Entrepreneurial Orientation and Growth of SMEs: A Causal Model
研究了434家中小企业的创业导向与增长之间的关系，使用偏最小二乘法分析多个变量间的复杂关系，发现创业导向、战略、环境、资源和增长之间存在复杂关联。
The literature existing on entrepreneurship implicitly assumes that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and growth orientation are positively related with each other. However, few studies, whether theoretical or empirical, analyze such relation in an explicit manner. Instead, most previous works have focused on the EO–performance relation, even though growth and profitability do not always correlate positively. This work has been carried out on a sample of 434 SMEs, and contributes two novelties with regard to previous research: (1) the analysis focuses on the EO–growth relation; and (2) it uses a flexible method (Partial Least Squares) which allows the study of several simultaneous relationships. The results reveal the complexity of the relationships between EO, strategy, environment, resources and growth.