Entrepreneurship and the concept of fit: A model and empirical tests (original) (raw)
Related papers
The concept of fit in organizational research
International Journal of Organizational Theory and Behavior, 2001
This paper focuses on the concept of fit as a topic of research. The concept of fit has been viewed as an internal consistency among key strategic decisions or the alignment between strategic choices and critical contingencies with the environment (external), organization (internal), or both (external and internal). A number of research perspectives or approaches related to fit are presented. Research design problems are discussed: definition of terms, theoretical issues, and empirical issues. Emphasis is on how key variables or dimensions of fit are defined and measured in research. A six-celled matrix is proposed as a conceptual scheme to distinguish different perspectives of fit and to portray congruence relationships more accurately. The matrix includes three common dimensions: strategy, organization, and environment. The matrix also suggests two levels of strategy—corporate or business—and three domains of fit—external, internal, or integrated. These suggest different research perspectives for the study of fit. Examples from the literature are provided to illustrate and support this conceptual scheme. Finally, implications for management and further study are outlined.
Mismatch between entrepreneurs and their firms: the role of cognitive fit / misfit
2004
This paper examines the relationship between cognitive fit/misfit, and burnout, satisfaction, and intentions to exit the firm in entrepreneurs. Given the disordinal (crossed) nature of the significant interactions, the results indicate when cognitive misfit in entrepreneurs (based on their dominant decision-making approach) is more likely lead them to experience negative outcomes, given the nature and degree of firm structure. This study contributes by extending the Person-Organization fit approach beyond employees to entrepreneurs and by providing researchers with means of placing the individual entrepreneur and his/her psychological make up back into the entrepreneurship equation without the pitfalls and the limitations associated with many of the past psychological (trait) studies.
A dynamic perspective of internal fit in corporate venturing
Journal of Business Venturing, 2001
Managers of corporate parents and their ventures have long been faced with the question of how closely to tie the parent and venture. A close connection may enable a venture to capitalize on the competencies and resources of the parent. However, venture autonomy could prevent corporate inertia and bureaucracy from constraining venture growth. The lack of consensus on this issue leads us to the first of two complementary research questions that we address in this paper: "What is the effect of internal strategic fit between a corporate parent and its venture on venture performance?" We suggest that a tight fit is positively associated with venture performance because of the venture's access to its parent's resources. Managers and researchers alike have often observed that growing enterprises are dynamic entities. In the case of corporate ventures, this implies that the relationship between parent and venture evolves over time. Our second research question directly addresses this issue by asking: "Does the relationship between a corporate parent and its venture(s) evolve over time, and if so, how?" We identify two dimensions of the fit between corporate parents and their ventures: relational and economic. A relational fit reflects organizational culture and structure, while an economic fit is a function of the needs of the venture and the resources of the parent. We develop a series of hypotheses and test them with survey data from 97 Canadian corporate ventures. For the purposes of this study, we define success as the ability of a firm to meet internal milestones on schedule. We find that the degree of fit between a corporate parent and its venture does affect the success of a venture, and that success is associated with high levels of awareness, commitment, and connection. Further, the relational dimension of the parent-venture interface appears to have a greater association with venture success than does the economic dimension. Our data support the idea that the parent-venture relationship is dynamic in nature as ventures in our sample generally lessened their economic connections with their parents as they matured
The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between job performance, innovative and entrepreneurial behaviours and person-organisation fit (PO fit). For investigating the relationship, a longitudinal study was conducted with 550 and 510 employees from companies working on the defence industry products and service sector in Ankara, Turkey. After the analysis, it can be seen that PO fit has a moderating effect in the relationship between job performance, innovative and entrepreneurial behaviours. Results also indicated that the relationships between both innovative behaviour-job performance and the entrepreneurship behaviour -the job performance are positive in case of low PO fit. On the contrary, the relationships between both innovative behaviour-job performance and the entrepreneurship behaviour-job performance are not significant when the PO fit is high.
Sustainability, 11(19), 5301 (ISI Web of Science – Social Sciences Citation Index® & Journal Citation Reports/Social Sciences Edition) (Impact factor 2.592), 2019
Entrepreneurship is considered to be one of the most critical factors contributing to the successful performance of business, innovations, and growth of the economy. Entrepreneurship is the main driver of innovation and sustainable business. The purpose of this research is to assess the main traits that are deemed essential for the successful performance of a firm. A model is developed to assess how entrepreneurs' creativity, self-efficacy, and achievement motivation influence the performance of small firms through the role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as a mediating variable. The hypotheses are tested by using Smart PLS (partial least squares path modeling) on a sample of 353 business owners to seek the insight of entrepreneurial traits on small-firm performance. The findings of the research show that self-efficacy and EO have a significant and positive association with the performance of a firm, while creativity and internal locus of control are fully mediated by EO. The subjective measures are used to examine the performance of a firm in terms of growth, sustainability, and financial performance, but the same can also be assessed by objective measures. The practical implication of this research provides entrepreneurs with a different perspective of the entrepreneurial traits that contribute to successful firm performance. The originality of the research lies in the attempt to explore the entrepreneurial traits that significantly influence the effectiveness of the performance of firms in the Pakistani context.
