Entrepreneurial orientation and new venture resource acquisition: why context matters

Date
2020-05-01Abstract
Resource acquisition is vital for new venture survival and growth. However, surprisingly
little is known about how the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of the new venture
affects its resource acquisition. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we
articulate a theory and treatment of EO that address this oversight and remedy for the
routine absence of context among studies of EO. Accounting for the simultaneous
effect of environmental dynamism and an opportunistic orientation (OO), a tendency
among Chinese new ventures to imitate technology and profit through market information
asymmetry, as important contextual variables reflecting the Chinese business
context, we provide insights on the contingency effects of contextual variables. Results
from a quantitative study of 361 Chinese new ventures show that EO positively
influences resource acquisition. However, this relationship is context sensitive. In a
low dynamic environment, OO negatively moderates this relationship. However, in a
highly dynamic environment, OO exhibits no effect on the relationship between EO
and new venture resource acquisition. Our results contribute to a resource-based theory
of EO and reveal its context sensitivity. Our study is a step in moving the scholarship of
EO forward and away from the performance debate towards greater predictive accuracy
of EO and its systems of effects.
Description
open access article
Citation : Yin, M., Hughes, M. & Hu, Q. (2020) Entrepreneurial orientation and new venture resource acquisition: Why context matters. Asia Pacific Journal of Management,
ISSN : 0217-4561
Research Institute : Centre for Enterprise and Innovation (CEI)
Peer Reviewed : Yes