Seeking a way to tie Corporate entrepreneurship with Organizational learning

Integrating customer orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, and learning orientation in organizations-in-transition: an empirical study. International Journal of Research in Marketing

The paper addresses the issue of interrelationships between market orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, and learning orientation in the context of emerging economies. These three constructs have drawn an increasing level of interest in both marketing and management fields as organizations face challenges in a volatile environment. With a national sample of state-owned enterprises in China, the present study simultaneously tests potential relations between these structural constructs and their relationships with the organizational outcome that is reflected with marketing program dynamism. The findings of this study indicate that: (1) sampled state-owned enterprises demonstrate a higher level of changes in organizational outcome resulted from a stronger customer orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, or learning orientation; (2) learning orientation fully or partially mediates the impact of customer orientation and corporate entrepreneurship on outcome; (3) state-owned enterprises with foreign partnership have a higher level of customer orientation, entrepreneurship, and learning orientation; and (4) state-owned enterprises in the service sector have a higher level of customer orientation.

Liu, S., Luo, X., & Shi, Y. (2002). Integrating customer orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, and learning orientation in organizations-in-transition: an empirical study. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 19(4), 367-382.

Learning orientation, firm innovation capability, and firm performance

Contemporary organizations require a strong learning orientation to gain competitive advantage. Based on in-depth interviews with senior executives and a review of the literature, the present investigation delineates four components of learning orientation: commitment to learning, shared vision, open-mindedness, and intraorganizational knowledge sharing. A framework is tested using data from a broad spectrum of US industries. Learning orientation is conceptualized as a second-order construct. Its effect on firm innovativeness, which in turn affects firm performance, is examined. The results generally support theoretical predictions, and some interesting findings emerge.

Calantone, R., Cavusgil, S., & Zhao, Y. (2002). Learning orientation, firm innovation capability, and firm performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 31(6), 515-524.

Fostering Organizational Performance: The Role of Learning and Intrapreneurship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections between individual learning, intrapreneurship, and organizational learning to create an alternative model of how learning facilitates performance in organizations. 

Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper selecting targeted scholarly works that provide support for the proposed model. 

Findings – The paper presents a model of intrapreneurial learning and performance in which the constructs of environment, individual learning, intrapreneurship, and organizational learning influence organizational performance. Intrapreneurship is a relatively recent area of exploration in which scholarly efforts have primarily focused on identifying the construct and distinguishing it from entrepreneurship. The proposed model of intrapreneurial learning and performance joins a growing number of works that explore how intrapreneurship contributes to organizational performance. It is suggested that the framework may help scholars identify potential strategies of learning that could help organizations position intrapreneurship as a vehicle for improving organizational performance. 

Originality/value – The paper postulates an original relationship among individual learning, intrapreneurship, organizational learning, environment, and organizational performance. In this framework, individual and organizational learning combine to offer a unique perspective on the link between intrapreneurship and organizational performance.

Article Type:  Conceptual paper

Keyword(s): Workplace training; Individual development; Entrepreneurialism; Organizational performance.

Molina, C., & Callahan, J. (2009). Fostering Organizational Performance: The Role of Learning and Intrapreneurship. Journal of European Industrial Training, 33(5), 13.

Entrepreneurial orientation, learning orientation, and firm performance

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is a key ingredient for firm success. Nonetheless, an important message from past findings is that simply examining the direct effect of EO on firm performance provides an incomplete picture. Prior studies examined various internal and external factors that influence the EO–performance relationship. However, learning orientation (LO) has been a missing link in the examination of the relationship. Using data from 213 medium-to-large UK firms, this study finds that LO mediates the EO-performance relationship, and the EO–LO–performance link is stronger for prospectors than analyzers. The findings indicate that LO must be in place to maximize the effect of EO on performance, and that LO is an important dimension, along with EO, to distinguish prospectors from analyzers.

Wang, C. (2008). Entrepreneurial orientation, learning orientation, and firm performance. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 32(4), 635-657.

Drivers of innovativeness and performance for innovative SMEs in South Korea: Mediation of learning orientation

This study aims to investigate the relationships between drivers of innovativeness and the mediation effects of learning orientation. A conceptual model is designed and hypotheses are constructed. In order to test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling is performed for the data collected from 333 technology-innovative small firms in South Korea. The results reveal that market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation significantly influences learning orientation, respectively. Additionally, learning orientation significantly affects innovativeness, and sequentially innovativeness has a significant effect on performance. The most notable of these is that learning orientation performs a mediating function in the relationships between market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation and innovativeness. The findings imply that managers with entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation should place much emphasis on learning orientation in order to boost innovativeness and ultimately achieve performance. Limitations include a limited number of predictors and possibility of generalizability of the results.

Rhee, J., Park, T., & Lee, D. (2010). Drivers of innovativeness and performance for innovative SMEs in South Korea: Mediation of learning orientation. Technovation, 30(1), 65-75.