Experiential and Informational Knowledge,Architectural Marketing Capabilities,and the Adaptive Performance of Export Ventures: A Cross‐National Study

Knowledge‐based view (KBV) theory posits that the acquisition and use of relevant knowledge is key to understanding organizational performance. However, there is relatively little empirical evidence to support or refute several important propositions underlying KBV theory explanations of organizational performance. In particular, the extant literature has focused on individual technical and scientific components of the knowledge bases of firms in dynamic industries, and largely ignored both different levels of informational and experiential knowledge relevant to the market environment, and the increasingly important context of exporting. Our study addresses these knowledge gaps by developing a framework for export venture knowledge management and empirically examining relationships between different types of individual‐level and organizational‐level knowledge relevant to the market environment, architectural marketing capabilities, and the adaptive performance of export ventures. Using primary data collected in the United Kingdom and China, our study indicates that export ventures' organizational‐level experiential and informational knowledge, and individual‐level experiential knowledge relevant to the market environment, is positively associated with export ventures' architectural marketing capabilities, which are in turn associated with the adaptive performance of export ventures.     

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。     

Governance structure and internationalization of family-controlled firms: The mediating role of international entrepreneurial orientation

Stemming from resource dependence theory this article investigates the mediating role of international entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between the involvement of non-family members in the firms' governance structure and both pace of internationalization and international performance of family firms. Relying on a sample of 113 German family firms, the theoretical model proposed in the study is tested via structural equation modeling techniques. Our findings suggest that a high involvement of non-family members in governance structure has a positive impact on family firms' pace of internationalization, and that this relationship is mediated by the international entrepreneurial orientation of the firm. The discussion section offers implications for family business and international entrepreneurship literature, as well as practical implications.     

新企业创业导向与绩效的倒 Ｕ形关系——基于资源整合能力的调节效应研究

近年来, 创业导向与绩效的正向关系不断受到挑战.诸多学者强调, 创业导向与绩效的关系是“难以捉摸”的.新企业由于“新且小”的先天不足抑制了创业导向对绩效的积极功效.新企业的创业实践表明, 资源整合能力之资源识取能力和资源配用能力对于创业导向与绩效的关系具有重要影响.文章基于234份新企业样本实证检验了上述关系, 结果表明, 新企业创业导向与绩效的关系并非主流研究成果所认可的正向线性关系, 而是呈现出了倒U形的曲线关系.资源识取能力和资源配用能力对创业导向与绩效的倒U形关系分别具有调节效用, 即当这两种能力提升时, 低度创业导向对绩效的正面作用会增强, 高度创业导向对绩效的负面作用会降低.这说明了新企业创业导向并不总是有助于绩效的提升, 只有拥有适度创业导向的新企业才会有较好的绩效表现, 而要确保创业导向对绩效的积极作用, 新企业必须完善并提升其资源整合能力.     

Top Management Teams,Business Models,and Performance of Biotechnology Ventures: An Upper Echelon Perspective*

In this paper we introduce a new contingency variable that moderates the effect of top management team composition on organizational performance – the organization's business model. Arguing from an upper echelon perspective and drawing on data from 99 German biotechnology ventures, we show that founder‐based firm‐specific experience of management team members can have either a positive or a negative effect on performance, depending on whether the venture pursues a platform or a therapeutics business model, respectively. Our results also show that managers' experience collected in the pharmaceutical industry has a positive effect on performance, and that this effect is more positive for therapeutics than for platform ventures. We discuss the implications of these findings for the literature on upper echelons and entrepreneurial founding teams.     

创业导向与创新绩效：高管团队特征和市场动态性的影响

创业导向对创新绩效的提升具有重要的影响,但创业导向与创新绩效的关系还可能受高管团队特征和市场动态性的影响。根据基于注意力的观点,对创业导向、创新绩效、高管团队的异质性、高管团队的共同愿景和市场动态性的关系进行研究,探讨高管团队的异质性和共同愿景对创业导向与创新绩效关系的调节作用,并进一步研究这种调节作用是否受市场动态性的影响。利用在广东、江苏、山东、陕西和河南5地收集的264份调查问卷,采用多元线性回归和调节效应的检验方法对研究假设进行实证检验。研究结果表明,创业导向对创新绩效有正向促进作用,高管团队的异质性有助于加强创业导向与创新绩效的关系。在稳定的市场环境下,高管团队的异质性对创业导向与创新绩效关系的调节效应更强;在不考虑环境动态性和环境动态性较低的情况下,高管团队的共同愿景对创业导向与创新绩效关系的调节效应不显著,但在动态性较高的市场环境下,可以显著地正向调节创业导向与创新绩效的关系。     

