手段导向、知识获取与新企业创业能力的实证研究

创业能力对于新企业创造和维持竞争优势具有重要意义，相关研究受到创业领域学者们的广泛关注。然而创业能力的实证研究主要集中于创业者个体层面创业能力的前因和结果分析，组织层面的创业能力的实证研究尚处于探索阶段，仍有待运用有效的理论揭示新企业如何构建组织层面创业能力的内在机理和路径。作为新兴的创业理论，手段导向理论有助于面临高不确定性的新企业在创业过程中持续进行迭代式学习，而组织学习理论认为，知识获取作为组织学习的核心环节有助于组织创业能力的构建。因此，手段导向可能通过知识获取提升新企业创业能力。然而，少有学者关注此方面研究。 运用手段导向理论和组织学习理论，深入剖析手段导向各维度对创业能力的积极影响，检验知识获取在手段导向与创业能力关系间的中介作用。采取大样本问卷调查，收集215家中国新企业数据，并运用多元线性回归分析和因子分析等方法进行实证检验。 研究结果表明，手段导向的4个维度均对创业能力具有积极影响，试验、可承受损失和先前承诺3个维度通过知识获取提升新企业创业能力，但是知识获取在柔性与新企业创业能力关系间的中介作用不显著。 研究结论对于丰富和拓展组织层面创业能力相关研究和推动手段导向理论的发展具有重要意义，为新企业如何在高不确定性和强资源约束下构建组织创业能力提供必要的理论指导。

An Empirical Study on Effectuation, Knowledge Acquisition and Entrepreneurial Capability of New Ventures

Entrepreneurial capability is critical for new ventures to create and sustain competitive advantages, which has drawn much research attention of scholars in entrepreneurship. Extant empirical research on entrepreneurial capability is mostly focused on the antecedents and effects of individual-level entrepreneurial capability. However, empirical research on organizational-level entrepreneurial capability development is still in the exploratory stage. Thus, effective theoretical perspectives are greatly needed to provide deep insights into the internal mechanism and path of how new ventures develop organizational-level entrepreneurial capability. As an emerging theory in entrepreneurship, effectuation theory argues that effectuation consistent with learning strategy allows new ventures to take iterative learning during the process of entrepreneurship under high uncertainty. According to organizational learning theory, knowledge acquisition as the key process of organizational learning contributes to the development of organizational capability through building organizational routines. Thus, effectuation may contribute to organizational-level entrepreneurial capability development through knowledge acquisition, however, whereas little research has been done in this regard. To sum up, based on theories of effectuation and organizational learning, this paper constructs a conceptual model to explore the influence of each dimension of effectuation on entrepreneurial capability development as well as the mediating role of knowledge acquisition. It is proposed that all the dimensions of effectuation have positive effects on organizational-level entrepreneurial capability and knowledge acquisition is the mediator in the relationship between effectuation and entrepreneurial capability. Transition economies characterized with high uncertainty provide ideal laboratories to examine the impacts of effectuation on entrepreneurial capability. In an effort to examine the hypothesis, data is collected based on large-scale survey from 215 new ventures from China, which is the largest transition economy. And the data is analyzed based on empirical analysis methods such as multivariate linear regression and factor analysis. The analysis results indicate that all dimensions of effectuation have positive effects on entrepreneurial capability of new ventures. Furthermore, dimensions of effectuation including experimentation, affordable loss and pre-commitments contribute to entrepreneurial capability development through knowledge acquisition in new ventures. However, knowledge acquisition does not play a significant mediating role in the relationship between flexibility and entrepreneurial capability of Chinese new ventures. The research contributes to the literature by enriching and extending the research on organizational-level entrepreneurial capability as well as facilitating the development of effectuation. The research results also have great managerial implications for new ventures to apply effectuation for entrepreneurial capability development under high uncertainty and strong resource constraints.