Board of directors structure and firm financial performance: A qualitative comparative analysis

Previous research about the effects of board structure and process on the firm financial performance is based on conflicting theoretical perspectives, and empirical results, mostly based on regression analysis, are inconclusive. Building from Complexity Theory and configurational analysis, this study offers clarity to inconclusive previous empirical results about the link among several board features and firm financial performance. From a sample of 295 non-financial firms from Southern Europe for the period 2001–2010, and by using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, findings of this study show that firm financial performance depends on a complex configuration of several board features (board size, board independence, leadership structure and board activity) and several corporate characteristics (firm size, firm leverage and firm age). This paper has implications for academics. Despite different theoretical arguments and inconclusive results of the wide empirical literature addressing the effect of board characteristics on the firm performance, building from Complexity Theory this paper adds to our knowledge because it empirically explores under which circumstances different board features should contribute positively or negatively to firm performance. The results of this study have also implications for policy makers and practitioners by providing some useful hints to the controversial relationship between corporate governance and financial performance. In this sense, general corporate governance recommendations must be rethought.     

Entrepreneurial orientation dimensions and the performance of high-tech and low-tech firms: A configurational approach

Building on the entrepreneurial orientation (EO)-as-experimentation perspective, we examine how configurations of the EO dimensions (innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness) might lead to high and low firm performance, and how the configurations differ under different firm contexts. We adopted a configurational approach and applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to a sample of 110 UK small and medium-sized enterprises. Our findings show that three (four) configurations can result in high (low)-firm performance, demonstrating that the EO dimensions can contribute to as well as hinder firm performance. Moreover, the configurations leading to the same outcome are distinct between high-tech and low-tech firms, indicating that the impacts of the EO dimensions on firm performance depend on the firm context. Our findings offer useful insights for managers on how to configure the portfolio of firms' entrepreneurial activities to achieve superior performance.     

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。     

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。     

Entrepreneurial Firms and Downstream Alliance Partnerships: Impact of Portfolio Depth and Scope on Technology Innovation and Commercialization Success

To achieve technology innovation and commercialization (TIC) success under complex, protracted, and uncertain product development cycles, entrepreneurial firms engage in downstream alliance partnerships with mainstream industry players. In this study, we examine two specific characteristics of the entrepreneurial firm's downstream alliance portfolio (depth and scope) and their impact on TIC success. Employing a sample of 728 biotech firms and their partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, we find that while portfolio depth and scope separately have positive impact on success, the relationship between portfolio scope and success is additionally moderated by portfolio depth. Further, insights from post hoc interviews also suggest that though it is challenging for entrepreneurial firms to incorporate both depth and scope in alliance partnerships, those that optimally combine both can achieve higher TIC success.     

How Governance Misalignment and Outsourcing Capability Impact Performance

Notwithstanding the popularity of outsourcing as a business strategy, the performance benefits realized through outsourcing efforts are observed to be mixed in practice. This leads to important unresolved questions regarding why some firms are able to derive substantial value from their outsourcing initiatives while other firms are left disappointed. This study joins an emerging literature integrating transaction cost economics and capabilities‐based perspectives to develop a deeper understanding of the drivers of outsourcing performance. I develop a theoretical model that examines the independent and joint influence of governance misalignment (i.e., deviation from transaction cost's predicted mode of governance) and a firm's outsourcing capability on the performance of outsourced processes. I test the theoretical model using a dataset of 172 outsourced and 156 in‐house processes. The finding that governance misalignment corresponds to inferior process performance supports transaction cost's discriminating alignment hypothesis. Interestingly, I also find that a retained technical expertise (TE) and outsourcing knowledge management routines (OKMR; both contributors to a firm's outsourcing capability) positively influence outsourcing performance both directly and via their relationship with governance misalignment. While a retained technical expertise and outsourcing knowledge management routines each positively influence outsourcing performance, they do so in distinctive ways. These findings have important managerial implications and make a significant theoretical contribution. Specifically, this study demonstrates that the notion of a governance misalignment is firm‐specific, conditional on the governance capabilities of the organization. This insight underscores the value of integrating transaction cost logic with capabilities‐based perspectives.     

