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Improvement of flexibility is among the top concerns of manufacturing managers, however, managers are advised to choose the appropriate types of flexibility needed in their plants. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of manufacturing proactiveness dimensions (manufacturing involvement, commitment to manufacturing technology advancements and multi‐skilled workforce developments, and manufacturing's integration with marketing and design functions) on three types of manufacturing flexibility (new product, volume, and product mix).

Using the data collected from 108 motherboard manufacturers in Taiwan, this study develops valid and reliable measures of manufacturing proactiveness and flexibility. The study used multiple regression analysis to examine how different proactiveness dimensions link with specific types of manufacturing flexibility.

The study found that manufacturing involvement, multi‐skilled workforce developments, and manufacturing/design integration have significant positive effects on new product flexibility. Statistical results indicated that manufacturing technology advancements, multi‐skilled workforce developments, and manufacturing/design integration lead to better product mix flexibility. In addition, manufacturing involvement, manufacturing technology advancements, and manufacturing/marketing collaboration are determinants of volume flexibility. This research provides deeper insights regarding the impact of manufacturing flexibility upon the proactiveness programs.

This research focuses on the effect of manufacturing proactiveness only on external manufacturing flexibility. It does not address the issue of internal manufacturing flexibility. The use of a single indicator for the manufacturing flexibility measure may limit the generalization of the statistical results.

These findings have two main managerial implications. With rigorous and comprehensive measures of proactiveness, investigations of its impact on competitive priorities (e.g. delivery, cost, and quality) are issues to be addressed in future studies of manufacturing strategy. Outcomes of the research also enable practitioners to implement the appropriate practices of manufacturing proactiveness based on the specific types of manufacturing flexibility which their plants require.

The uniqueness of this paper is twofold. It is the only empirical study to explore the relationship between manufacturing proactiveness and flexibility from the manufacturing strategy process aspect. This may inspire researchers to focus on other related process issues such as the effect of supplier or customer involvement on manufacturing flexibility. The study also generated five dimensions of manufacturing proactiveness that differ from previous empirical works which overlooked the critical factors of manufacturing/design integration and manufacturing/marketing collaboration. Future researchers and practitioners should be able to apply these results to study and assess related issues of manufacturing proactiveness more rigorously and precisely.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the degree of customer‐related proactiveness in the process of developing radical innovations.

The initial framework for this study is first created on the basis of the theory and then modified in the light of multiple retrospective case studies.

The results show that the stage of the innovation development process seems to influence the degree of proactiveness. Contrary to many earlier studies, this research indicates that anticipation plays an important role already at the idea generation stage.

The study introduces a way of describing a firm's proactiveness as a dynamic pattern. Thus, the process approach adopted in this research may encourage further longitudinal studies on the phenomenon. Given the explorative nature of the study, the propositions arising from the modified framework should be evaluated according to additional data.

The results of this study indicate that a systematic search for new market opportunities, and the firm's previous experience of customers, may generate not only incremental but also radical innovations. Proactiveness is not always needed, however, as the cases indicate. Firms ought therefore to consider carefully when it is appropriate to invest in customer‐related proactiveness, and when it is not.

The main contribution of the study stems from the combination of customer‐related proactiveness and the process of radical‐innovation development. It is among the first to combine these streams of research.

The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of what makes or breaks a new product by exploring the direct and indirect impacts of the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) – innovativeness, risk taking and proactiveness – on product advantage and new product success (NPS).

Based on the literature reviewed, theoretical relationships among five constructs and relevant hypotheses were developed and subsequently tested using data collected from 244 electronics manufacturers in China.

The results show that the three dimensions of EO and product advantage are the driving antecedents of NPS. Moreover, it is confirmed that the relationships between the three dimensions of EO and NPS are mediated by product advantage and the relationship between risk taking and product advantage is moderated by innovativeness and proactiveness.

Literature about the interplay among the three dimensions of EO and NPS are often disparate and heterogeneous. The paper overcomes this problem by confirming the relative influences of each of the EO dimensions on NPS, as well as their respective indirect impacts on NPS through the intermediate construct of product advantage. The findings help to enrich our knowledge on EO, particularly on the roles of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking in new product development in the electronics manufacturing sector in China.

Building on the natural resource-based view, this paper aims to explore the effects of technological protectability and proactiveness on new ventures’ environmental performance.

Data from 150 clean-technology ventures are analyzed using hierarchical and logistic regression analyses.

Empirical findings show that both protectability and proactive behavior increase environmental performance. Results further indicate a negative but not significant moderator effect of proactiveness on the protectability – environmental performance relationship.

