementary approach encourages discussion between researchers from the different streams of literature through the investigation of the relationships. It suggests focus on the investigation of both universal- and contingency-dependent-orientation configurations.

title: From Entrepreneurial Orientation and Learning Orientation to Business Performance: Analysing the Mediating Role of Organizational Learning and the Moderating Effects of Organizational Size
abstract: Following the organizational learning theory and the knowledge-based view approach, this contribution aims to study the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and learning orientation on organizational learning, considering the latter as a mediating variable in the relationships between both antecedent cultural values and business performance. We also analyse the moderating role of organizational size on these previous relationships. The hypotheses proposed in our research model are tested on a sample of 140 Spanish industrial companies, applying variance-based structural equation modelling: partial least squares. In order to assess the moderating effects of organizational size, we adopt a multi-group approach using two subsamples with large firms and small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). Our findings indicate that organizational learning partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance and fully mediates the link between learning orientation and performance. Likewise, the results reveal that the relationship established between entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning is more intense for the group of large firms than for the group of SMEs. Moreover, the influence of learning orientation on organizational learning is greater in SMEs than in large firms.

title: The synergistic effect of market orientation and learning orientation on organizational performance
abstract: Although a large body of research theoretically asserts a positive relationship between market orientation and organizational performance, fewer empirical studies demonstrate it using multiple and varied organizational performance measures. Additionally, a series of recent studies have theoretically proposed, but not empirically demonstrated, that a firm’s learning orientation is likely to indirectly affect organizational performance by improving the quality of its market-oriented behaviors and directly influence organizational performance by facilitating the type of generative learning that leads to innovations in products, procedures, and systems. This empirical study supports all of these specific contentions and the more global notion that higher order learning processes may be critical in creating a sustainable competitive advantage in the firm.

title: Innovation, Market Orientation, and Organizational Learning: An Integration and Empirical Examination
abstract: Research on market orientation and organizational learning addresses how organizations adapt to their environments and develop competitive advantage. A significant void exists in current models of market orientation because none of the frameworks incorporates constructs related to innovation. The authors present a conceptual framework for incorporating constructs that pertain to innovation in market orientation research. Some of the critical relationships in this conceptual framework are tested among a sample of 9648 employees from 56 organizations in a large agency of the U.S. federal government. The results indicate that higher levels of innovativeness in the firms’ culture are associated with a greater capacity for adaptation and innovation (number of innovations successfully implemented). In addition, higher levels of innovativeness are associated with cultures that emphasize learning, development, and participative decision making. The authors make recommendations for incorporating constructs related to innovation into research on market orientation and organizational learning.

title: Organizational Learning: A Review of Some Literatures
abstract: Organizational learning is currently the focus of considerable attention, and it is addressed by a broad range of literatures. Organization theory, industrial econ omics, economic history, and business, management and innovation studies all approach the question of how organizations learn. A number of branches of psychology are also revealing on the issue. This paper assesses these various literatures by examining the insights they allow in three main areas: first, the goals of organizational learning; second, the learning processes in organizations; and third, the ways in which organizational learning may be facilitated and impeded. It contends that while the various literatures are revealing in particular aspects of organizational learning, a more complete understanding of its complexity requires a multi-disciplinary approach. The contributions of the different approaches are analyzed, and some areas are suggested where the transfer of analytical concepts may improve understanding.

title: How a learning orientation affects drivers of innovativeness and performance in service delivery
abstract: Relying on organizational innovativeness for long-term growth and profitability can be difficult, time consuming, and expensive. In the context of service delivery of 395 strategic business units (SBU) in Israel's healthcare industry, this paper examines the role of a learning-orientation as a moderator in an integrative model of organizational innovativeness. We find moderation of the impacts of risk-taking, creativity, competitor benchmarking orientation, and environmental opportunities on innovativeness. Moreover, we find the influence on performance pronounced for high learning-oriented SBUs. The paper shows that learning orientation should be considered for understanding effective innovativeness work for competitive service delivery.

title: Drivers of innovativeness and performance for innovative SMEs in South Korea: Mediation of learning orientation
abstract: This study aims to investigate the relationships between drivers of innovativeness and the mediation effects of learning orientation. A conceptual model is designed and hypotheses are constructed. In order to test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling is performed for the data collected from 333 technology-innovative small firms in South Korea. The results reveal that market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation significantly influences learning orientation, respectively. Additionally, learning orientation significantly affects innovativeness, and sequentially innovativeness has a significant effect on performance. The most notable of these is that learning orientation performs a mediating function in the relationships between market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation and innovativeness. The findings imply that managers with entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation should place much emphasis on learning orientation in order to boost innovativeness and ultimately achieve performance. Limitations include a limited number of predictors and possibility of generalizability of the results.

