An Examination of Entrepreneurial Orientation in Dedicated Biotechnology Firms: Context Matters

Abstract

The goal of this article is to explore under what contexts do biotechnology firms exhibit an entrepreneurial orientation? To achieve this goal, we assess entrepreneurial orientation as a configuration and individual dimension across three contexts: organizational structure, location, and age. Analyses of survey data from U.S. biotechnology firms indicate that ownership structure was the only contextual factor to yield differences in biotechnology firms’ entrepreneurial orientation when assessed as a configuration. However, the analysis identified differences at the multidimensional level within all three contexts. Both theoretical and practical implications of our findings are provided.

• biotechnology
• entrepreneurial orientation
• environment
• survey
• t-tests

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dorothy Mary Kirkman

Dorothy M. Kirkman is Assistant Professor of Management at University of Houston–Clear Lake. Her research interests included academic entrepreneurship, university-biotechnology technology transfer, and translational science. She has published in Administrative Issues Journal, Journal of Technology & Innovation Management, and Innovation Management Policy and Practice Journal. She was awarded the 2012 Distinguished Research Award from the Academy of Entrepreneurship. Her teaching activities are focused in the areas of technology and strategic management as well as entrepreneurship. She currently collaborates with the University of Texas Medical Branch–Galveston on an Innovation and Entrepreneurship grant. She can be reached at [email protected].

dt ogilvie

dt ogilvie is Dean of Saunders College of Business and Professor of Business Strategy & Urban Entrepreneurship at Rochester Institute of Technology. Her research interests include strategic decision making and the use of creativity to enhance business and battlefield decision making and applying complexity theory to strategy and creativity; executive leadership strategies of multicultural women executives; women in the executive suite; assessing environmental dimensions; cognition and strategic decision making; and entrepreneurship and economic development of urban cities. She was named a Foreign Expert by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China. She can be reached at [email protected].