The research has been limited to clean-technology ventures. Findings provide empirical evidence on the link between proactiveness, a key dimension of entrepreneurial orientation, and environmental performance. The study further contributes to sustainable entrepreneurship research by showing that higher ecological gains can be achieved by proactive firms that are based on protected technologies.

The study provides a deeper understanding of the success factors of young firms with regard to their environmental impact. Findings suggest that policy makers and investors can use protectability and proactiveness as key characteristics to evaluate and foster a venture’s ecological potential.

The paper adds to existing literature on sustainable entrepreneurship by establishing a relationship between protectability, proactiveness and environmental performance.

Although the significance of international markets is recognised in innovation management, there seems to be a lack of studies on how the international context is actually present in the process of disruptive‐innovation development. This paper aims at filling this gap and at analysing the manifestation of the international context in market proactiveness during this process. It begins with a brief discussion of the concepts of market proactiveness and disruptive innovations. The international scope of market proactiveness at the idea‐generation, development, and launch stages is then analysed in the light of the ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric, geocentric (EPRG) model, and described in the context of the development of three disruptive drugs. The results of this study indicate that both the degree and international scope of market proactiveness differ considerably in demand‐related and competition‐related comparisons.

Drawing on the burgeoning proactive market orientation literature and its role within the organizational learning‐performance thesis, the aim of this aricle is to investigate further this nomological network.

The article adopts a market knowledge diffusion approach to examine the effect of organizational learning (a second‐order construct composed of knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organizational memory) on both (reactive) market orientation and strategic proactiveness. Thereafter, it identifies both the pattern of direct relationships between these constructs and business performance and those moderated by strategic market planning capabilities. Using data generated from European high technology SBUs, the article uses structural equation modelling to test these relationships.

It is found that organizational learning does significantly effect both proactive market orientation and strategic proactiveness. However, there is no direct effect of strategic proactiveness on business performance, but rather this relationship is mediated by market orientation. It is also found that strategic market planning capabilities moderate the market orientation‐business performance relationship.

This study acknowledges the paradox that results from the potential conflict between two important elements of strategy: commitment and flexibility. The article contributes and expands on the existing research by adopting the strategic ambidexterity perspective, effectively considering the co‐existence of commitment and flexibility and the associated positive performance implications.

This paper has predicted digital supply chain (DSC) adoption through the role of firms' proactiveness, knowledge management capability (KMC), innovation ambidexterity and the moderating effect of environmental dynamism.

Survey data from 354 managers in manufacturing and service firms were analysed using the PLS-SEM model.

The present study's findings ascertained the significant role of innovation ambidexterity in influencing DSC adoption, given that innovation exploration's direct and mediating impacts were greater than innovation exploitation's. Firms' proactiveness had the highest path coefficient value among the endogenous variables as an indispensable source for firms to successfully embrace KMC and innovation ambidexterity. The role of firm size on DSC adoption was also significant, revealing that SMEs were more likely than larger firms to adopt DSC practices. Despite its significant effect on innovation ambidexterity, KMC surprisingly exhibited no direct influence on DSC adoption. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated the significant moderating role of environmental dynamism on the effect of KMC on innovation exploration.

This research endeavour has presented valuable insights for scholars and managers, furnishing them with a framework to facilitate decision-making processes regarding adopting DSC practices. A key insight gleaned from this study has been the remarkable value of firms' proactive behaviour and innovation ambidexterity in facilitating DSC adoption decisions. Such adoption has empowered organisations to deploy appropriate interventions and allocate resources efficiently, considering the pivotal role of innovation exploration in contrast to the relatively limited impact of innovation exploitation within this context. Managers may also underscore the significance of firm size in shaping DSC adoption decisions. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been more likely to embrace DSC initiatives than their larger counterparts. The agile scale and streamlined organisational structures of SMEs often translate into faster decision-making processes, allowing for DSC adoption with relative ease. SMEs might also exhibit a greater openness to reap the benefits associated with DSC systems, such as improved operational efficiency and cost reduction.

The present study has advanced DSC adoption research by examining innovation ambidexterity, knowledge management capability and firms' proactiveness. It has also provided valuable insights for scholars and managers, presenting a framework for decision-making processes regarding DSC adoption in an emerging economy context.

This study aims to explore the role of digital technologies in tourism entrepreneurship. In particular, the main objective of this research is to examine the relationships among proactiveness, innovativeness, digitalization, and firm performance and growth in the hotel industry.

The data for this investigation were collected from 110 one- or two-star hotels that were operating in Poland during the time of this research. This study employs PLS-SEM to analyze the relationships among the examined variables.