title: SMEs' Radical Product Innovation: The Role of Internally and Externally Oriented Knowledge Capabilities**
abstract: This study examines the role and contribution of specific internally (knowledge diversity and sharing capabilities) and externally oriented knowledge‐related capabilities (exploratory, transformative, and exploitative learning processes of absorptive capacity) to radical product innovation in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). It extends the current literature on the topic by considering both types of knowledge‐related capabilities and by hypothesizing and testing connections between both. Our path analysis results, based on a sample of 194 SMEs in dynamic environments, indicate that radical innovation is positively affected by exploitative learning and by the knowledge sharing capability. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

title: Entrepreneurs' dispositional positive affect: The potential benefits – and potential costs – of being “up”
abstract: Dispositional positive affect (DPA) – the stable tendency to experience positive moods and emotions – has been found to be related to several beneficial outcomes (e.g., enhanced career success, development of high quality social relationships, improved personal health). Evidence on this issue is not entirely consistent, however, and high levels of dispositional positive affect have sometimes been found to also be associated with detrimental outcomes (e.g., reduced task performance, biased recall of information, increased impulsivity). A framework is proposed for integrating these seemingly inconsistent findings and applying the result to entrepreneurs. Briefly, this model suggests that there are discrete limits to the benefits conferred by DPA because at very high levels, processes that interfere with specific aspects of cognition, perception, motivation, and self-regulation, operate. The overall result is a curvilinear relationship between entrepreneurs' level of DPA and their performance of tasks closely related to new venture development and growth (e.g., opportunity recognition and evaluation, effective decision making). Factors that make entrepreneurs especially susceptible to negative effects of high levels of DPA are described, and theoretical and practical implications of the proposed model are discussed.

title: Impact of TQM and organizational learning on innovation performance in the high-tech industry
abstract: Many scholars have suggested that both total quality management (TQM) and organizational learning can individually and effectively promote innovation. However, the question remains as to whether a relationship exists between TQM and organizational learning. This study has three main goals: (1) to determine the relationships between TQM, organizational learning, and innovation performance; (2) to determine if organizational learning fosters innovation performance and plays a mediating role between TQM and innovation performance, and (3) to test a proposed model explaining the relationships among TQM, organizational learning, and innovation performance through empirical examination. Using a self-administered survey to sample Taiwanese high-tech industry companies, this study examines four hypotheses and tests the proposed model. The principal findings of this study are as follows; (1) SEM analysis shows that the TQM-organizational learning-innovation performance model has goodness-of-fit, (2) TQM has significant and positive effects on organizational learning, and (3) TQM and organizational learning have both significant and positive effects on innovation performance.

title: Entrepreneurial orientation and network board diversity in network organizations
abstract: This study extends the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) to the network level to investigate how diversity among officers serving on network organization boards affects network-level entrepreneurial orientation (NEO). Using data from 53 strategic network organizations across five years, we found that insider/outsider and functional diversity among network board members promotes NEO. The results also demonstrate that board group tenure moderates the influence of diversity in opposite ways. The impact of board insider/outsider diversity is stronger in networks in which board members lack long tenure. On the contrary, the effect of functional diversity on network entrepreneurial orientation is stronger in network organizations with tenured boards.

title: A scale for measuring attitude toward private label products and an examination of its psychological and behavioral correlates
abstract: A measure of consumers’ attitude toward private label brands is developed, and its psychometric properties are assessed. Predictions are then tested regarding relationships between private label attitude and (1) latent perceptual and sales promotion constructs, and (2) purchase behaviors measured in a field setting. The measure is positively related to value consciousness, deal proneness, and smart-shopper self-perceptions, and negatively related to the propensity to be brand loyal and hold price-quality perceptions. Predictive validity of the private label measure is supported by a positive relationship with private label purchases from a grocery store shopping trip. Despite a positive relationship between the latent constructs of private label attitude and deal proneness, the consumer segment that allocated a high percentage of total purchases to private label products made fewer purchases on sale or with a coupon. These findings suggest that consumers may choose between price-related deals and private label purchases.

title: STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDED TWO-STEP APPROACH
abstract: In this article, we provide guidance for substantive researchers on the use of structural equation modeling in practice for theory testing and development. We present a comprehensive, two-step modeling approach that employs a series of nested models and sequential chi-square difference tests. We discuss the comparative advantages of this approach over a one-step approach. Considerations in specification, assessment of fit, and respecification of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis are reviewed. As background to the two-step approach, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory analysis, the distinction between complementary approaches for theory testing versus predictive application, and some developments in estimation methods also are discussed.

title: Age cohort analysis in adoption of mobile data services: gen Xers versus baby boomers
abstract: This study aims to examine the differences in adoption of mobile data services between two age cohorts (gen Xers and baby boomers). Three elements in the extended Technology Acceptance Model – perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived fun – were used to identify the differences in adoption of mobile data services for the two age cohorts. A sample of 200 mobile services users drawn from a purchased consumer panel participated in an online survey. Of this sample, 67 gen Xers and 86 baby boomers were used for the analysis (n=153). Multigroup structural equation modeling analysis was used to examine the differences in adoption of mobile data services between the two age cohorts. This study found that baby boomers perceived mobile data services as more difficult to use than gen Xers. However, the perception of usefulness of mobile data services was stronger for the baby boomers than gen Xers. Usefulness of mobile data services may be a critical ...

