Research On The Relationship Among Entrepreneurial Knowledge Integration, Entrepreneurial Capability And High-tech New Venture Performance

Technology entrepreneurship is playing a critical role in facilitating thetransformation of industrial structures and marketization in the context of transitioneconomies. How to improve high-tech new venture performance has drawn increasingattention from entrepreneurship researchers, practitioners and policy makers. Giventhe unique market and institution in transition economies, high-tech new ventures arefacing a greate many opportunities as well as strong resource constraints. In an effortto integrate resources for opportunity development, high-tech new ventures arerequired to obtain entrepreneurial knowledge from internal and external sources.These ventures can harvest the strategic value of the knowledge acquired only throughcombining them together. Therefore，how to effectively and efficiently integrate thesedisperse specialized knowledge is the key to increase high-tech new ventureperformance. As such, this paper explores the relationship among entrepreneurialknowledge integration, entrepreneurial capability and high-tech new ventureperformance in a transitional economy.This paper is aimed at providing answers to these three theoretical questions:(1)How do new ventures integrate dispersive entrepreneurial knowledge to enhanceperformance？(2) How do new ventures choose appropriate types of entrepreneurialknowledge integration to develop entrepreneurial capability?(3) What role does eachdimension of entrepreneurial capability play in the relationship between differenttypes of entrepreneurial knowledge integration and new venture performance？ This research provides theoretical guidance and practical implications forhigh-tech new ventures to integrate entrepreneurial knowledge to buildentrepreneurial capabilities and thus increasing performance in a transition economy.The knowledge-based theory of the firm (KBT) argues that firms can applyorganizing principles to integrate specialized knowledge to create and capture value.In an effort to open the black box of new venture knowledge integration, this paperproposes the concept of “entrepreneurial knowledge integration” and provides thedefinition of this construct from the perspective of organization design including thedimensions of strategy, culture and institution. KBT also proposes that the efficiencyand flexibility of knowledge integration are crucial for firms to achieve competitiveadvantages. Thus, this paper classifies entrepreneurial knowledge integration intoflexibile and efficient knowledge integration. Flexible knowledge integration refers tothe process of entrepreneurial knowledge integration using emergent strategic logic，outward culture orientation and institutional design for coordination to improve theflexibility of knowledge integration in new ventures. While efficient knowledgeintegration refers to the process of entrepreneurial knowledge integration usingplanned strategic logic， inward culture orientation and institutional design forsystematic integration to improve the efficiency of knowledge integration in newventures. Moreover, according to the construct of entrepreneurial capability proposedby Professor Shaker A. Zahra, the representative scholar in this research field,entrepreneurial capability(EC)in this paper has four dimensions including sensing,selecting, shaping and synchronizing.To test the validity of theortical construct and explore the relationship amongentrepreneurial knowledge integration, entrepreneurial capability and high tech newventure performance, this study interviewed four high-tech new ventures inChangchun and Hangzhou. Through case study, the author revised the definition of key theoretical constructs and found that flexible knowledge integration and efficienctknowledge integration contribute to high-tech new venture performance throughdifferent dimensions of entrepreneurial capability. Thus, this study builds the researchframework and proposes the hypotheses. Then, empirical data were collected from203high-tech new ventures in Changchun and Beijing city. And these data wereanalyzed by SPSS20.0software using data analysis methods such as factor analysisand multivariate linear regression. Finally, the conclusions and future directions areproposed base on empirical analysis results.According to the empirical data analysis, the conclusions of this research are asfollows:(1) Both flexible and efficient knowledge integration have positive effects onhigh-tech new venture performance and their interaction effect helps increasehigh-tech new venture performance.(2) Flexible knowledge integration has a positiveeffect on sensing and shaping.(3) Efficient knowledge integration has a positiveeffect on selecting and synchronizing.(4) Sensing and shaping play mediating roles inthe relationship between flexible knowledge integration and high-tech new ventureperformance.