Strategizing in a digital world: Overcoming cognitive barriers,reconfiguring routines and introducing new organizational forms

As digital technologies such as cloud and edge computing, machine learning, advanced artificial intelligence (AI), and the internet of things (IoT) unfold, traditional industries such as telecoms, media, entertainment, and financial services are being reconfigured and new sectors are emerging. In this new competitive landscape we observe new organizational forms and new business models, including the emergence of platforms and multi-sided markets. This emergence has required a strategic response from incumbent firms, including both well-established firms and some first-generation digital enterprises. With these advances in digital technology, the very nature of strategy is changing. Fundamentally, the use of digital technologies may provide new opportunities for efficiency gains, customer intimacy, and innovation. However, without the right mindset for change, appropriate digital routines, and structural changes, digital transformation efforts will fail. We therefore present a framework for strategizing in this new digital competitive landscape that underscores the importance of the interplay between (1) the cognitive barriers faced by managers when trying to understand this new digital world and envision new digital business models, (2) a need to reconfigure and extend digital routines, and (3) new organizational forms that are better equipped to creating value and gaining competitive advantage. From this framework of essential pillars, we derive four journeys of digital transformation for companies that were formed in the pre-digital economy. We also describe the management roles required by top, middle, and frontline managers, depending on whether the digital migration is evolutionary or transformative and whether the firm is responding to or attempting to shape the ecosystem. Although digital transformation is technically all about technology, the more important issue is how companies make their way through this strange new digital world in which they find themselves. Ultimately digital transformation is as much about strategizing as it is about technology.     

Top Team Diversity,Internationalization and the Mediating Effect of International Alliances*

This study examines the mediating effect of international alliances for the relationship between TMT (top management team) job‐related diversity (educational, functional background, outside industry experience and international exposure) and firm internationalization. We argue that firms with greater TMT diversity will use more international alliances, resulting in higher firm internationalization. Based on a sample of 226 US firms during the period 1988–1994, we find that international alliances partially mediate the relationship between TMT international exposure diversity and firm internationalization. However, we do not find international alliances to mediate the relationships between other forms of TMT diversity and firm internationalization. We discuss implications and directions for future research.     

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.     

An investigation of the attention effects of venture capitalist backing on entrepreneurial firms

In this paper, we predict that venture capital (VC) backed initial public offerings (IPOs) will attract more attention than non-VC-backed IPOs, as VCs offer important signals to investors searching for information about entrepreneurial firms. We use a measure developed by Google (i.e., Trends) to capture the spikes in investors' attention experienced by firms in the time period surrounding their IPOs. Our results demonstrate that firms backed by VCs enjoy a far greater spike in attention than their counterparts. Furthermore, we find that firms with more prominent VCs, a larger number of VCs, and VCs situated at farther geographic distances exhibit significantly greater spikes in investors’ attention during the week of their IPO. Combined, the findings show a clear demarcation between entrepreneurial firms with or without VC backing, they bring to the fore new upshots stemming from the relationship between VCs and entrepreneurial firms, and they raise new potential questions on this relationship and beyond.     

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.     

Role of overseas ethnic and non-ethnic ties and firm activity in the home country in the internationalization of returnee entrepreneurial firms

Using a sample of 210 Chinese returnees' entrepreneurial firms, we examined how the overseas ethnic and non-ethnic ties of the returnee entrepreneurs affected their firms' internationalization in the returnees' former host countries. We found that both types of overseas ties were correlated with increased levels of internationalization and they interact positively. We then investigated whether the impacts of overseas ethnic and non-ethnic ties on firm internationalization were moderated by the length of the firms' domestic operations. We found that longer domestic operations were correlated with increased positive impacts of overseas ethnic ties, but decreased positive impacts of overseas non-ethnic ties on firm internationalization. These findings indicate that the returnees' host country ties and firm activity in home country had joint effects on returnee entrepreneurial firms seeking to internationalize their businesses.     

Tweaking the entrepreneurial orientation–performance relationship in family firms: the effect of control mechanisms and family-related goals

Management literature is currently giving growing conceptual and empirical attention to the peculiarity and relevance of entrepreneurial attitudes in family firms, with divergent outcomes. Aiming at concretizing the effects of these attitudes, denoted by the entrepreneurial orientation construct, on family business performance and considering that family dynamics come into play in this relationship, we particularly investigate the impact of control mechanisms and family-related goals. Findings are based on a sample of 180 family firms and show that Proactiveness and Autonomy are particularly relevant to financial performance. Agency-problems avoiding control mechanisms moderate the effect of Innovativeness and Autonomy, while socioemotional wealth (SEW) goals moderate the effect of Risk-Taking, respectively. The usage of these mechanisms and managing SEW goals provide opportunities for a more efficient exploitation of entrepreneurial attitudes.     

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。     

DOES IDIOSYNCRATIC BUSINESS RISK MATTER FOR GROWTH?