title: On the evaluation of structural equation models
abstract: Criteria for evaluating structural equation models with latent variables are defined, critiqued, and illustrated. An overall program for model evaluation is proposed based upon an interpretation of converging and diverging evidence. Model assessment is considered to be a complex process mixing statistical criteria with philosophical, historical, and theoretical elements. Inevitably the process entails some attempt at a reconcilation between so-called objective and subjective norms.

title: A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)
abstract: With applications using SmartPLS (www.smartpls.com)—the primary software used in partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)—this practical guide provides concise instructions on how to use this evolving statistical technique to conduct research and obtain solutions. Featuring the latest research, new examples, and expanded discussions throughout, the Second Edition is designed to be easily understood by those with limited statistical and mathematical training who want to pursue research opportunities in new ways.

title: Reframing Customer Value in a Service-Based Paradigm: An Evaluation of a Formative Measure in a Multi-industry, Cross-cultural Context
abstract: Customer value has received much attention in the recent marketing literature, but relatively little research has specifically focused on inclusion of service components when defining and operationalizing customer value. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of customer value by examining several service elements, namely service quality, service equity, and relational benefits, as well as perceived sacrifice, in customer assessments of value. A multiple industry, cross-cultural setting is used to substantiate our inclusion of service components and to examine whether customer value is best modeled using formative or reflective measures. Our results suggest conceptualizing customer value with service components can be supported empirically, the use of formative components of service value can be supported both theoretically and empirically and is superior to a reflective operationalization of the construct, and that our measure is a robust one that works well across multiple service contexts and cultures.

title: Product quality as a formative index: Evaluating an alternative measurement approach
abstract: Product quality is a critical competitive issue when launching new products. However, the product quality construct has been measured inconsistently in prior research, with researchers often not considering multiple components of quality. Thus, results may not be comparable across studies, and when dimensions of quality are excluded, relationships found between quality and other constructs may be spurious. As a response, we develop a formative measurement approach to product quality. The components of product quality are not interchangeable in measurement as typical reflective approaches assume. These dimensions make up the quality construct, necessitating a formative measurement approach. Here, this approach is developed and tested, compared with the traditional reflective approach, and its relationships with other constructs evaluated in a model of new product performance. Overall, this formative approach is shown both to be theoretically appropriate and to possess strong measurement properties. This approach has clear implications for research concerning product quality and improving its measurement in the future.

title: Entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation as drivers of product innovation success: A study of exporters from a developing economy
abstract: This paper explores how two specific market-based resources, export entrepreneurial-oriented and export market-oriented behaviours, act to drive the performance of firms’ product innovations in their export markets. Drawing upon data from 164 Ghanaian exporters, the results indicate that both export entrepreneurial-oriented behaviour and export market-oriented behaviour drive export product innovation success. Entrepreneurial-oriented behaviour is more likely to be a driver of product innovation success when market-oriented behaviour is strong. This joint effect is more substantial when market dynamism is strong Individually, entrepreneurial-oriented and market-oriented behaviours are more likely to be related to export product innovation success when market dynamism is high. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

title: Ambidexterity in Technology Sourcing: The Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity
abstract: A firm's organizational and technological boundaries are two important demarcation lines when sourcing for technology. Based on this theoretical lens, four possible combinations of exploration and exploitation emerge. Applying an ambidexterity perspective to a firm's technology sourcing strategy, we hypothesize that a curvilinear relationship exists between a firm's technology sourcing mix and its performance. We further introduce a contingency element by proposing that a firm's absorptive capacity exerts a positive moderating effect on this relationship. We empirically test these hypotheses on a random, multi-industry sample of U.S. manufacturing companies. We find support for the notion that the relationship between technology sourcing mix and firm performance is an inverted U-shape. Moreover, higher levels of absorptive capacity allow a firm to more fully capture the benefits resulting from ambidexterity in technology sourcing.

title: The Organizational Pervasiveness of Entrepreneurial Orientation
abstract: While 30 years of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) research has demonstrated that EO provides critical insights into questions of organizational–level strategy and performance, how EO manifests inside organizations has received little attention. Instead of assuming that EO is homogenous, we examine the questions of how and why EO might pervade organizations heterogeneously along three dimensions: vertically across hierarchy levels, horizontally across business units, and temporally as an organization develops. We then present three models for how EO can dynamically pervade organizations and discuss how examining the pervasiveness of EO can further our understanding of entrepreneurship as an organizational phenomenon.

title: Empirical research on entrepreneurial orientation: An assessment and suggestions for future research
abstract: Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is one of the most widely accepted firm-level constructs in the literature. The present study provides a comprehensive qualitative review and evaluation of the empirical EO literature. It finds that EO research has made considerable strides in recent years and is accelerating and broadening, although notable biases and inconsistencies in variable choice and model specification remain. The article sheds light on the popularity of Miller’s unidimensional conceptualization of EO, as well as the rise in multidimensional explorations of the phenomenon. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of the study’s findings for EO-related research and practice.