(5) Selecting and synchronizing play meditating roles in the relationshipbetween efficient knowledge integration and high-tech new venture performance.This paper is aimed at providing deep insights into how new ventures integratedisperse entrepreneurial knowledge to improve their performance. It contributes to thetheory in three folds: First, drawn on extant theoretical research and case study, thisresearch breakthrough the extant research paradigm of knowledge integration throughexploring entrepreneurial knowledge integration from three key dimensions oforganization design including strategy, culture and institution. Efficient knowledgeintegration and flexible knowedge integration are clarified and their measures aredeveloped. This research helps open the black box of new venture knowledgeintegration and fill the gap of extant research. Although both knowledge-based theory and entrepreneurial research argue that knowledge integration plays a critical role innew venture survival and development, few scholars provide systematic explanationsfor how new ventures use organizing principles to integrate entrepreneurialknowledge integration. This paper provides explanations for the sources of newventures’competitive advantages from the perspective of knowledge integration andorganizational ambidexterity and facilitates the integration between knowledge-basedtheory and entrepreneurship research.Second, drawn on the perspective of knowledge integration, this paper exploresentrepreneurial capability building in high-tech new ventures. Entrepreneurialcapability has drawn increasing attention form scholars in entrepreneurial researchrecently.These scholars widely accept that entrepreneurial capability is a determinantto explain entrepreneurial behavior. However, few scholars have exploredentrepreneurial capability building in high-tech new ventures and relevant empiricalstudies are even less. Drawn on extant research and case study, this paper enriches thedefinition and dimensions of entrepreneurial capability proposed by Professor Zahrain2011. The theoretical logics of exploration and exploitation reflected by differentdimensions of entrepreneurial capability are also discussed. In so doing, this paperexplores and examines the relationships between different types of entrepreneurialknowledge integration and each dimension of entrepreneurial capability. This researchhelps enrich and extend the theoretical development of entrepreneurial capabilityresearch and contributes to the contextualized research on entrepreneurial capability.Third, this paper explores the influence mechanism of entrepreneurial knowledgeintegration on high-tech new venture performance from the perspective ofentrepreneurial capability. It helps fill the gap of extant research on the influencemechanism of knowledge integration in new ventures. Although knowledgeintegration has a positive effect on new venture performance according to knowledge-based theory, scholars have paid little attention to the internal influencemechanism. Particularly for high-tech new ventures in competitive environments,entrepreneurial capability created by entrepreneurial knowledge integration is thedeterminant to create and sustain competitive advantages. This paper explores theinfluence mechanisms of different types of entrepreneurial knowledge integrationmediated by different dimensions of entrepreneurial capability, which helps explainthe internal process through which entrepreneurial knowledge integration contributesto high-tech new venture performance in a transitional economy.The structure of this paper is organized as follows：in the first section, theresearch background, the implications, the content and the methods of this paper areproposed; Next, in the second section, the theoretical foundation like the theories oforganizational learning, knowledge management, dynamic capability and relatedliterature are reviewed. In the third section, based on extant theories and case studiesof high-tech new ventures, this research proposes the definition of entrepreneurialknowledge integration and entrepreneurial capability. Thus, the research model isbuilt to reveal the influence mechanism of efficient and flexible knowledgeintegration on high-tech new venture performance. In the fourth section, this paperexplores the effects of efficient and flexible entrepreneurial knowledge integration onhigh-tech new venture performance and entrepreneurial capability. Then, themediating role of each dimension of entrepreneurial capability in the relationshipbetween different types of entrepreneurial knowledge integration and high-tech newventure performance is discussed in a transitional economy. Finally，the hypothesesare proposed in this section. In the fifth section, an emprical study to examine thehypotheses is introduced in terms of research design, variable measures，analysismethods and empirical analysis results. In the sixth section, based on empirical results,this paper discusses the relationship among entrepreneurial knowledge integration, entrepreneurial capability and high-tech new venture performance and alsomanagerial implications for high-tech new ventures in a transition economy. In theseventh section, this paper proposes the conclusions, contributions, limitations andfuture research directions.