Patrick M. Kreiser

Cultural Influences on Entrepreneurial Orientation: The Impact of National Culture on Risk Taking and Proactiveness in SMEs

This study utilizes data from 1,048 firms in six countries to assess the impact of national culture and certain institutions that are representative of national culture on two key dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation: risk taking and proactiveness. Eight hypotheses are developed specifying the expected relationships between four cultural dimensions and levels of risk taking and proactiveness within SMEs. Additionally, two hypotheses are developed to explore between–country differences in the relationship between risk taking and proactiveness and a range of institutional variables. Uncertainty avoidance and power distance are both found to have a significant negative influence on risk taking; uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and power distance are found to negatively influence proactive firm behaviors. A number of institutional factors are also found to be significantly linked to between–country differences in both risk taking and proactive behaviors. This research contributes to existing theories of national culture by suggesting that the various dimensions of cultural values and several of the institutions that are representative of national culture impact the willingness of entrepreneurial firms to display risk taking and proactive behaviors.

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Organizational Learning: The Impact of Network Range and Network Closure

This study develops theoretical propositions regarding the role that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) plays in enhancing an organizations level of acquisitive and experimental learning. It also develops propositions concerning the manner in which a firms ability to directly link itself to disparate sources of knowledge (network range) impacts the relationship between EO and acquisitive learning, as well as how a firms ability to maintain a series of strong ties within a network (network closure) impacts the relationship between EO and experimental learning. Finally, propositions are developed regarding how firms can most effectively utilize EO and network participation to maximize levels of organizational learning while conserving their limited resources.

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Firm Performance: The Unique Impact of Innovativeness, Proactiveness, and Risk-taking

Abstract This paper develops a theoretical model of the relationship between firm-level entrepreneurship and firm performance. This model is intended to further clarify the consequences of an ‘entrepreneurial orientation,’ paying particular attention to the differential relationship that exists between the three sub-dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. Included in the theoretical model are other important variables (such as organizational structure and environmental characteristics) that may impact the EO-performance relationship. Propositions are developed regarding the various configurations of the sub-dimensions of EO and organizational structure that would be most appropriate in a given environmental context. Future research may also benefit from considering the important role that organizational strategy and life cycle stage play in this model. The implications of this model for both researchers and managers are discussed.

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of Managerial Power

Organizational researchers have long recognized the important role that top managers play within entrepreneurial firms (Ireland, Hitt and Sirmon 2003). Utilizing Covin and Slevin’s (1989) conceptual framework, the current study explores three key entrepreneurial characteristics of top managers and the impact these characteristics have on firm performance. Specifically, we argue that top managers with a high tolerance of risk, those who favor innovative activities and those who display a high degree of proactiveness will positively impact firm performance. In addition, this study examines the influence of top managers’ prestige, structural and expert power on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. We conclude the study with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of our findings and suggestions for future research in this area of study.

The Influence of Changes in Social Capital on Firm‐Founding Activities

This study examines how founders can manage changes in their network ties during firm founding. We find that an increase in tie strength is negatively associated with founding activities, whereas an increase in the number of ties is positively associated with founding activities. Furthermore, entrepreneurial intensity mitigates the negative relationship between an increase in tie strength and founding activities; and social competence reinforces the positive relationship between an increase in the number of ties and founding activities. Our study contributes to the social capital literature by theorizing and testing how changes in a founders network structure can be beneficial to founding activities.

Measuring organizational responsiveness: the development of a validated survey instrument

Purpose – The paper aims to develop the survey utilized in this research as a data collection tool for the study of organizational responsiveness.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from the operations and strategic management literature, measurement scales were developed in order to empirically test five proposed enablers of organizational responsiveness: environmental scanning, strategic planning, flexible manufacturing infrastructures, supply chain governance mechanisms, and multi‐skilled workers.Findings – The survey produced a total of 66 responses from 59 companies in three industries: automotive suppliers, instrumentation equipment, and semiconductor components. Three of the five enablers were found to be bi‐dimensional, which produced a survey instrument with eight separate measurement scales. Coefficient alpha was observed to be within the acceptable range for all construct scales and factor analysis confirmed unidimensionality for each construct.Research limitations/implications – The survey i...

Exploring Proactiveness as a Moderator in the Process of Perceiving Industrial Munificence: A Field Study of Smes in Four Countries

Utilizing information processing theory, we investigated the role that proactiveness plays in the organizational process of perceiving objective industrial munificence. Specifically, we examined the moderating effect of proactiveness in the munificence perception process, as well as the mediating impact of perceived munificence on the relationship between objective munificence and firm performance. Data collected from 227 companies in four countries and seven manufacturing industries support both hypotheses. The implications of these findings for managerial practice and future research are discussed.

A Historical Investigation of the Strategic Process within Family Firms

Purpose of this paper: The primary purpose of this paper was to perform an in-depth analysis of the strategic process that occurs within family firms. Design/methodology/approach: This study analyz ...

Entrepreneurial Responses to Hostile Environments

Previous research examining the relationship between environmental hostility and a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has been plagued by inconsistent results. The current study draws upon theories of constrained strategic choice and threat rigidity to shed light on the complex nature of the hostility-EO relationship. Utilizing data consisting of 21,129 observations taken from 3,075 firms during 1999-2010. Using objective measures of EO, our results suggest that EO exhibits an inverse U-shaped relationship with environmental hostility. Further, the results suggest that recoverable slack moderates this inverse U-shaped relationship by attenuating the relationship at high levels of recoverable slack, while accentuating the relationship at low levels of recoverable slack. Taken together, these findings lend support to theoretical arguments suggesting that a firm’s environmental context has an identifiable impact on its willingness to display an EO, and that the unencumbered structural resources embedded...

Entrepreneurial Organization or Family Firm? A Strategic Analysis of Gulf States Paper Corporation

century. Throughout the last one hundred and seventeen years, the leadership atGulf States Paper has emphasized ideals and values as the cornerstone of the business.Mildred Warner, the second President of the organization, felt that the company shouldalways strive to possess four virtues: patience, faith, vision, and determination. Eventhough Gulf States Paper has changed its strategic direction several times over the lastcentury, the company has still been able to achieve several of its main organizationalobjectives, namely financial security and family control of the business.Gulf States Paper has experienced slow but steady growth over its one hundredyears plus of operation. However, the company has experienced this growth without agreat deal of external strategic actions, such as mergers and alliances. Instead, thecompany has been very tightly held and managed. The firm’s growth strategy hasconsisted mainly of acquisitions and expansion, strategies such as the building of newmills, the purchasing and development of new equipment, the procurement of forestland,etc. Gulf States Paper has tended to be rather inward-looking as an organization, and inthe words of Jack Warner, “one hundred years after its founding, Gulf States Paper is stilla small, privately held corporation, not bound to Wall Street”(Fletcher, 1984: vii).In this paper, I will trace the historical and strategic development of Gulf StatesPaper Corporation since its founding in 1884. The game metaphor developed by Nasi etal (1998) will be used as the centerpiece for this analysis. An analysis of the company’s