Entrepreneurially oriented employees and firm performance: mediating effects
ISSN: 2040-8269
Article publication date: 10 October 2018
Issue publication date: 16 January 2019
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the literature on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) with a focus on the interplay between the individual and firm level for embedding EO pervasively within organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Comprising 356 individual employees from five companies collected from June to September 2015, this investigation uses structural equation modelling.
Findings
The results show significant indirect effects from individuals’ EO on firm’s performance, mediated by both individuals’ performance and firm’s EO.
Research limitations/implications
While the construct of EO is strengthened with a multi-level approach, the authors also stress the organisational homogeneity of EO.
Practical implications
Consequently, the EO instrument can be used as a strategic tool to evaluate an individual’s orientation towards entrepreneurship to facilitate firm performance.
Originality/value
Finally, the EO instrument can be used as a strategic tool to evaluate an individual’s orientation towards entrepreneurship to facilitate firm performance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Katharina Fellnhofer would like to thank the Bavarian programme to promote equal opportunities for women in research and teaching – original program’s name in German “Bayerisches Programm zur Förderung der Chancengleichheit für Frauen in Forschung und Lehre 2015” – to support this research project.
The author would like to express great appreciation to her supervisor Professor Kaisu Puumalainen for her comments to some versions of this paper and provided example for additional data calculations. Overall, the author would like to thank for her supervision not only on a professional level but also on a personal level. Special thanks are extended to all participants sharing their perceptions.
Citation
Fellnhofer, K. (2019), "Entrepreneurially oriented employees and firm performance: mediating effects", Management Research Review, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 25-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-01-2017-0009
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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