Innovativeness as an Unintended Outcome of Franchising: Insights from Restaurant Chains

A growing trend in improving innovation outcomes is to go outside the firm's boundaries. One mechanism by which firms extend organizational boundaries is through franchising their channels. Yet, the effects of franchising on innovation outcomes have been overlooked in the literature. We propose that a firm's emphasis on franchising will affect its organizational innovativeness, conceptualized as product and process innovativeness, independently and with other firm characteristics—franchising experience, firm size, financial leverage, and slack resources. We find support for our hypotheses using a nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression model estimated using panel data from 38 U.S. restaurant chains between 1992 and 2005. The positive effect of the emphasis on franchising on product innovativeness is stronger for firms with high financial leverage, but weaker for firms with high slack resources. For process innovativeness, the effect is stronger for firms with high financial leverage but weaker for large firms, and for firms with high franchising experience and high slack resources. The findings indicate that a firm's emphasis on franchising has contingent effects on product and process innovation outcomes. Thus, franchising emerges as a competing mechanism (to alliances and joint ventures) that extends organizational boundaries and affects organizational innovativeness.     

Entrepreneurial Cognition,Entrepreneurial Orientation and Firm Capability in the Creative Industries

Creative industries are firms which are characterized largely by the labour inputs of creative individuals, and surrounded by a degree of rhetoric as to their significance, but are a comparatively under‐researched sector. In this study we developed a research framework which integrated entrepreneurial cognition, entrepreneurial orientation and firm capabilities and explored the relationships between these variables, market conditions and the performance of small creative industry enterprises. The data suggest that high growth small firms are characterized by well‐developed internal capabilities allied to an entrepreneurial orientation and that the combination of the various sub‐attributes associated with each of these appear to be especially salient under conditions of intense competition. The policies, managerial and educational implications of the findings are discussed.     

基于不同战略导向的创新选择与控制方式研究

本文从战略导向的角度出发,研究了企业的创新选择和管理控制方式选择问题.从战略思维和组织学习两个方面对企业家导向和市场导向在创新程度和管理控制方式上的不同进行了分析,提出概念模型和理论假设.利用从10个省市不同行业得到的585家企业有效样本数据的分析,验证了本文的理论模型.分析结果表明,企业家导向更加注重突破式创新并通过战略控制对其进行管理,而市场导向更加注重渐进创新并通过财务控制对其进行管理.分析结果还表明虽然企业家导向与渐进创新没有直接关系,但却可以通过财务控制方式鼓励企业中渐进创新的出现.     

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.     

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.     

Corporate governance effectiveness along the entrepreneurial process of a family firm: the role of private equity

This paper was motivated by the increasing interest in the corporate governance debate on how effective structure and processes may influence entrepreneurial transitions. Along the entrepreneurial process, little research to date has investigated the exit in the context of entrepreneurial family firms. Previous literature has considered the exit mainly as a failure for entrepreneurial families, but when uncertainties arise this choice may enable ownership transitions, thus facilitating survival and long term strategies. Among the exit options, a private equity buyout may balance the family’s wealth protection and the firm’s future growth. However, which family specific characteristics and strategic needs may affect the exit option still remains a neglected topic. Drawing on corporate governance literature and recent research addressing entrepreneurship in family firms, this paper investigates, by a single case study, the bridging role of private equity buyout for going through entrepreneurial transitions. Findings suggest that a private equity buyout is a governance mechanism that may sustain an entrepreneurial transition by realigning family interests and goals. It may also allow the family commitment for improving organizational capabilities required by an entrepreneurial transition.     

风险投资后期进入对企业创新绩效的影响研究--选择效应抑或增值效应?

由于上市带来的财富效应高于培育创新型企业的增值效应,中国资本市场信息不对称高,知识产权保护较弱,现阶段中国风险投资主要集中于创新型企业后期进入。本文首先用描述性统计揭示了中国风险投资后期进入创新型企业的特征;其次,阐述了中国风险投资后期进入对企业创新选择效应和增值效应的影响机理;最后,以创业板2009-2014年上市企业为例,采用双重差分倾向得分匹配法(PSM-DID),验证风险投资后期进入对创新型企业研发投入和研发绩效的影响,研究结果表明:后期进入的风险投资进入创新型企业前,对研发投入具有显著的选择效应,但对专利申请量的选择效应不显著;后期进入的风险投资进入后,对研发投入和专利申请量的增值效应均不显著。     

Entrepreneurial orientation as a function of national cultural variations in two countries

Building on a large-scale survey study in Germany and China, this research develops and validates a model of internal variables fostering entrepreneurial orientation. The objective of the research is to understand whether organizational mechanisms, such as organizational structure or leadership style that underlie entrepreneurial organizations are universal or are contingent on national culture. The findings of this study indicate that some components are universal and some are contingent on culture. For instance, cross-functional integration, consideration, and development culture impact most dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation across cultures positively, whereas centralization does so negatively, suggesting strong similarities of entrepreneurial organizations. On the other hand, participation exerts an influence on entrepreneurial orientation only in Germany. There are also differences in the strength of relationships: cross-functional integration and consideration have stronger effects in China than in Germany. One major implication is that commonalities of entrepreneurial organizations are generally not strong enough to completely outweigh the influences of national culture. This research may help managers to foster the degree of entrepreneurial orientation in their businesses that operate internationally.     