Several imperfections can prevent entrepreneurs from diversifying away the idiosyncratic risk of their business. As a result idiosyncratic risk discourages entrepreneurial activity and hinders growth, with the effects being stronger in economies with lower risk diversification opportunities. In accordance with this prediction, we find that OECD countries with low levels of risk diversification opportunities (as measured by the relevance of family firms or of widely held companies) perform relatively worse (in terms of productivity, investment, and business creation) in sectors characterized by high idiosyncratic risk. Differently from previous literature, we allow risk to be country specific. Since risk is endogenous to risk diversification opportunities, we instrument its value using sectoral risk in the United States, a country where idiosyncratic business risk can be more easily diversified away. Tackling the endogeneity of risk and recognizing that it varies by country magnifies the estimated effects of risk on growth.     

Linking Entrepreneurial Orientation to Environmental Collaboration: A Stakeholder Theory and Evidence from Multinational Companies in an Emerging Market

Revisiting stakeholder theory as a potential theory of the firm giving rise to expectations about organizing, we analyze when and under what circumstances entrepreneurially oriented firms increase their environmental collaboration with suppliers. Specifically, we investigate the association between entrepreneurial orientation and environmental collaboration with suppliers by accounting for the degree of employees’ work engagement and market environment complexity as stakeholder-oriented moderators of this relationship. We test our hypotheses using multi-level analyses on 249 managers nested in 66 multinational companies (MNCs) in Turkey. We find that entrepreneurial orientation positively impacts environmental collaboration with suppliers. A high level of work engagement (as an organizing principle favouring a stakeholder focus) and a low level of market environment complexity (as an organizing principle favouring the customer as an instrumental stakeholder) moderate this linkage. We enrich the debate on entrepreneurial orientation, strategy, and environmental sustainability by providing logic rooted in stakeholder theory of the conditions under which MNCs’ entrepreneurial orientation in emerging markets prioritizes and privileges environmental collaboration with suppliers.     

The Role of Cluster Presence and Quality Certification in Internationalization and Performance of Offshore Service Providers

Offshore Service Providers (OSPs) have been a subject of research for several years now. However, there is little known about what drives the internationalization of OSPs. In this paper, we combine insights from economic geography and institutional view to investigate cluster presence and quality certification as the drivers of OSP internationalization and their performance. We hypothesize the facilitating role these two factors play in driving the performance of internationalized firms. We test our hypotheses using data from Indian software firms between 1992 and 2002. We find a positive effect of certification on OSP internationalization. Although certification contributes negatively to OSP performance, it positively moderates the performance effect of OSP internationalization. Cluster presence was found to drive OSP's overall performance, but has no effect on internationalization. Through our findings, we contribute towards the literature on OSP internationalization.     

The Impact of Social Media and Digital Platforms Experience on SME International Orientation: The Moderating Role of COVID-19 Pandemic

Drawing on network learning theory, it investigates the effect of small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) experience of using foreign and domestic social network services (SNS) and foreign and domestic platforms (such as B2B digital platforms) on their international orientation. We further examine the moderating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationship between digital experience and international orientation. Empirical results from a sample of 373 observations from 250 Chinese SMEs show that their use of foreign SNS and B2B digital platforms has a stronger positive impact on their international orientation than their use of domestic SNS and B2B digital platforms. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, SMEs' use of foreign SNS still has a stronger positive impact on their international orientation than their use of domestic SNS. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic mitigates the positive impact of their use of both foreign and domestic platforms on their international orientation. This study presents some interesting theoretical and practical implications for SMEs' digitalization and internationalization.     

Digitalization in the financial industry: A contingency approach of entrepreneurial orientation and strategic vision on digitalization

Technology is rapidly changing the financial industry. Banks, in particular, are faced with a shift from traditional, interpersonal forms of service to digital financial services. These digital technologies are more and more becoming today’s standard in the banking sector, they challenge traditional business models, and they provide opportunities for banks to capitalize on. Building on the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO), this study of banks in Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein aims at developing insights that explain how banks can use the tactics and strategies associated with EO to achieve superior performance in the digitalization age. The results from a survey in 102 banks show that: 1) banks that display high levels of EO report a higher level of performance, and 2) the relationship between a banks’ strategic vision on digitalization, and performance is moderated by EO. These results indicate that the sheer level of the digitalization of a bank does not affect profitability. Instead, in this time of technological change banks should develop a clear vision on digitalization that is characterized by innovation, being ahead of the competition, and a willingness to take risks.     

