Effects on corporate performance through ISS-enabled strategy-making on dynamic and improvisational capabilities

PurposeThis study develops the idea that resource orchestration (RO) of ISS-enabled strategy-making (ISS-SM) can influence dynamic and improvisational capabilities in innovation resulting in corporate performance (CP) gains under a hostile environment.Design/methodology/approachThe structural equation modeling is applied to the data collected from 551 Brazilian firms.FindingsThe results suggest that ISS-SM facilitates dynamic and improvisational capabilities in innovation, consequently promoting CP. The research also showed that, under conditions of high environmental hostility, the impact of improvisational capabilities in innovation on CP is significantly amplified. Finally, in the specific case of high hostility, ISS-SM is especially important in enabling organizational capabilities on CP, for digital mastery firms, large firms in the manufacturing and services sectors.Practical implicationsThe findings provide insights on how RO of ISS and resource management action enable strategy-making to leverage innovation and corporate performance during an uncertain environment.Originality/valueThis study developed an original contribution to resource orchestration, information systems strategies, and strategy-making literature through developing a novel construct of ISS-enabled strategy-making to enhance proximate and distal outcomes under a hostile environment.

Modelling the relationships between the business environment, entrepreneurial orientation and employment growth amongst small, medium and micro-enterprises in South Africa

Purpose: This study seeks to model the nexus between environmental dynamism, environmental hostility, five sub-dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (innovativeness, pro-activeness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy) and employment growth.Design/methodology/approach: Based on a positivist research philosophy, this study adopts a quantitative methodological approach, which entails an online survey. Data is obtained through probability sampling of 1031 small, medium and micro enterprise businesses (SMMEs) and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM).Findings/results: The findings reveal only four dimensions namely proactive-innovation, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy as statistically visible, which is contrary to five as postulated in theory. In addition, it was found that the relationships between environmental hostility, environmental dynamism and the dimensions of EO were statistically significant. Conversely, the relationships between the dimensions of EO and employment growth were statistically insignificant except within the category of medium-sized businesses (MSBs) in which proactive-innovation and competitive aggressiveness indicated a statistically significant negative association with employment growth.Practical implications: A dynamic and hostile environment is essential to increased entrepreneurial intensity among SMMEs, but the size of the firm can be a determinant in their capacity for employment generation.Originality/value: The association between EO and employment growth has attracted less attention in research despite its theoretical and practical significance. Furthermore, studies on the antecedents of EO such as its relationship with environmental dynamism and hostility are limited. Following a multidimensional approach to EO, this empirical study illustrates its relationship with employment growth incorporating the component of the business environment. Regarding the plausibility of these associations, it distinguishes MSBs from the other categories of businesses within the SMME cohort.

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Start-Up Performance: A Configurational Approach

The relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance has been the object of a number of studies, but the literature has not yet reached a consensus about the true relationship between the two variables. Previous research attributes this lack of consensus to the moderating effect of numerous variables, including those related to the firm’s environment. While the literature evaluates the direct and moderating effects of uncertainty and hostility on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance, no one has investigated how these environmental variables simultaneously affect this relationship. To fill this gap, we use a configurational approach to clarify the nature of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance and investigate how hostility and uncertainty jointly moderate this relationship. Our arguments are tested using a sample of 140 Brazilian start-ups, and we conclude that there is a positive relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. Nevertheless, this relationship is jointly conditioned by the level of environmental hostility and uncertainty.

Organisational structure revisited

This study's primary goal is to investigate all variables that are reported to affect the organisational structure in the same research model. For this purpose, effects of Top Management Team profile variables, including Strategic Decision-Making Style and Strategic Decision-Making Group Size, Environmental Dynamism, Environmental Hostility, Organization Size (both annual turnover and number of employees are taken separately as the indicators of organisation size), Organization’s Age, and Technology (three technological levels: low, medium and high technologies) on the Organizational Structure analysed. Organisation’s Degrees of Centralization and Formalization were taken as organisational structure variables. The research adopted a convenient sampling method and was conducted with 455 managers working in Turkey's different organisations. The Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) approach is used to assess the effects of Top Management Team profile variables, environmental factors, and organisational factors on both the degree of centralisation and formalisation. The results show that TMT Age, Environmental Hostility, Organizational Size (Annual Turnover only), and Technology have a positive and significant effect only on formalisation, while Strategic Decision-Making Group Size, Strategic Decision-Making Style, and Environmental Dynamism on both The Degree of Centralisation and Formalisation. This study also showed that the effects of most of the variables mentioned in the literature as antecedents of the organisational structure could not be determined while all the variables mentioned above are included in the same research model.

The Relationship Between Environmental Hostility and Entrepreneurial Orientation of Small Businesses

Declining entrepreneurship as indicated by low total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) and high business failure is unacceptable in any economy. This predicament is indicative of South Africa’s business environment as well as the entrepreneurial disposition of firms operating within it. However, the factors precipitating entrepreneurial behaviour among small firms are yet to be fully comprehended and the environment as a motivation for entrepreneurship among these firms is yet to be examined thoroughly. Furthermore, research focus on the antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is limited, even as EO has been considered as an aggregated construct repeatedly with inadequate attention directed at its independent constituents. In response to these concerns, this study investigates the relationships between environmental hostility (EH) and the individual components of EO among small businesses in South Africa. Using a quantitative methodological approach, the study conducts a survey, and analyses data obtained through random sampling. Through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), it is discovered that only four components of EO are statistically recognisable, contrary to five as widely acknowledged in literature. Positive associations were also revealed between EH and each of these dimensions to varying degrees. These findings underline the necessity for entrepreneurial action along the lines of risk-taking, proactive-innovativeness, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy among small businesses in South Africa, given the hostile environment of her small business sector.