The role of entrepreneurial orientation, organizational learning capability and service innovation in organizational performance.
| Autor | Gomes, Giancarlo |
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Introduction
Innovation plays an essential role in fostering the competitiveness of organizations in the construction sector, particularly in architecture, urban planning and engineering organizations. Within the sector, innovation is a combination of creativity, intellectual content, technical possibilities and market demand. In addition, innovation is a complex social activity, and creating innovative design solutions requires continuous learning (Salter & Gann, 2003; Panuwatwanich & Stewart, 2012). For Kitsios & Grigoroudis (2020), identifying important elements for managers within a service innovation (SI) requires more research. The features that most often differentiate services from traditional products are intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985).
SI operates as the engine of economic growth and crosses all service sectors. With a focus on innovation, service organizations have grown substantially in the last decade (Snyder, Witell, Gustafsson, Fombelle & Kristensson, 2016). Avlonitis, Papastathopoulou & Gounaris (2001) define SI as new market services, new company services, new delivery processes, service change, service line extensions and service repositioning. Although studies indicate that for a company to be innovative, it must develop organizational characteristics that incorporate a clear orientation for learning (Hult, Hurley & Knight, 2004), little is known about the mediation between Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and SI, based on learning capability (Nasution, Mavondo, Matanda & Ndubisi, 2011).
Learning Capability is a learning potential intrinsic to the knowledge and skills of professionals and managers in the processes/practices used in the organization, which can provide learning--such as the evaluation of strategies, results and so on. Organizational Learning Capability (OLC) is a facilitator of learning (Goh & Richards, 1997; Gonzaga, Figueiredo, Souza & Passos, 2020), and innovation (Alegre & Chiva, 2008; Gomes, Seman & De Montreuil, 2020). It is a knowledge-based capacity that involves elements that boost production processes, including the search for information and the development of new knowledge on products, processes and services (Huang & Wang, 2011; Gomes & Wojahn, 2017), resulting in practices and skills that stimulate innovation.
EO is present in organizations that strive to innovate in products or markets, take risks and act proactively in relation to their competitors (Miller, 1983; Covin & Miles, 1999). In recent years, EO has received a lot of attention, in theoretical and empirical articles that sought to understand the effect of developing processes of entrepreneurial strategy on Organizational Performance (OP) (Shan, Song & Ju, 2016) and SI. Despite its relevance for explaining how organizations develop and exploit business opportunities through entrepreneurial activities, the existing literature on EO has been criticized for neglecting OLC and knowledge creation, thus failing to explain the processes for achieving growth (Altinay, Madanoglu, De Vita, Arasli & Ekinci, 2016).
Few studies have explored the mediating role of OLC and SI in OP (Alegre & Chiva, 2013; Shan et al., 2016; Gomes et al., 2020). In particular, the existing literature on Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) has neglected the combined effects of EO and OLC. Therefore, this study analyzes the relationships between EO, OLC, SI and OP, by examining the influence of EO on OLC and SI, in organizations that provide knowledge-intensive services.
This paper examines the mediating role of OLC and SI in the relationship between EO and OP, checking statistically if such mediations are relevant to achieve a better understanding of the relationships mentioned in the literature. The study provides a complete view of the relationship between EO and KIBS performance, which highlights the role of OLC and SI. A greater emphasis on EO and an increase in OLC are strategies that can enhance KIBS performance. OLC, EO and SI are evolutionary phenomena that provide an organization with continuous improvement in its results and in its ability to face challenges in turbulent environments.
We tested the hypotheses in architecture and urban planning offices in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, where organizations continuously face a complex and shaky environment caused by political and economic instability. Such an environment is fertile for new ideas and knowledge. These characteristics are in line with those considered central to entrepreneurial organizations. Thus, we sought a homogeneous sample of companies, in terms of size (most are small and medium-sized firms), industry (architecture and urbanization offices) and geographic location.
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Conceptual structure and hypotheses
Naman & Slevin (1993) define entrepreneurial orientation as members' values, associated with the purpose of looking into new market opportunities and extending current areas of activities. EO explains how to put entrepreneurship into practice within organizations (Gupta, Dutta & Chen, 2014). It is also a managerial attitude, oriented toward processes of strategy development, in order to provide organizational support for management actions and decision-making (Miller, 1983; Lumpkin & Dess, 1996).
