TY - JOUR
T1 - Achievement Motivation, Strategic Orientations, and Business Performance in Entrepreneurial Firms: How Different are Japanese and Americans Founders?
AU - Deshpande, R.
AU - Grinstein, A.
AU - Sang-Hoon, K.
AU - Ofek, E.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Purpose: There is a lack of research on the link between the personal disposition of an entrepreneurial firm's founder, the firm's strategic orientation and its performance outcomes. Also, there is a lack of cross-national research on entrepreneurial firms' strategic orientations. This paper seeks to address these gaps by exploring the differences in strategic orientation choices and their performance outcomes for American and Japanese entrepreneurial firms, focusing on founders' achievement motivation as a key personal disposition. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted among 397 Japanese founders and 189 American ones. Findings: This paper's key counterintuitive finding is that Japanese and American founders of entrepreneurial firms are more similar than is often suggested. The paper first finds that in both Japan and the US, achievement motivation is positively related to customer orientation and cost orientation while not being related to technological orientation. Second, it is found that the adoption of customer orientation is positively related to the profitability of both Japanese and American entrepreneurial firms, although the effect is stronger in the US. It is also found that the adoption of technology orientation is negatively related to the profitability of both Japanese and American firms, although the effect is less negative in Japan. Finally, it is found that the adoption of cost orientation does not have an impact on the profitability of either Japanese or American entrepreneurial firms. Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to examine how founders of entrepreneurial firms use their personal disposition to shape the strategic orientation of their firm. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
AB - Purpose: There is a lack of research on the link between the personal disposition of an entrepreneurial firm's founder, the firm's strategic orientation and its performance outcomes. Also, there is a lack of cross-national research on entrepreneurial firms' strategic orientations. This paper seeks to address these gaps by exploring the differences in strategic orientation choices and their performance outcomes for American and Japanese entrepreneurial firms, focusing on founders' achievement motivation as a key personal disposition. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted among 397 Japanese founders and 189 American ones. Findings: This paper's key counterintuitive finding is that Japanese and American founders of entrepreneurial firms are more similar than is often suggested. The paper first finds that in both Japan and the US, achievement motivation is positively related to customer orientation and cost orientation while not being related to technological orientation. Second, it is found that the adoption of customer orientation is positively related to the profitability of both Japanese and American entrepreneurial firms, although the effect is stronger in the US. It is also found that the adoption of technology orientation is negatively related to the profitability of both Japanese and American firms, although the effect is less negative in Japan. Finally, it is found that the adoption of cost orientation does not have an impact on the profitability of either Japanese or American entrepreneurial firms. Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to examine how founders of entrepreneurial firms use their personal disposition to shape the strategic orientation of their firm. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
U2 - 10.1108/02651331311321981
DO - 10.1108/02651331311321981
M3 - Article
SN - 0265-1335
VL - 30
SP - 231
EP - 252
JO - International Marketing Review
JF - International Marketing Review
IS - 3
ER -