The mediating role of corporate entrepreneurship for external environment effects on performance

Abstract

A model is proposed that tests the antecedents and the mediating effect of corporate entrepreneurship on the external environment-performance relationship within private and public sector organizations. Hypotheses were tested using data from a sample of chief executive officers in 51 private sector organizations in the United States, 141 private sector organizations in Slovenia and 134 public sector state and semi-state enterprises in Ireland. Data was analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that dynamism and munificence effects on performance are mediated by an organization's corporate entrepreneurship in the private sector and munificence effects on performance are mediated by an organization's renewal in the public sector and that renewal must be in place to maximize the effect of munificence on performance. The results support a model that incorporates an extensive and diverse literature into a single model and helps illuminate similarities and differences of corporate entrepreneurship between the private sector and the public sector. The study shows that an integrative model and the interplay among the constructs yields new insights unavailable to single and focused approaches. It offers new insights about corporate entrepreneurship, not only as a discrete pursuit, but also as a construct that shapes and extends organizational performance.

Keywords:

• corporate entrepreneurship
• private and public sector organizations
• external environment
• organizational performance
• mediational model

JEL Classification:

• L26
• L33
• L3

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claudine Kearney

Claudine KEARNEY, PhD lectures and researches at University College Dublin. Dr. Kearney received her M.B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and her Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Her research pursuits focus on entrepreneurship and innovation, with special interests in antecedents and outcomes of corporate entrepreneurship in private and public sector organizations; strategic entrepreneurship and innovation in SMEs and large corporations; the emergence of entrepreneurship in SMEs. She serves on editorial boards, published journal articles, books, book chapters and conference papers.

Robert D. Hisrich

Robert D. HISRICH, PhD, is the Garvin Professor of Global Entrepreneurship and Director of the Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship at Thunderbird School of Global Management, the world's leading school of global business. Dr. Hisrich received his BA from DePauw University, his MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, and honorary doctorate degrees from Chuvash State University (Russia) and the University of Miskolc (Hungary). Dr. Hisrich has authored or co-authored 25 books and written more than 300 articles on entrepreneurship, international business management and venture capital.

Bostjan Antoncic

Bostjan ANTONCIC, PhD, is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Dr. Antoncic received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from University of Ljubljana and Ph.D. from the Case Western Reserve University. His main research interests include corporate entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial networks, entrepreneurial personality and international entrepreneurship. He has authored or co-authored fourteen books (eleven of them in the area of entrepreneurship) and numerous scientific research articles. His papers were published in various academic journals.