Identifying success factors for female entrepreneurs using the AMO framework: Empirical evidence from Japan

This study applies deep insights from the ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO) framework as an overarching theoretical perspective to identify critical success factors for female entrepreneurs. In doing so, it investigates how entrepreneurial persistence (i.e., motivation or “M”), together with prior venture experience (i.e., ability or “A”) and competitive intensity (i.e., opportunity or “O”) influence the success of women's entrepreneurial activities. Using data from 308 Japanese female entrepreneurs, we show a positive association between entrepreneurial persistence and female entrepreneurs' venture growth, which becomes stronger when prior venture experience and competitive intensity are considered. Most importantly, the three-way interaction between these factors maximizes the business performance of female entrepreneurs. Thus, venture growth is the highest in the presence of high levels of entrepreneurial persistence, prior venture experience, and competitive intensity. Our findings suggest that policy makers should improve the competitiveness of women-led ventures and create supportive business environments for female entrepreneurs.     

新企业网络导向如何影响其创业导向

作为战略管理与创业管理的交叉领域,创业导向研究日益成为学界关注的热点,而受到"新生弱性"困扰的新创企业往往缺乏必要的资源基础和实力,尤其在中国经济转型背景下,如何通过外部关系网络来增强创业导向成为新企业面临的关键难题。结合社会网络理论与组织学习理论,对网络导向影响创业导向的内在过程进行剖析,发现网络嵌入机制和创业学习机制是影响新企业网络导向与创业导向关系的两种主要机制。运用多层次回归分析的方法实证研究新企业网络导向影响其创业导向的影响机理,结果显示:(1)网络导向与创业导向之间呈倒U型关系;(2)新企业的网络嵌入与创业学习在"网络导向-创业导向"主效应中能起到正向调节作用,不过其中的利用性创业学习调节作用不显著;(3)网络嵌入与创业学习之间存在一定的匹配互补性,其中关系嵌入与利用性学习、结构嵌入与探索性学习具有显著的协同调节效应。本文研究深化了网络与学习双重视角下的创业导向前因理论研究,研究结论有助于新企业把握网络导向影响创业导向的内在规律,从而指导新企业对网络嵌入与创业学习行为进行科学规划。     

Digitalization,institutions and new venture internationalization

This study examines the effect of digitalization on the internationalization of new ventures and further investigates the influence of a home country's presence of institutional voids and digital infrastructure on the extent of internationalization by new ventures, with the prediction that a home country's institutional voids and a weak digital infrastructure strengthen the positive relationship between new ventures' digitalization and internationalization. Applying multilevel modeling on a sample of more than 6000 entrepreneurs from 62 countries the study offers empirical support for these predictions. The findings are robust to alternative specifications. Entrepreneurs using the internet to sell their products and services are more likely to focus on customers in foreign markets when they face institutional voids and a lack of digital infrastructure in their home countries. The study contributes as follows: From a theoretical view, it provides a better understanding of the boundary conditions of the digitalization-new venture internationalization linkage. From a practical perspective, the findings of the study suggest the complementary roles of institutional voids and digital infrastructure at home to help entrepreneurs grow domestically and facilitate their internationalization.     

基于能力视角的创业者人力资本与新创企业绩效作用机制研究

以往关于创业者人力资本与新创企业绩效之间关系的实证研究一直没有得到一致性的结论,导致创业领域的学者们质疑创业者人力资本是否对新创企业绩效产生影响;然而在创业实践中风险投资家评估项目时却十分重视创业者的人力资本。本研究基于能力视角,尝试揭示人力资本与新创企业绩效的作用机制,论证了创业能力在创业者人力资本和新创企业绩效关系中的中介作用,采用因子分析、多元回归分析等方法,通过对173家新创企业进行问卷调查,对理论假设进行了检验。研究发现:(1)创业者人力资本对新创企业绩效的影响是通过创业能力的中间传导促成的,即创业能力发挥了中介作用;(2)不同类型的人力资本对不同的创业能力发挥作用。     

Effectuation or causation as the key to corporate venture success? Investigating effects of entrepreneurial behaviors on business model innovation and venture performance

Corporate Venturing sets the stage for entrepreneurial behavior in order to create business model innovation (BMI). Moreover, prior literature indicates the importance of BMI as a source of performance advantage, especially in growing industries. However, an empirical examination of the effectiveness of entrepreneurial behaviors for achieving BMI is still lacking. Hence, this study investigates the effectiveness of effectuation and causation as primary entrepreneurial logics to create BMI. Analyzing data obtained from 128 corporate ventures with partial least squares structural equation modeling, the effectiveness of both entrepreneurial logics for BMI with respect to different industry growth levels is clarified: The results point out that both behaviors lead to BMI in situations of moderate industry growth while effectuation (causation) is more effective in high (low) industry growth settings. Furthermore, the results point out that BMI in turn enhances corporate venture performance. Thus, corporate entrepreneurs should carefully align their entrepreneurial approach with industry growth projections to effectively develop BMI and achieve high venture performance.     

