Research On The Relationship Between Dual Stategic Orientation And The Performance Of New Ventures From Embedded Perspective

With the continuous advancement of global economic integration and the beginning of a new round of technological revolution,China has also ushered in the fourth wave of entrepreneurship and entered the era of entrepreneurship led by full-scale innovation.There are infinite unknowns and possibilities both in the external environment and the changing era that enterprises are facing.The following issues are worthy of exploring for domestic academia and industry: How can entrepreneurs dynamically adjust their strategic orientation in the response to the complicated and volatile situation and seize the opportunity? How can these start-ups solve their strategic problems to meet these challenges and promote their rapid growth? How can the government create a good internal and external development environment and build a new ecology of entrepreneurship system for the numerous start-ups,especially these technology-based small and medium-sized entrepreneurs(SMEs)?Currently,it has become a new trend for domestic scholars to study how strategic orientation can improve business performance to gain competitive advantages from the perspective of network embeddedness.However,on the one hand,there are disputes about the previous researches.On the other hand,similar studies are way too much in a fully-developed market economy environment,while the researches on the start-ups in the specific Chinese environment are relatively limited.Accordingly,a new research framework of “strategy-embeddedness-performance” with the focus on research question is put forward in the dissertation,that is,how entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation(dual strategic orientations)forms the dynamic mechanism for new venture performance through both relational embeddedness and structural embeddedness(network embeddedness).And the practical application of the research framework is then discussed.Firstly,the research gap derives from theoretical development and practical needs.On the basis of systematical review of the research results at home and abroad,the dissertation emphasizes on introducing Social Network Theory,Strategic Management Theory and Entrepreneurial Management Theory,defines the related concepts as Entrepreneurship Orientation,Marketing Orientation,Relational Embedddeness,Structural Embeddedness,Business Performance and New Venture Performance and puts forward the research question,all of which clarifies the boundaries and lays the foundations for the subsequent model construction and the research design.Secondly,research design,model construction and method description are conducted based on the research question.The research question is further divided into three sub-questions and three corresponding sub-researches: Sub-question 1,the general mechanism question: whether dual strategic orientations through network embeddedness can have an effect on business performance? Sub-question 2,the special mechanism question: how can dual strategic orientations exert effect on the performance of the start-ups through mediation mechanism of network embeddedness in a specific situation?Sub-question 3,the evolution mechanism question: how to form a dynamic match between dual strategic orientations and the periodical characteristics of network embeddedness at different development stages to impact on new venture performance? Based on previous research findings and logical deductions,32 theoretical hypotheses are proposed and 2theoretical models are constructed,“Dual Strategic Orientations-Network Embeddedness-Business Performance” as Model ? and “Dual Strategic Orientations-Network Embeddedness-New Venture Performance” as Model?.Then the logical relationship between the two models and the basis of selection method are explicated.Finally,models are constructed with the method of Structural Equational Modeling.Thirdly,on the basis of the research design,the empirical research is conducted on Model ? and Model ? with Meta-SEM method and PLS method.Sub-study 1,a comprehensive analysis of the empirical research findings of 121 literatures,is carried out with the Meta-SEM method,which supports the 12 theoretical hypotheses of Model?,revealing the effects of the synergistic symbiosis between Entrepreneuriship Orientation and Marketing Orientation on Business Performance and verifying the mediating role of Relational Embeddedness and Structural Embeddedness.Sub-study 2,the empirical study of the 231 sample data of domestic technology-based start-ups from the questionnaires is conducted.It is found that 8 of the 12 theoretical hypotheses are supported.Model ? is validated after modification,revealing the special mechanism of the impact of the two different mediation paths—Entrepreneurship Orientation through Structural Embeddedness and Marketing Orientation through Relational Embeddedness on New Venture Performance under the boundary condition of domestic technology-based SMEs.Sub-study 3 carries out the multi-group analysis on the modified Model ?,which supports 4 of the 8 theoretical hypotheses.On the in-depth insights into the characteristics of variables and periodical changes of variables' relationship,it is found that there is an“internal connection” between strategic orientations at different stages and the changes of embedded network characteristics.And the dynamic process of the internal connection of such a “coupling effect” on improving New Venture Performance reveals the micro-evolutionary mechanism of the dual strategic orientations' effect on New Venture Performance by taking Network Embeddedness as the mediation.Finally,it analyzes the research results and puts forward some inspirations for management.The analysis of the research is composed of two parts: one is the analysis of the research results of Model?and Model?,and the other is the comparative analysis.One the one hand,the similarities and differences between Model ? and Model ? are conducted.On the other hand,the changing characteristics of Model ? at different development stages of the start-ups are compared from generality to specialty,revealing the “black box” of how strategic orientations exert effect on New Venture Performance through Network Embeddedness from the overall view of static state and dynamic state.On the basis of the analysis results,it puts forward management inspirations from different levels,which can provide practical guidance for the strategic choice of start-ups,the decision-making of entrepreneurs and the policy-making of the government,and the solutions for the development of technology-based SMEs of our country with “Chinese wisdom”.