The role of entrepreneurship in building cultural competitiveness in different organizational types

This study examines the role of entrepreneurship in building cultural competitiveness in organizations. Cultural competitiveness is defined as the degree to which organizations are predisposed to detect and fill gaps between what the market desires and what is currently offered. It is examined in this study as the collective result of interactions among four variables: entrepreneurship, innovativeness, market orientation, and organizational learning. Among these variables, entrepreneurship represents the most influential and proactive means of developing a market-based culture. However the role of entrepreneurship differs depending on organizational type. Based on data from a sample of 764 organizations, superior performance occurs when certain aspects of cultural competitiveness fit each of four organizational types. Specifically, large and young organizations achieve strong performance by focusing directly on entrepreneurship. In the other organizational types, entrepreneurship has an indirect effect on performance (i.e., large and old organizations perform better by focusing on organizational learning; small and old organizations benefit from a market orientation; and small and young organizations perform better by focusing on a balanced or selective approach where all four cultural competitiveness elements are emphasized or only one idiosyncratic element is emphasized, respectively). (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.