Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has received substantial conceptual and empirical attention, representing one of the few areas in entrepreneurship research where a cumulative body of knowledge i ...

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Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance: An Assessment of Past Research and Suggestions for the Future

The authors conduct a meta-analysis that aggregates empirical findings from the market orientation literature. First, the study provides a quantitative summary of the bivariate findings regarding the antecedents and the consequences of market orientation. Second, the authors use multivariate analyses of aggregate study effects to identify significant antecedents of market orientation and the process variables that mediate the relationship between market orientation and performance. In addition, using regression analysis, the authors find that the market orientation–performance relationship is stronger in samples of manufacturing firms, in low power-distance and uncertainty-avoidance cultures, and in studies that use subjective measures of performance. The authors also find that the market orientation–performance correlation is stronger for both cost-based and revenue-based performance measures in manufacturing firms than in service firms. On the basis of the findings, the authors conclude with a ...

https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~moorman/Marketing-Strategy-Seminar-2015/Session%202/Kirca,%20Jayachandran,%20and%20Bearden.pdf

Market Orientation: A Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of Its Antecedents and Impact on Performance

Proactive Behavior in Organizations

Using a sample of U.K. wire makers (N = 282), the authors tested a model in which personality and work environment antecedents affect proactive work behavior via cognitive-motivational mechanisms. Self-reported proactive work behaviors (proactive idea implementation and proactive problem solving) were validated against rater assessments for a subsample (n = 60) of wire makers. With the exception of supportive supervision, each antecedent was important, albeit through different processes. Proactive personality was significantly associated with proactive work behavior via role breadth self-efficacy and flexible role orientation, job autonomy was also linked to proactive behavior via these processes, as well as directly; and coworker trust was associated with proactive behavior via flexible role orientation. In further support of the model, the cognitive-motivational processes for proactive work behavior differed from those for the more passive outcome of generalized compliance.

Modeling the Antecedents of Proactive Behavior at Work

The role of personality traits in the decision to start a business and to maintain it successfully is discussed controversially in entrepreneurship research. Our meta-analysis builds upon and extends earlier meta-analyses by doing a full analysis of personality traits that includes a comparison of different traits from a theoretical perspective and by analysing a full set of personality predictors for both start-up activities as well as success. Theoretically, our article adds to the literature by matching traits to the tasks of entrepreneurs. The results indicate that traits matched to the task of running a business produced higher effect sizes with business creation than traits that were not matched to the task of running an enterprise, corrected r = .247, K = 47, N = 13,280, and corrected r = .124, K = 20, N = 3975, respectively. Moreover, traits matched to the task produced higher correlations with success, corrected r = .250, K = 42, N = 5607, than traits not matched to the task of running a business...

/pdf/let-s-put-the-person-back-into-entrepreneurship-research-a-2flx5zqiro.pdf

Let's put the person back into entrepreneurship research: A meta-analysis on the relationship between business owners' personality traits, business creation, and success

Much of the effort to understand entrepreneurship and new venture creation has focused on the characteristics of individual entrepreneurs. From the early work of McClelland (1961) which focused on the need for achievement as a personality characteristic of entrepreneurs, the field has examined a number of different traits like locus of control, propensity to take risks, personal values, and tolerance for ambiguity in a variety of different studies (see for example, Hornaday and Aboud 1971; Timmons 1978; Brockhaus 1980; Brockhaus and Horwitz 1986; Carland, Hoy, and Carland 1988; Hebert and Bass 1995). This trait-oriented line of research has come under fire as "inadequate to explain the phenomenon of entrepreneurship" (Gartner 1988, p. 12). As the preoccupation with individual traits has been de-emphasized, several other elements of entrepreneurship have been proposed to define the entrepreneur. "Behavior" has been argued as the best method to identify an entrepreneur (Gartner 1994), and it is suggested that founding a business is one behavior which certainly defines entrepreneurship (Stewart, Carland, and Carland 1996). Another type of behavior which has been linked to entrepreneurial activity is strategic planning (Olsen 1985), as entrepreneurs plan in more depth than small business owners (Carland et al. 1984). Other studies have identified a number of elements that define entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behavior including: leadership and dimensions of teamwork, organizational creation, opportunity recognition, innovation, risk assumption, marshaling of resources, and the creation of value (Stearns and Hills 1996). While many studies have enumerated the wide variety of elements that may define an entrepreneur, it has recently been posited that perhaps we can identify several types of entrepreneurs (Stewart, Carland, and Carland 1996). This variety of perspectives is best understood through the integrative approaches that have recently evolved to explain entrepreneurial behavior. They suggest that entrepreneurship is an activity that can only be understood by simultaneously combining several of the individual elements of the phenomenon. A model developed by Gartner (1985) integrated four major dimensions of entrepreneurship: characteristics of the individual who starts the venture, the organization which is created, the environment surrounding the new venture, and the process by which the new venture is started. He emphasizes that it is the interaction of these variables that result in varying patterns of new business creation. Shaver and Scott's (1991) psychological model based on the person, the process, and the choices also attempts to explain entrepreneurial activity in terms of variable interaction. In their theoretical framework, these researchers strongly reject the solo role of "personological" approaches to understanding entrepreneurship and propose that we must also understand both how the external environment is perceived in the mind of the potential entrepreneur (the process of social cognition) and whether the person chooses to act. They emphasize that it is critical to understand how cognitive representations in the mind of the potential entrepreneur get translated into action. More recently, other models have been developed which recognize the importance of the interaction among several variables. Herron and Sapienza (1992) propose a model of new venture creation which links individual traits with the situational context experienced by the potential entrepreneur. Similarly, the role of personal characteristics interacting with perceptions of situational factors serve as the basis for a model of entrepreneurial motivation developed by Naffziger, Hornsby, and Kuratko (1994). All of these recent multi-dimensional models reflect the importance of the interface between the environment or situation and the personal characteristics of the potential entrepreneur in understanding the process of venture creation. …

The Proactive Personality Disposition and Entrepreneurial Behavior among Small Company Presidents

A firm's marketing orientation and entrepreneurial orientation intuitively should relate to organizational performance. Considerable theory can be found concerning the causes and consequences of ea...

The moderating effect of environmental variables on the entrepreneurial and marketing orientation of entrepreneur-led firms

This paper attempts to advance the study of organizational politics by developing a comprehensive process framework for understanding individual and group political activity. Previous concepts are reviewed and a definition is offered. The process framework is developed through antecedent conditions, operating mechanisms, and outcomes, with operating mechanisms including goals, strategies and tactics, and style and political sensitivity acting as a moderating variable. Suggestions for conducting research are offered.

A Process Framework of Organizational Politics

Use of Robert Dubin's Central Life Interest Schedule reveals that a majority of industrial supervisors are job-oriented. Low correlations of the Schedule with three other attitudinal instruments in...

Work as a “Central Life Interest” of Industrial Supervisors

This paper attempts to advance the study of organizational politics by developing a comprehensive process framework for understanding individual and group political activity. Previous concepts are ...

John G. Maurer

Papers

The Proactive Personality Disposition and Entrepreneurial Behavior among Small Company Presidents

The moderating effect of environmental variables on the entrepreneurial and marketing orientation of entrepreneur-led firms

A Process Framework of Organizational Politics

Work as a “Central Life Interest” of Industrial Supervisors

A Process Framework of Organizational Politics.