Studies emphasize EO as beneficial for organizations (Ireland & Webb, 2007; Gupta et al, 2014), contributing positively to OP (Rauch, Wiklund, Lumpkin & Frese, 2009). However, Dimitratos, Lioukas & Carter (2004) and George, Wood & Khan (2001) did not find a significant relationship between EO and OP, but this may be related to organizations' external and internal variables, which affect performance, or even to the fact that EO benefits may not be observed in the short term (Madsen, 2007).
Zahra, Nielsen & Bogner (1999) recommended that researchers should start to identify all the underlying steps for determining the contribution of EO to OP. Hence, several studies adopted a holistic view in their analyses, emphasizing the relevance of the intermediate stages between EO and OP (Alegre & Chiva, 2013; Masa'deh et al., 2018).
Entrepreneurial actions affect product innovations, processes and management directly (Covin & Miles, 1999; Gupta etal 2014). The innovative character regards the introduction of new processes, products or ideas and is one of the most important drivers of innovation (Hult et al., 2004). EO increases the proactivity and willingness of an organization to take risks and innovate and is considered one of OP antecedents (Masa'deh, Al-Henzab, Tarhini & Obeidat, 2018; Renko, Carsrud & Brannback, 2009; Zahra et al., 1999).
Wheelwright & Clark (1992), and later Newey & Zahra (2009), consider innovation a crucial factor in OP due to the constant evolution of the competitive environment where organizations operate. The importance of innovation for organizations' good performance, in the long run, is widely recognized and reported in the literature (Alegre & Chiva, 2013). A superior innovative performance of an organization will positively affect market and production performance (Kitsios & Grigoroudis, 2020). Consequently, innovation performance directly affects OP (Calantone, Cavusgil & Zhao, 2002; Alegre & Chiva, 2013) and is the most rigorous dependent variable estimated to assess EO and OP (Ireland, Hitt & Sirmon, 2003). Thus, we developed the following hypothesis:
H1. SI acts as a mediating variable between EO and OP. Lumpkin and Dess (1996) describe EO as a company's strategies and actions related to the active search for new market opportunities. EO-based organizations have a more significant commitment to learning, as a way of collecting relevant information about these opportunities. Thus, organizational learning represents a competitive advantage for organizations, which results in performance gains, customer loyalty, profitability and market share (Rhee, Park & Lee, 2010; Gupta et al., 2014). Organizations open to learning have a better chance of predicting trends or changes in the market, through their higher flexibility and response speed (Jimenez-Jimenez & Sanz-Valle, 2011).
A learning organization has an explicit focus on acquiring knowledge that is potentially useful for the organization (Harrison & Leitch, 2005). Learning supports company's internal self-renewal and helps to determine strategies that affect the way organizations choose, learn, refine or redefine their main business-related decisions (Covin, Green & Slevin, 2006). In organizations focused on EO, learning capability is an essential prerequisite for managers' decision-making and the standards they assume, being critical factors to determine the effect of EO on OP (Covin et al., 2006; Wang, 2008).
OLC consists of resources or skills, both tangible and intangible, which allow achieving new forms of competitive advantage, while providing an organizational learning process (Alegre & Chiva, 2008). Organizational learning facilitators are experimentation, interaction with the external environment, dialogue, participative decision-making and risk propensity (Fernandez-Mesa & Alegre, 2015; Gomes et al., 2020). OLC allows trying new ideas for new services and superior products, which lead to business growth (Altinay et al., 2016).
Because it is a dynamic process of creating, acquiring and integrating knowledge, OLC has an important contribution to developing resources that boost OP (Lopez, Peon & Orda; Fernandez-Mesa & Alegre, 2015). Learning capability has shown beneficial effects for OP in organizations focused on EO (Lopez et al., 2005; Prieto & Revilla, 2006; Wang, 2008; Santos-Vijande, Lopez-Sanchez & Gonzalez-Meres, 2012; Alegre & Chiva, 2013). Consequently, we formulated the second hypothesis:
H2. OLC acts as a mediating variable between EO and OP. An organization focused on EO can create, learn and influence the environment (Garcia-Morales, Llorens-Montes & Verdu-Jover, 2006)...
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