Entrepreneurial Orientation, Distinctive Marketing Competencies

¶ … Entrepreneurial Orientation, Distinctive Marketing Competencies and Organizational Performance" by Smart and Conant (2011) examines the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). This was doen by means of a survey instrument created for the purpose and including 599 independent businesspeople. The results of the multi-item scale, which is based on an integrative definition of entrepreneurship, were compared with high, medium and low EO in terms of marketing competence and organizational performance measures. It was found that EO is positively related to marketing competencies and organizational performance. Demographic profiles offered additional insight.

Before the practical application of the survey instrument, a brief review of the literature is offered, of which one of the purposes is to propose a synthesized definition of entrepreneurship. For all its brevity the literature survey provides a thorough investigation of the concept "entrepreneurship" and its evolution over time. The end of this section proposes what the authors refer to as a "guiding definition" for entrepreneurship, in recognition that no current definition is in place and that any specific new definition would likely fall short of longevity requirements in the business world. As such, the definition offered holds entrepreneurship as a dynamic and goal-oriented process. In this process, the individual uses creative thinking and combines its various aspects to reveal needs and new opportunities within the market place. This is combined with an ability to manage and secure resources while adapting to the environment. The purpose of such action is to arrive at a desired result while also assuming some measure of future risk. After this definition is offered, the authors embark on a thorough discussion of marketing and entrepreneurship, as well as how these combine with organizational performance.

The methodology section follows, providing a description of the specific survey instrument as applied to a total of 1459 independently owned apparel specialty retailers. The retailers were chosen for their relative homogeneity to enhance the reliability and validity of the instrument results. Initial contact was made by means of a three-wave mailing. The first wave included the questionnaire and cover letter, the second a reminder postcard and thank-you, while the third mailing only included those recipients who had not responded.

To interpret the results, Entrepreneurial Orientation was measured according to a six-item scale. These included: the propensity to take risks; tendency towards strategic planning; ability to keep contact with customers, identifying their needs and wants; innovation level, perseverance; and the ability to identify new opportunities. Marketing competencies were measured according to a 20-item scale.

Content validity was determined by means of a pretest for the survey. This included five independent apparel retailers not used as part of the sample. During the pretest, participants evaluated the questionnaire, including wording, general flow and structure, as well as its comprehensiveness. Suggestions were obtained and incorporated before mailing the final version to study sampling participants.

Nonresponse bias was tested by means of a telephone survey including 50 randomly selected nonrespondents. Independent t-tests comparing the results with those for respondents showed no significant difference, indicating negligible to no nonresponse bias.