Uncovering the factors behind new ventures’ international performance: Capabilities,alertness and technological turbulence

This research is based on the perception that the explanation of International New Ventures' (INVs) performance demands a process view, going deeper than the standard approach, in empirical papers, of testing a direct relationship between company-level antecedents and performance. A three-tier model was developed to investigate the process leading to INVs international performance, emphasizing the role of entrepreneurial alertness. Based on the dynamic capabilities framework, entrepreneurial alertness was envisaged as the mediating element between firms' capabilities and their international performance. Empirical research confirmed the hypothesized model. Firms' capabilities (entrepreneurial orientation, foreign market knowledge, and absorptive capacity) significantly influence the level of entrepreneurial alertness, which impacts on the levels of self-reported satisfaction with the company's international performance. The paper makes four contributions to International Entrepreneurship literature. First, it highlights the key role played by entrepreneurial alertness in explaining INVs' international performance. This is convergent with the dynamic capabilities view on firms' ability to sense and seize specific international business opportunities. Second, this study considers entrepreneurial alertness as a capability that is not limited to the entrepreneur, but it is an organizational capability. Third, it shows that entrepreneurial alertness does not exist in the vacuum, is based on a set of base capabilities, namely entrepreneurial orientation, foreign market knowledge, and absorptive capacity, that simultaneously leverage the INVs to sense possible opportunities and constrain the focus of opportunities to international markets, as a key element to foster INVs' higher performance. Fourth, it underlines the role of technological turbulence as a moderator of the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness and INVs' international performance.     

Dynamic capabilities and high-tech entrepreneurial ventures’ performance in the aftermath of an environmental jolt

This paper contributes to studies on dynamic capabilities (DCs) by showing that a neglected environmental contingency – i.e. the occurrence of a jolt – shapes the DCs–performance relationship. We focus on high-tech entrepreneurial ventures because these are the firms that jolts affect most; in so doing, we also advance the understanding of DCs in the entrepreneurship field. We argue that, in the aftermath of an environmental jolt, the high-tech entrepreneurial ventures that use internationalization and new product development capabilities to modify their resource configuration and regain environmental fit enjoy better performance. Econometric estimates on a sample of 340 Italian high-tech entrepreneurial ventures confronting the consequences of the global economic crisis that began in 2008 confirm that separately using these two DCs has a positive performance effect. This effect is stronger for relatively smaller ventures. Interestingly, despite synergies should arise from the combined use of the two DCs, we do not detect any superadditive effects.     

Transactive Memory Systems 1985–2010: An Integrative Framework of Key Dimensions,Antecedents, and Consequences

Over two decades have passed since Wegner and his co-authors published the groundbreaking paper on transactive memory systems (TMS) in 1985. The concept attracted the interest of management, psychology, and communication scholars who have employed a variety of methods to examine the phenomenon. In this paper, we review 76 papers that examined transactive memory systems and summarize the findings in an integrative framework to show the antecedents and consequences of TMS. Our review also reveals important issues in the literature related to the measurement of TMS, its multidimensional nature, extending TMS from the team level to the organizational level, and the potential role of TMS in explaining the benefits of experience in existing organizations and new entrepreneurial ventures. We conclude by calling for future research to examine the dynamic evolution of TMS, TMS in virtual teams, TMS in entrepreneurial ventures, and TMS at the organizational level facilitated with information technologies.     

