| The relationship between human society and natural environment has long been the central theme of human inquiry. Nowadays, as the fossil energy is going to be exhausted, and the accompanying problems such as climate change and ecological degradation are gradually occupying headlines, the effort of finding realiable alternative energy has been the focus of human endeavor, particularly entrepreneurial pursuits. The aim of entrepreneurial activities of alternative energy companies are to provide the society with clean energy and reduce the greenhouse gas emission, by doing so the companies get their financial returns simultaneously. Compared with traditional entrepreneurship, the new energy entrepreneurship has its distinguishing features, which entitled it a special theoretical focus. The characteristics of new energy entrepreneurship can be attributed to two dimensions, the first is its aim of promoting sustainable development, the second is its nature of being an emerging industry. In this study we adopted a behavioral perspective, focusing on the visionary sensemaking processes in the depiction of organizational action model, reconciled the evolutionary view of entrepreneurial opportunity and a multilevel cognitive perspective. As such it represents the first step towards a comprehensive model of green entrepreneurial orientation and organizational action model. This disseratation is comprised with a theoretical review and four empirical researches, collectively it tries to answer three related questions:(1) what is the characteristics of new energy entrepreneurship? (2) What are the dimensions of the cognitive framework used as the underpinning guideline behind the opportunity recognition in new energy entrepreneurship? (3) What are the features of organizational action that directly contributes to the sustainable performance of new energy entrepreneurship? To tackle these questions, we constructed three core concepts:change characteristics, green entrepreneurial orientation, and organizational initiative, which are measured and analyzed using various methods and analytical techniques. In sum, this dissertation revealed the very importance of green entrepreneurial orientation and green vision and related collective sensemaking dynamics. Due to its focus on an emerging industiy that no previous study has systematically discussed, we conducted a multiple case study as the first step of our theoretical exploration. We collected data from 14 companies using semi-structured interview, with 4 among them discussed in detail. The industries include lead-acid battery, wind turbine, photovoltaic, and LED green lighting. The results show that new energy industries have three characteristics, namely risky innovation, culture diversity, and network interaction. The dimension risky innovation is due to the technological complexity, lack of dominant design and fierce competition over core patents among strong players in this emerging industry; culture diversity is derived from the very diverse viewpoints and environmental ethical standpoints that are brought into this industry by various kinds of stakeholders involved; and network interaction is due to the undifferentiated product and utility provided by the industry, and the macro nature of the problem that industry is going to tackle, which is well beyond the capability of any single company. Hence the companies have to use a comprehensive green entrepreneurial orientation to guide their activities, the four types of which are environmental orientation, social orientation, opportunity orientation and profitability orientation. The consequent organizational action model has three dimensions, namely collective sensemaking, used to integrate different orientations and construct a climate of creative sharing among key partners and visionary pursuing channeled towards a shared vision. The entrepreneurial vision is thus the key of guiding the organization to pursue its entrepreneurial opportunity and overcome obstacles.The second study is comprised with three studies. First we conducted a focus group discussion in order to validate the construct of green entrepreneurial orientation. The subjects were 51 executives with entrepreneurial experiences, and the topic and materials were based on the our case studies. The results of content analysis supported the construct validity of green entrepreneurial orientation, also enabled us to further differentiate two logics based on competitive advantage and environmental responsibilities respectively. The second study were participated by 124 MBA students to develop a scale that measure green entrepreneurial orientation. The exploratory factor analysis supported the dimensionality of the construct. In the third study we used 147 executives to develop a situational judgment test that measures green entrepreneurial orientation. Collectively these three studies laid firm foundation for further inquiries.In the third study we adopted a cross-sectional design using simulated tasks and questionnaires. First we used 146 MBA and EMBA students to discuss the relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation, action decision making and action strategy choices and design. The results showed that green entrepreneurial orientation and action decision making influenced strategy choice, and action decision making was well reflected in the strategy design. Secondly a questionnaire was developed based on previous results, and 360 responses were collected among 120 companies, with 3 responses from each company. The results of structure equation models and hierarchical regressions supported the hypotheses of this study, and also lend preliminary supports toward the congruence validity of formative SJT measurement and item based reflective measurement of green entrepreneurial orientation.The final study used 258 MBA students as subjects, employed a group discussion based role playing design, representing a multi-round organizational simulation. We developed a special experimental system with an information board to record the process of information scanning, which is a direct proxy of information processing of the subjects. Also embedded in the system is a chatroom that recorded the process of group interaction. We conducted content analysis with the discussion records to delineate two typical interaction modes, representing high and low level of organizational initiative. The regression results showed that, green entrepreneurial orientation and information processing strategy both influenced the entrepreneurial persistence, and also there exists strong interaction effects among the dimensions. The analysis in the group level revealed that culture diversity negatively influenced the entrepreneurial persistence, and the organizational action model showed a longitudinal progressive pattern, in which the creative sharing played a more significant role in the second stage, and visionary pursuing showed much greater influence over entrepreneurial persistence in the third stage, which again confirmed the central role of entrepreneurial vision and related sensemaking dynamics.Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these results. In conclusion, in the rich context of new energy entrepreneurship, which requires an integration among different value orientations and long-term persistence, the right configuration of green entrepreneurial orientation is crucial to get the right results, and organizational initiative that influenced by green entrepreneurial orientation is the core that influence the organizational action, which directly contribute to the sustainable performance. |
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