The role of entrepreneurial orientation in service firms: empirical evidence from Austria

Abstract

Entrepreneurial behaviour is becoming increasingly important for all firms, regardless of size, age, or industry sector. It is increasingly seen as one of the most important drivers for economic growth and corporate success. Nevertheless, no empirical research has so far concentrated on the role of entrepreneurial behaviour in service firms, although the service sector has become the most important (and the only growing) industry sector. This article therefore investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and corporate performance on the basis of an empirical survey of 310 service firms in Austria. Here, a significant positive relationship between EO and corporate performance could be identified, with a clear emphasis on innovative behaviour as the most important sub-dimension.

Keywords:

• entrepreneurial orientation
• innovative behavior
• performance

Notes

At first, ambiguity was significant because the industry classification by Rauch et al. (2009) (high-tech/non-high-tech/mix) did not provide the necessary information. However, the sorting by Hosman (2009) – almost all articles were placed into three groups: manufacturing, cross-industry, or specific industry – which included all articles identified by Rauch et al. (2009) were more applicable to this study. After checking a sample of 10 studies that took place ‘cross-industry’, it was concluded that they were not done solely on service firms and hence could be excluded.