Organizational preparedness for corporate entrepreneurship and psychological capital: does the managerial level matter?

ABSTRACT

This study explores the effects of organizational preparedness for corporate entrepreneurship (OPCE) on psychological capital and innovative behaviour in South Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on the moderating effects of the managerial level. Building on the literature review regarding the OPCE and psychological capital, hypotheses are constructed and tested using a sample of 217 collected from middle managers of South Korean SMEs. Regarding analytical techniques, structural equation modelling and moderated regression analysis were applied. Results indicate that two of the four OPCE dimensions affect the development of psychological capital. More notably, this study finds that the relationship between middle managers’ perception of OPCE dimensions and psychological capital is more significantly positive for higher level managers than for lower level managers. It also finds that innovative behaviour is driven by psychological capital. Contributions, implications and limitations with suggestions for future studies are presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate entrepreneurship
• OPCE dimensions
• managerial level
• psychological capital
• innovative behaviour

Acknowledgements

We thank the former Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Byung-Keun Kim, Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Patarapong Intarakumnerd, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Hulkar Suvonova is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Business Administration, Yeungnam University. Her research focuses on corporate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial actions of employees in SMEs.

Ju-yeon Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Business Administration, Yeungnam University. Her research interests include strategic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviors of firms.

Taekyung Park is currently an associate professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship at Yeungnam University. He earned his Ph.D. in management from the University of Hull. His research interests include entrepreneurship and technological and managerial capability. His research has been published in Technovation, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Management Decision, Asian Journal of Technology Innovation, Management International Review among others.

Notes

1 Compared with similar studies, the response rate was relatively high because the most of the survey was carried out by a well-trained survey agent.

2 With low factor loadings and judged as inappropriate in a South Korean setting, two items of time availability were removed.