Entrepreneurial capacities as antecedents of business performance in Brazilian firms

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1281
• Published date: 01 June 2014
• Date: 01 June 2014

Entrepreneurial capacities as antecedents of

business performance in Brazilian firms

Daniel Jiménez Jiménez

Universidad de Murcia

Juan Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro

Polytechnic University of Cartagena

Marcelo Gattermann Perin

Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul

Claudio Hoffmann Sampaio*

Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul

Jorge Bertinetti Lengler

Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial

capacities and f‌irm performance. More specif‌ically, we

investigate the effects of radical innovation and learning

orientation on business performance. We test the effects of

entrepreneurial orientation on learning orientation and

radical innovation. The results suggest that radical product

innovation and companies’orientation to learn have a pos-

itive effect on organizational performance. Additionally, we

f‌ind that entrepreneurial orientation positively inf‌luences a

f‌irm’s capability to learn and innovate. Our f‌indings also

show a direct effect of learning orientation on radical inno-

vation, which means that companies with a higher proclivity

to learn are more likely to create products and processes,

representing a major departure from the state of current

knowledge. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John

Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: entrepreneurial capacities, entrepreneurial ori-

entation, radical innovation, learning orientation, organiza-

tional performance

Résumé

Cet article examine la relation entre les capacités entrepreneuriales

et la performance de l’entreprise. En particulier, il examine les

effets de l’innovation radicale et de l’orientation de l’apprentissage

sur la performance de l’entreprise. Les effets de l’orientation

entrepreneuriale sur l’orientation de l’apprentissage et l’innovation

radicale sont testés. Les résultats suggèrent que l’innovation

radicale de produits et la propension de l’entreprise à apprendre

ont un effet positif sur la performance organisationnelle. Par

ailleurs, l’orientation entrepreneuriale inf‌luence positivement la

capacité de la f‌irme à apprendre et à innover. Enf‌in, l’orientation

de l’apprentissage a un effet direct sur l’innovation

radicale. En d’autres termes, les compagnies qui ont une

grande propension à apprendre sont plus susceptibles de

créer des produit s et des processus r adicalement dif férents

de l’état présent des connaissances. Copyright © 2014

ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés : capacités entrepreneuriales, orientation

entrepreneuriale, innovation radicale, orientation de

l’apprentissage, performance organisationnelle

In turbulent environments, entrepreneurial orientation

and innovation are increasingly considered key drivers of

the long-term success of a f‌irm (Baker & Sinkula, 2002;

Slevin & Terjesen, 2011). As such, many studies have

demonstrated the positive effect of innovation and EO on

f‌irm performance (Rauch, Wiklund, Lumpkin, & Frese,

2009). The idea is that innovative companies respond to

environmental challenges at a faster pace, and exploit new

products and market opportunities better than companies

without the ability to innovate (Brown & Eisenhard, 1995;

Sears & Baba, 2011). In this context, entrepreneurial organi-

zations show specif‌ic abilities for identifying and exploiting

opportunities by reconf‌iguring resources to obtain competi-

tive advantage (Zahra, 2005). As a result, entrepreneurial

f‌irms are characterized by their commitment to innovation,

especially in the case of radical innovations (Li, Liu, &

Zhao, 2006; Lumpkin & Dess, 1996).

In this paper we empirically examine the relationships

among entrepreneurial orientation (EO), learning orientation

The authors acknowledge the funding received from the Spanish Ministry of

Economics and Competitiveness (research project ECO2012-37893), the

Cajamurcia Foundation, CAPES, and CNPq while undertaking this research.

*Please address correspondence to: Claudio Hoffmann Sampaio, Programa

de Pós-Graduação em Administração, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do

Rio Grande do Sul, 90619-900 Av., Ipiranga, 6681 –Prédio 50 –Sala

1102, Porto Alegre –RS, Brazil. Email: csampaio@pucrs.br

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

31:90–103 (2014)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1281

Can J Adm Sci

31(2), 90–103 (2014)Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 90