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.     

领导权变更、创业导向及自主创新间关系的实证研究

基于制度理论,考察了领导权变更对企业创业导向的影响,以及创业导向与环境不确定对企业自主创新的影响。通过对195家企业的问卷调查,验证了提出的假设。结果发现:领导权变更与企业的创业导向存在倒"U"型关系;需求不确定削弱创业导向对自主创新的促进作用,而技术不确定加强创业导向对自主创新的促进作用。     

Entrepreneurial orientation and social ties in transitional economies

Recent research suggests that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has a more complex effect on performance (i.e. non-linear instead of linear) than previously considered. We extend this view by examining the non-linear effect of each individual dimension of EO (i.e. innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking) on firm performance in the context of a transitional, collectivist economy. Drawing upon social capital theory, we also examine under which social capital conditions (i.e., business and political ties) each dimension of EO is most effective. Using survey data from 137 firms in Vietnam Top 500 Companies, this study shows that innovativeness and proactiveness have inverted U-shaped relationships with firm performance, while the effect of risk-taking on firm performance is also non-linear but in the form of increasing returns. Findings also show that social capital from business ties differentially moderates the effects of EO dimensions on performance. Similarly, social capital from political ties has different moderating effects on the innovativeness-performance and proactiveness-performance linkages. The findings urge managers of firms operating in transitional economies to take the levels of social capital from business ties and political ties into consideration when making their decision on which entrepreneurial strategy to pursue.     

Capital structure,managerial ownership and firm performance: evidence from Egypt

This paper focuses on an important issue, which has generally received less attention in corporate governance literature, being the effect of managerial ownership on the relationship between debt and firm performance. By employing a sample of Egyptian listed firms, the generalized least squares method, as a panel data technique, is used to examine the joint effect of debt and managerial ownership on various measures of firm performance (i.e., Tobin’s q and ROA). The results reveal that managerial ownership moderates the relationship between debt and firm performance, with the relationship being negative (positive) in presence (absence) of managerial ownership concentration. The implication of this finding is that the optimal capital structure is more likely to be contingent on contextual variables as well as the roles, power, and stakes of key internal and external actors. Put simply, the effectiveness of one corporate governance mechanism (i.e., debt) is more likely to be contingent on the effect of other existed corporate governance mechanisms, and hence, there is not one best arrangement of either capital structure or ownership structure, but different arrangements are not equally good.     

Managing Maturing Government‐Supported Networks: The Shift from Monitoring to Embeddedness Controls

In formal inter‐firm networks backed with significant financial support by policy‐makers, network boards are typically established to monitor network activities and to manage the tension between organizational and collective interests. This approach to network governance, however, builds mainly upon agency logic. We integrate agency with embeddedness theory to offer insights into the effectiveness of monitoring as a governance mechanism as networks mature and member firms become embedded. The analyses focus on two issues: (1) how network board characteristics typically associated with monitoring – board independence, board size and board compensation – influence network performance; and (2) how these effects are moderated by network age. The model is tested with longitudinal data on 53 government‐supported networks. In addition to the direct effects of board characteristics, network board size and board compensation have a stronger positive impact on network performance in younger networks than in more mature networks. This study provides insight into why the instituting of boards may prove successful for network‐level performance in newly formed government‐supported networks, but also explains why the positive effects from network board monitoring may diminish as networks grow older.     

专用性投资、信任与创业企业控制权治理

基于控制权收益交互作用视角,研究创业投资模式下的异质性创业企业控制权治理问题,分析控制权共享收益和私人收益综合影响下投资家投资专用性和合作双方信任度对创业企业剩余控制权和特定控制权治理的作用机理,以193家不同产业类型创业企业为样本,运用混合回归模型,实证检验投资专用性、信任及其交互作用对异质性创业企业两类控制权治理的影响。研究结果表明,由于异质性企业的控制权收益类型和大小存在差异,导致投资专用性和信任对不同产业类型创业企业控制权治理的影响存在差异;创业企业家控制权私人收益较大、创业投资家的战略收益较小时,创业投资家获得的剩余控制权与其投入资本的专用性、合作双方间的信任度呈非线性倒U形关系;创业企业家控制权私人收益较小、创业投资家的战略收益较大时,创业投资家获得的剩余控制权与其投入资本的专用性、合作双方间的信任度呈非线性U形关系;投资专用性与合作双方信任度的交互项与创业投资家拥有的剩余控制权和特定控制权负相关,在高新技术创业企业样本中交互效应尤为显著。