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Cultural Factors: Entrepreneurial Orientation or Not-Here Comes Innovation in Small to Medium Sized Enterprises

Chambers, Donald G.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=casedm1568628001000225

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management.
Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) are a significant contributor to USA employment and GDP but are disappointingly understudied. Small firms may often carry a label of “entrepreneur” yet it is now commonly understood that not all small firms are necessarily entrepreneurial nor does lacking that orientation mean that SMEs uniquely fail to innovate. We conducted two sequential studies to identify what other factors besides entrepreneurial orientation (EO) contributed to small firm innovation and whether those constructs could stand on their own in the absence of EO. What we found in our qualitative study was that firm-wide culture—namely empowerment, play, and organizational learning (OL)—were more prevalent in our 29 successful SME than EO. When we tested those firm- wide cultural factors’ effects on innovation in the absence of EO, we found that small firms did innovate without EO, but more surprising was the substantive increase in predicting innovation in small firms when BOTH EO and OL were present. These studies are important for scholars in that we have added to the literature concepts of small firm innovation that eschew EO as a requisite for innovation. For practitioners, this is even more important in that small firm owners and senior leaders need not be entrepreneurially inclined to innovate but when they are and also support certain internal culture development, they are more likely to innovate than when only EO or OL exist on its own.
Kalle Lyytinen, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Kathleen Buse, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Entrepreneurship
SME; EO; OL; entrepreneur; organizational learning; small business

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chambers, D. G. (2016). Cultural Factors: Entrepreneurial Orientation or Not-Here Comes Innovation in Small to Medium Sized Enterprises [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=casedm1568628001000225

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chambers, Donald. Cultural Factors: Entrepreneurial Orientation or Not-Here Comes Innovation in Small to Medium Sized Enterprises. 2016. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=casedm1568628001000225.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chambers, Donald. "Cultural Factors: Entrepreneurial Orientation or Not-Here Comes Innovation in Small to Medium Sized Enterprises." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=casedm1568628001000225

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

casedm1568628001000225
282
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