创业导向与探索式创新的关系：一个双中介效应模型

  创业导向对探索式创新的影响决定创业企业在不确定商业生态环境中的市场机会捕捉能力和价值创造效果。虽然已有研究部分证实了创业导向与探索式创新的相互作用,但面对创业企业生存环境不确定性更高、资源约束更明显的事实,创业企业如何借助合理的战略决策和高效的资源使用行为帮助自身实现由生存到发展的过渡显得尤为重要,鲜有研究对此类问题予以深入探讨。         基于战略创业理论、创新管理理论和资源基础观理论,以创业导向为解释变量,以探索式创新为被解释变量,引入战略灵活性和创业拼凑两个可能影响导向与产出关系的关键要素,探讨创业导向对探索式创新的直接影响,以及战略灵活性和创业拼凑可能起到的特殊中介作用。借鉴并改进已有研究的成熟量表形成问卷,选取深圳的创业企业为调研对象,以电子邮件的形式发放问卷,基于最终获得的283份有效问卷,采用结构方程和双中介模型的研究方法,全面检验创业导向、战略灵活性、创业拼凑与探索式创新之间的关系。         研究结果表明,创业导向、战略灵活性和创业拼凑均对探索式创新产生促进作用;创业导向与战略灵活性呈显著的正相关关系,也对创业拼凑产生积极影响;战略灵活性与创业拼凑呈显著的正相关关系。创业拼凑在创业导向与探索式创新之间和战略灵活性与探索式创新之间起部分中介作用。由战略灵活性和创业拼凑形成的中介链部分中介了创业导向与探索式创新之间的关系。         研究结论从导向-策略-行为-产出的研究框架拓展了战略创业理论的研究内容,揭示了创业导向、战略灵活性、创业拼凑与探索式创新之间的关系机理,为创业企业理解战略灵活性和创业拼凑的影响、充分实践和发挥创业导向的创新精神、促进探索式创新活动的持续开展提供了重要的理论依据和经验证据。     

新创企业高管团队的团队过程与战略决策绩效 ——认知的调节作用

新创企业的成败很大程度上取决于战略决策绩效,具有决策权力的高管团队在创业情境下的认知和行为过程对战略决策绩效具有重要影响。本文结合创业研究和高管团队研究的现有成果,以122家新创企业为研究对象,从内部团队过程和外部团队过程两个维度考察高管团队的团队过程对战略决策绩效的影响,并从认知的视角分析新创企业高管团队认知需要和认知能力对团队过程与决策绩效关系的调节作用。研究结果表明,新创企业高管团队的内部团队过程和外部团队过程与决策的质量和满意度均有显著的正相关关系,且认知需要和认知能力对这种关系具有调节作用,在认知需要和认知能力较高的情况下,内、外部团队过程对决策质量和满意度的正向影响更强。     

Inclusive leadership and team innovation: The role of team voice and performance pressure

In today's complex and rapidly changing business environment, team innovation is increasingly critical to the survival and success of organizations. Although the relevant literature highlights the importance of leadership in team innovation, previous studies have mainly focused on transformational leadership and have yielded inconsistent results. To address this void, this study integrates the goal-setting theory into the input-process-output framework and proposes a moderated mediation model to examine the relationship between inclusive leadership and team innovation. The results of hierarchical regression analysis from two survey-based field studies in China demonstrated that team voice mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and team innovation and performance pressure moderated the direct relationship between inclusive leadership and team voice as well as the indirect relationship between inclusive leadership and team innovation via team voice such that the relationships were stronger when performance pressure was high.     

组织创业气氛、创业导向与创业企业绩效研究

基于创业认知理论,拓展了创业导向与创业绩效的经典模型.通过数据调查,实证检验了组织创业气氛、创业导向以及创业企业绩效三者之间的关系,由此得出结论:①组织创业气氛与创业绩效具有正向关系,创业导向与创业绩效具有正向关系;②创业导向在组织创业气氛与衍生企业绩效之间起中介作用.     

员工创业特质、内外满意度与工作绩效

创业特质能够决定创业者的表现，而创业特质作为个体普遍拥有的特质，研究却忽视了员工创业特质对工作绩效的影响.本文整合成就需要理论和层次需要理论，重点探讨了员工的创业特质与工作绩效的关系以及内外满意度的调节作用.利用企业调研数据研究发现:员工创业特质的成就动机、冒险倾向与工作绩效呈倒U关系，创新偏好与工作绩效呈U型关系;内在工作满意度强化了成就动机与工作绩效的倒U关系.本研究发展了创业特质理论在员工管理上的应用，首次为员工参与“大众创业，万众创新”实践提供了理论依据，研究发现有直接的启示与借鉴意义.     

Claiming authority: How women explain their ascent to top business leadership positions

Career stories of 50 female executives from major corporations and high-growth entrepreneurial ventures suggest two alternative accounts of how women legitimize their claims to top leadership positions: navigating and pioneering. In navigating accounts, the women legitimized their claims to top authority positions by following well institutionalized paths of career advancement (e.g., high performance in line jobs) and self-advocating with the gatekeepers of the social hierarchy (e.g., bosses, investors). In pioneering accounts, the women articulated a strategic vision and cultivated a community of support and followership around their strategic ideas and leadership. The career stories suggested that, when the women's authority claims were not validated, they engaged in narrative identity work to revise their aspirations and legitimization strategies. Sometimes narrative identity work motivated women to shift from one type of account to another, particularly from navigating to pioneering. Based on inductive analyses of these 50 career stories, I propose a process model of how women legitimize their claims to top leadership positions by recursively resetting career accounts as authority claims succeed or fail.