The results show that digitalization has a significantly positive impact on a hotel’s performance. Moreover, digitalization mediates the impact of entrepreneurial behaviors on performance. In particular, digitization is a full mediator for the impact of proactiveness on firm growth and innovation on market performance. Additionally, there is a partial complementary mediation effect of digitalization in the case of impact of innovativeness on firm growth; digitization is not a mediator for the impact of proactiveness on firm growth.

Previous studies have not captured the relationships among entrepreneurship, digitalization, and performance; this study helps to fill the gap and examine these associations in the hospitality industry. The outcome of this study provides valuable insights for hoteliers for understanding the role (and importance) of digitalization in the context of proactiveness and innovativeness.

The purpose of the paper is to advance knowledge of small firm performance by explicating how networking helps small firms carry out marketing and perform better.

An online survey of small firm owner-managers in a regional economy of the UK was executed. Hypotheses were tested including the proposition that networking proactiveness moderates the relationship between market orientation (MO) and performance.

It was found that networking is undertaken by all small firms across a spectrum of business types. Networking is seen as applicable, it results in valuable outcomes and these outcomes contribute to marketing. The contribution increases with firm size and is valued more in small firms with a dedicated marketing function. Proactive networking creates greater value than reactive networking, but proactive networking in and of itself does not lead to greater performance. Rather, networking proactiveness moderates the relationship between MO and performance.

It is argued that networking should not be dismissed as “not quite proper” marketing and should be harnessed as a way of compensating for marketing activities that are outside the reach of the small firm. Small firms are advised to adopt a proactive approach to their networking activities, as without a reasonable level of proactiveness, there is likely to be no benefit in being market oriented.

There has been little research that has examined the specific ways in which networking contributes to marketing and none that probes if and to what extent this contribution makes a difference to overall firm performance. This paper addresses this gap.

Youth entrepreneurship has been identified as a key driver in overcoming the economic crisis spurred by youth unemployment. However, the understanding of youth entrepreneurship is largely based on research in high-income countries. Furthermore, entrepreneurship studies to date are largely limited to the independent effects of individual traits on entrepreneurial intention (EI). Hence, this study aims to model the cognitive and social conditions, mediating processes and interactions to understand how youth EI can be formed and strengthened in an emerging economy.

A cross-sectional sample of 295 Malaysian youths participating in an online entrepreneurship program were included to assess their family socioeconomic background, individual personality traits and EI using regression, mediation and moderation models. Within the sample, 29 youths who completed the program were examined for pre- and post-training intervention differences to identify whether entrepreneurial traits can be developed.

Results showed that a proactive personality or proactiveness was a key mediator in how an internal locus of control (ILOC) and self-esteem influence EI. Furthermore, ILOC and proactiveness were found to compensate for the lack of parental financial support in the formation of EI among low-income youth. Finally, there was a significant increase in proactive personality scores post-intervention, indicating that this trait can be strengthened through entrepreneurship programs.

This study focused on parental income as an indicator of family socioeconomic background, which may not accurately represent the diversity of the socio-ecological environment of an individual. Therefore, future research should assess the multi-dimensional indicators of socioeconomic status and their relations with psychological attributes in shaping EI. Furthermore, this study observed a small sample size for the pre- and post-intervention analysis. Hence, more studies with large sample sizes are needed to examine the impact of entrepreneurship education.

Considering that entrepreneurship is envisioned as an instrument to lift youths out of poverty, this study has important implications for entrepreneurship programs that target low-income youths. The findings suggest that such programs need to first emphasize developing ILOC and proactiveness among these youths, thus enabling them to overcome various structural barriers toward entrepreneurship, as opposed to a purely knowledge-based learning approach.

To effectively lift youths out of poverty through entrepreneurship, policymakers and educational institutions need to first recognize that the EI of youth from varying socioeconomic backgrounds are formed differently. Hence, the approach of entrepreneurship programs catered toward youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will differ from programs catered to youths who are financially secure. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, entrepreneurship programs targeted at low-income youths must first emphasize building their mindsets of ILOC and proactivity to overcome financial challenges as opposed to focusing solely on building entrepreneurial skills and knowledge.

The findings offer a more holistic and nuanced view of the contingencies where the efforts of policymakers, educational institutions and practitioners are more likely to succeed in stimulating EI among youths in emerging economies. In addition, the study also bridges the gap between the theoretical understanding of EI and the practical implications of developing effective entrepreneurship programs by combining the cross-sectional analysis and pre- and post-intervention test in the same study. Importantly, the study highlighted the importance of considering youth’s socioeconomic background in the design and implementation of entrepreneurship programs.