Empirical Research On The Relationships Between Ultimate Controllers Characteristics,Entrepreneurial Orientation And Firm Performance

In economic transformation stage,the main driving forces that supporting national economy have been shifted from investment to innovation,from demand front to supply front.It's the right time to put forward the slogan mass entrepreneurship and innovation,entrepreneurial orientation and product innovation arouse hot discussion.As for enterprises,on one hand,they need to deeply identify unique antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation in Chinese context;on the other hand,they need to verify the role of product innovation in the whole process from entrepreneurial orientation to firm operating performance.What's more,in order to maintain superior firm performance,they need to investigate the dymanic adjustments of entrepreneurial orientation in different development stages.Therefore,under Chinese backgroud that charaterized by concentrated ownership and universal single dominant ultimate controller,it is of great importance to examine how ultimate controllers' characteriztics affect entrepreneurial orientation.In addition,in process that transform entrepreneurial orientation to superior operating performance,firms need a serises of middle links.However,previous studies ignore potential role of firms' product innovation processes characteristics.At last,in terms of entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance relationship,most literatures are based static perspective and there is a lack of researches to investigate dynamic relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance.Based on institutional theory,agency theory,resource-based theory and contingency theory,this paper investigates the relationships between ultimate controllers' characteristics,entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance from antecedents and consequences levels.Based on literature review,this study introduces theories firstly,then defines key concepts,including characteristics of ultimate controller,entrepreneurial orientation,product quality and firm performance.Then this paper presents a series of hypothses on relationship between ultimate controllers' characteristics(nature of ownership and separation of two rights)and entrepreneurial orientation(whole strength and preference),empirical relationship of entrepreneurial orientation,product quality and firmoperating performance.At last,basing on firms' evolutionary paths of proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness,thia paper investiges dynamic relationships between entrepreneurial orientation firm performance.Hierarchical regressions and case studies are used to conduct empirical analysis.Using data from firms of Growth Enterprise Market,this study conducts hierarchical regression to examines hypothses about relationships between ultimate controllers' characteristics and entrepreneurial orientation.Collecting data from firms' questionaire,this study conducts hierarchical regerssion to verify hypothses about entrepreneurial orientation,product quality and firm operating performance.At last,this study conducts descriptive case study to verify new venture and large firms' evolutionary paths and their dynamic relationships with firm performance.The empirical results reveal that(1)comparing with non-stated owned firms and firms with separation of two rights,firms that ultimately controlled by stated-owned firms and firms with no separation of two rights have lower whole entrepreneurial orientation strength;comparing with non-stated owned firms and firms with no separation of two rights,firms that ultimately controlled by state-owned firms and firms with separation of two rights have strong asset aggressive entrepreneurial orientation preferences;(2)entrepreneurial orientation dimensions have various relationship with firm operating performance and product quality;product quality has partial mediating effects on relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm operating performance.(3)General evolutionary paths on combinations of proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness reflect firms' development dilemma in different stages,they are presented by new venture Cheetah and large firm Haier cases.Cheetah's general path is high proactiveness and low competitive aggressiveness-high proactivenes and high competitive aggressiveness-low proactiveness and high competitive aggressiveness,this path captures the process from gaining foothold to rapid growth;however Haier's general path is low proactiveness and high competitive aggressiveness-high proactiveness and high competitive aggressiveness-high proactiveness and low competitive aggressiveness,this path captures the process from focusing on mainstream business to discovering future growth points.Inter-differences of firms' evolutionary paths reflect various ways to solve keyproblems and are presented by volatile evolution directions in high proactiveness and high competitive aggressiveness stage.Unlike Cheetah,Linekong reflects the volatility of the process from gaining foothold to fast growth,Unlike Haier,WanJiaLe reflects the uncertainty of the process from focusing on mainstream business to explore potential future growth opportunities.(4)The relationship between combinations of proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness and firm performance is strongly dynamic and volatile.This dynamic link means that based on combinations of proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness on general evolutionary path,firms can maintain superior firm performance.However,the volatile relationship means even firms choose the same combinations of proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness dimensions may lead to different firm performance trends.To sum up,on theoretical level this paper enriches entrepreneurial orientation research and expands researching thoughts and directions,also on practical level,it provides government regulators and corporate managers with managerial implications.