Title: Entrepreneurial orientation, strategic planning and firm performance: the impact of national cultures

Authors: J.P. Coen Rigtering; Fabian Eggers; Sascha Kraus; Man-Ling Chang

Addresses: Utrecht University School of Economics, Utrecht University, Kriekenpitplein 21-22, 3584 EC Utrecht, The Netherlands ' Department of Marketing, Menlo College, 1000 El Camino Real, Atherton, CA 94027, USA ' Institute for Entrepreneurship, University of Liechtenstein, Fürst-Franz-Josef-Strasse, 9490 Vaduz, Principality of Liechtenstein ' Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Asia University, No. 500, Lioufeng Rd., Wufeng, Taichung 41354, Taiwan

Abstract: How can firms achieve high performance in different cultural settings? We use a contingency perspective to explore how configurations of entrepreneurial orientation and strategic planning lead to high firm performance and contrast these results between cultural contexts. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is used as a statistical technique that can detect combinations of independent variables that lead to similar outcomes. The results derived from a data set of 2506 firms from seven countries show that a combination of innovativeness and strategic planning activities leads to high performance regardless of cultural context. A strong orientation towards specialised and innovative offerings therefore needs to be combined with strategic planning activities. The impact of proactiveness varies across cultural contexts and leads to high performance when combined with strategic planning in high uncertainty avoidance and long-term oriented cultural contexts that favour the development of bureaucratic structures.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation; national culture; strategic planning; firm performance; fsQCA; corporate entrepreneurship; culture; firm size; proactiveness; innovativeness; risk-taking.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2017.083872

European Journal of International Management, 2017 Vol.11 No.3, pp.301 - 324

Received: 08 Jan 2016
Accepted: 15 Aug 2016

Published online: 25 Apr 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article