Internationalization Orientation in SMEs: The Mediating Role of Technological Innovation

This study examines the relationship between internationalization orientation and international performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the mediating effect of technological innovation. Prior research suggests that internationalization is a prominent strategic choice for SMEs growth and profitability. However, there is still no explicit agreement on how internationalization affects international performance. Similarly, the role of innovation on performance has long been emphasized, but the implications of technological innovation on international performance are still eluding us. Our investigation of 116 SMEs in the United Kingdom reveals that internationalization orientation has a significant effect on their international performance, with SMEs adopting simultaneously an inward and outward international orientation achieving superior results. We further demonstrate that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between technological innovation and international firm performance among SMEs. Meanwhile, we find that technological innovation positively mediates the effect of internationalization orientation on international firm performance, particularly for the SMEs exhibiting moderate levels of technological innovation activities. The findings of this study suggest that managers can improve international performance by combining inward and outward internationalization orientation with technological innovation activities in their strategic decisions.     

From Entrepreneurial Orientation and Learning Orientation to Business Performance: Analysing the Mediating Role of Organizational Learning and the Moderating Effects of Organizational Size

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 medium‐sized 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.     

Subsidiary Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Opportunity: An Institutional Perspective

A subsidiary's ability to identify opportunities in the host country and to subsequently exploit these opportunities could create competitive advantages for the Multinational Corporation. While research on subsidiary entrepreneurship has focused primarily on subsidiary-specific resources and capabilities, as well as environmental factors, the type of opportunities that the subsidiaries may find in the host environment has been underexplored. Drawing on the subsidiary entrepreneurship literature, institutional perspectives, and entrepreneurship research, this paper suggests that subsidiaries embedded in institutional contexts that are different from those of their home country have unique advantages that enable the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities. Accordingly, a theoretical framework is proposed, based on contingency perspectives on the different views of entrepreneurial opportunities in relation to business processes in the host country's institutional environment, vis-a-vis uncertainty levels and legitimacy requirements. In addition, appropriate strategic approaches are suggested, through which subsidiaries can exploit these entrepreneurial opportunities.     

Too good to say goodbye? Effect of stakeholder orientation on the survival of large firms

This study examines the impact of stakeholder orientation, defined as the extent to which a firm adopts policies and management processes to identify, understand and integrate the interests of its stakeholders, on the survival of large firms. We suggest that stakeholder orientation facilitates external support and organizational adaptation. Stakeholder-oriented firms are better positioned to understand and adapt to changes in a competitive landscape. Additionally, stakeholder orientation might buffer firms against external jolts, thereby increasing survival rates. We validate our arguments using a dataset of 733 US firms included in S&P 500 index from 2003 to 2018. We find that stakeholder orientation improves firm survival. Furthermore, we test the moderating effect of firm age and environmental munificence on the survival consequences of stakeholder orientation. We show that being stakeholder-oriented turns into higher chances of survival as firms age and operate in less munificent industries.     

From social capital to entrepreneurial orientation: The mediating role of dynamic capabilities

This paper analyzes how social capital and its three dimensions—structural, relational, and cognitive—affect entrepreneurial orientation through dynamic capabilities. We specifically analyzed the effect of each dimension of social capital on firms' entrepreneurial orientation and the mediating effect of dynamic capabilities to explain these relationships. This study was conducted on a sample of firms in the Spanish agri-food industry. The results of the empirical analysis show that dynamic capabilities are generated by firms' social capital. Dynamic capabilities lead relational and cognitive social capital to develop a higher entrepreneurial orientation. The negative effect of structural social capital can only be countered if firms build and develop dynamic capabilities.     

Organizational learning in SMEs’ internationalization: A moderated mediating effect of absorptive capacity

We examine both mediation and moderation effects on the direct relationship between internationalization speed and firm performance in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on prior studies that focus either on the direct speed–performance linkage or the moderating role played by knowledge, we suggest that an important source of performance variations is organizational learning. Grounded in the organizational learning perspective, we argue that firm strategies regarding speed and earliness of internationalization provide the SMEs with opportunities to develop their absorptive capacity, and thus enhance their performance. Using survey data from 343 SMEs in Australia and New Zealand, our empirical results suggest that absorptive capacity is associated with internationalization speed in a reversed U-shape relationship and that in turn absorptive capacity mediates the direct speed–performance relationship. Moreover, this mediating effect is moderated by earliness of internationalization. By demonstrating the moderated mediating effect of absorptive capacity as a novel mechanism to achieving superior performance, we enhance the understanding of how firms succeed internationally.     

The effect of the board and executive committee characteristics on the degree of internationalization

Many corporate governance observers agree that when firms encounter dramatically changed competitive environments, the board of directors may become involved in the strategy formation process. Based on Finkelstein and Hambrick’s (Finkelstein, S., Hambrick, D., 1996. Strategic leadership: top executives and their effects on organizations. West, Minneapolis, MN.) conceptual model, we examine the effects of the board of directors and executive committee characteristics on the degree of internationalization of the U.S. telecommunications industry during the 12 years after AT&T’s 1984 divestiture. We also examine the effects of the regulatory environment and core business growth on the degree on internationalization during this time. We find support linking executive committee characteristics and regulatory environment to the degree of internationalization. Characteristics of the entire board are consistently found to be insignificant.