The Journal of High Technology Management Research, 2010
Person-Organization fit, the match between individuals and the organizations in which they work, has been extended to the fit between entrepreneurs' personalities (EP) and the profiles of ventures (VP) they manage (EP-VP fit), and its relationship to the venture's success. Eighty eight Israeli entrepreneurs working in new ventures responded to a specially designed questionnaire that included the following parts: (A) provided general data about the new venture; (B) assessed the venture type along two dimensions: Novelty and Technological uncertainty; (C) assessed the entrepreneurs' personality traits and (D) assessed the ventures' success. Findings revealed that entrepreneurs in high Novelty and high Technological uncertainty ventures had higher education, they love challenges, and they are more committed, entrepreneurial, dreamers, creative, risk-takers, intuitive, investigative, and ambitious than those in low Novelty and low Technological uncertainty ventures. Entrepreneurs in low novelty and low technological uncertainty ventures were found to be more likely to exhibit behaviors characterizing Type A personality. In addition, high novelty high technological uncertainty ventures were found to be significantly more successful on measures reflecting potential for building the future when compared to the low novelty and low technological uncertainty ventures, while on measures reflecting short-term success (meeting economic and budget goals) the results are in favor of the low novelty, low technology groups. These findings suggest that entrepreneurs are more attracted to ventures that fit their personality and the way they manage the new ventures is affected by their personality traits.
THE CORRELATES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THREE TYPES OF FIRMS
The objective of the research was to discover the chief determinants of entrepreneurship, the process by which organizations renew themselves and their markets by pioneering, innovation, and risk taking. Some authors have argued that personality factors of the leader are what determine entrepreneurship, others have highlighted the role played by the structure of the organization, while a final group have pointed to the importance of strategy making. We believed that the manner and extent to which entrepreneurship would be influenced by all of these factors would in large measure depend upon the nature of the organization. Based upon the work of a number of authors we derived a crude typology of firms: Simpte firms are small and their power is centralized at the top. Ptanning firms are bigger, their goal being smooth and efficient operation through the use of formal controls and plans. Organic firms strive to be adaptive to their environments, emphasizing expertise-based power and open communications. The predictiveness of the typology was established upon a sample of 52 firms using hypothesis testing and analysis of variance techniques. We conjectured that in Simpte firms entrepre-neurship would be determined by the characteristics of the leader; in Ptanning firms it would be facilitated by explicit and well integrated product-market strategies, and in Organic firms it would be a function of environment and structure. These hypotheses were largely bome out by correlational and multiple regression analyses. Any programs which aim to stimulate entrepre-neurship would benefit greatly from tailoring recommendations to the nature of the target firms. (ENTREPRENEURSHIP; CONTINGENCY THEORY; PLANNING; ORGANIZATIONAL STUDIES)
The suitability of the configuration approach in entrepreneurship research
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 2009
The aim of this paper is to discuss the configuration approach as applied in the context of new ventures. A key topic in entrepreneurship research is the analysis of new venture performance (NVP) and change. Taking into account variations in the population of new ventures and considering the complex nature of NVP and development, the configuration approach may be helpful for these analyses. The configuration approach seeks to identify firm types and explicitly considers interrelations between personal, structural, strategic, and environmental factors pertaining to new ventures. In doing this, refined modelling of NVP and an integration of theoretical approaches in entrepreneurship research may be achieved. However, the configuration approach may not be applied without a prior discussion of its suitability to the research context of new ventures. Any time a research approach is applied in a (new) research context, key aspects of this approach may be violated, which could lead to questionable results. We discuss key assumptions of the configuration approach, the concepts of fit, of equifinality, of reductive mechanisms, and of configuration changes, and find that these building blocks also apply in the context of new ventures. Then, we argue that a specific emphasis on the founder and on the environment and the consideration of unique variable patterns are elements of a configuration approach for new ventures.
Evaluating association between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance
Corporate venturing and entrepreneurial orientation are extensively used as proxies of corporate entrepreneurship. Small and large companies are likely to face different challenges; therefore, both of them need to adopt different business strategies for achieving high performance. For instance, managerial and technical issues are faced by the small and large firms to generate innovation. The study has aimed to assess the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance. A survey approach was used to collect and evaluate the primary data, and 152 questionnaires were distributed in different firms of Jordan. 40.1% of the participants have supported the role of corporate entrepreneurship in improving firm's performance. Moreover, 42.8% of the participants have supported the role of corporate venturing in the growth and development of an organization. The positive association was identified between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance. In response to this statement, 77 participants were neutral; however, 48 of them were agreed to this statement. Therefore, the study concluded that there is a strong relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance.