http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0244-0304
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ABSTRACT
The optimal distinctiveness perspective argues that firms face competing pressures to be both ‘like’ and ‘different from’ their peers. On the one hand, institutional scholars assert that firms need to be similar to peers in order to gain legitimacy. On the other hand, strategy scholars insist that firms need to strive to be different to gain competitive advantage. In order to enrich the optimal distinctiveness perspective, the present study builds a conceptual model that addresses the relationships among organisational regulatory legitimacy, entrepreneurial orientation, and SME innovation under the context of China’s transition economy. Our empirical results show that organisational regulatory legitimacy has an inverted-U relationship with SME innovation. Further, entrepreneurial orientation strengthens this inverse-U shaped relationship. That is, entrepreneurial orientation magnifies both the positive and the negative effect of organisational regulatory legitimacy on SME innovation. This study echoes to the call to conduct broader optimal distinctiveness research by integrating institutional theory and strategic management. Furthermore, our findings provide new evidence for the strategic balance perspective of optimal distinctiveness.
Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71472185; 71672072; 71872178).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Hongjia Ma is Professor at the School of Management, Jilin University. His research interests are innovation management, entrepreneurial management, and international entrepreneurship. He has published in journals such as Industry and Innovation, among others.
Hai Guo is Associate Professor at the School of Business, Renmin University of China. His research interests include strategic management, entrepreneurship, and innovation management in the digital economy. He has previously published his research in journals such as Journal of Product Innovation Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, R&D Management, British Journal of Management, Journal of Business Research, Management and Organisation Review, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, among others. He is the corresponding author of this paper and can be contacted by [email protected].
Rui Shen is Ph.D. candidate at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. Her research interests are entrepreneurship, venture capital and business model innovation. She has previously published her research in Journal of Business Ethics, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and Management and Organisation Review.