Research on entrepreneurial orientation: current status and future agenda

Abstract

Purpose – Research on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has attracted researchers’ attention for over 30 years. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively analyze the body of literature resulting from 30 years of research in EO, and to answer the following questions: what are the major themes that have emerged? What areas are missing? What degree of convergence do we see in the field of EO, and what concepts/topics has the field converged around? Design/methodology/approach – A bibliometric study with a sample of 405 articles published from January 1987 to July 2014 was developed. Techniques of bibliometric, lexical, and content analysis were used. The analysis involved: the evolution of published articles; the main authors, their nationalities, and institutional affiliations; citation and co-citations analysis; the journals that have published the most articles; and the most frequently-searched topics. Opting for bibliometric techniques permit an analysis of a larger number of articles and a greater variety of articles than other methodologies such as meta-analyses and systematic review studies. Accordingly, a more comprehensive look at the field of EO can be taken. Findings – Two distinct but complementary classifications are proposed to characterize the body of the literature resulting from 30 years of research in EO. The first one demonstrates that the field presents a convergence of the themes in four axis which together comprise studies on EO: performance, strategy, entrepreneurial attitude, and management. The second one presents the frequency of occurrence of the themes in the field: high-frequency themes or classical themes, frequently in the literature; moderate-frequency themes or emerging issues have not been sufficiently explored; low-frequency themes or potential opportunities related to understudied issues and contexts less frequently surveyed. A future research agenda is proposed for emerging themes and specific contexts. Practical implications – The identification of key themes in the field of EO contributes to assess the research evolution in order to recognize emerging themes and contexts, and the research gaps. With this, it is possible to lead new studies to cover a lack of research and advance knowledge in the field. The themes most studied also show the contribution for EO to organizational practice, especially in relation to the impact on the performance, the stimulus to the development of innovations, and the effects on organizational growth. Additionally, the identification of the authors most cited, most productive on the theme and the identification of the core journals for publishing of the area is recommended as a general reference for researchers interested in the topic of EO. Social implications – Although EO literature has been widely developed in Anglo regions (especially in the USA and UK) and Germanic Europe (especially Spain), there are others lacking these studies, especially Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and Middle East, with rare articles published internationally. The results can guide the advancement of research in these different contexts and realities where even issues more widely treated in the literature have been unexplored. The lack of studies in certain contexts can lead to new studies for inserting new insights into EO, such as potential differences between developed regions and in development. For regions where the studies on EO are more developed, the results of this paper contribute to signaling issues and contexts little explored that may be the focus of attention. Originality/value – The generation of literature indicators of EO through bibliometric fills a research gap on the theme, providing a more comprehensive view of the field and of the current status of the research on EO. Identifying the most frequent topics in EO literature, and little-explored themes and contexts makes it possible to propose an agenda for future research and knowledge generation on EO. Thus, it is suggested the development of studies focus on emerging themes like growth, learning, knowledge, resources, and capabilities; also in specific contexts with potential for aggregating new knowledges in the EO field such as family firms, non-profit organizations, social contexts, the public sector, university, spin-off, firms in emerging and developing economies.

Linking Two Worlds? Entrepreneurial Orientation in Public Enterprises: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

“…This is quite similar to the increasing number of publications in the field of entrepreneurial orientation in general, which began in the 1980s and has continued to grow, especially in the last 15 years (Martens et al. ).…”

“…, ; Martens et al. ), which has led to a bias in the literature toward those so‐called classic enterprises (Smith ). There are few systematic and high‐quality recent empirical studies on contemporary public enterprises (Bernier ; Florio ), even though they could offer a promising context in which to find and examine the emerging theme of public entrepreneurship (Luke and Verreynne ; Martens et al.…”

“…As a result, entrepreneurship is indispensable, especially since public enterprises are asked to make profits as if they operate in the private sector (Bernier 2011). Unfortunately, research on corporate entrepreneurship has primarily been conducted in the private-sector context (Kearney et al 2008(Kearney et al , 2010Martens et al 2016), which has led to a bias in the literature toward those so-called classic enterprises (Smith 2012). There are few systematic and high-quality recent empirical studies on contemporary public enterprises (Bernier 2014;Florio 2014), even though they could offer a promising context in which to find and examine the emerging theme of public entrepreneurship (Luke and Verreynne 2006a;Martens et al 2016).…”

Nonprofit entrepreneurial orientation: A systematic literature review and conceptual framework

“…We performed the systematic review using the following protocol (Linde & Willich, ): (a) define the inclusion and exclusion criteria; (b) determine the appropriate sources; (c) decide on the specific terms of research; (d) limit the sample; and (e) analyze by coding. First, we decided to include studies that have dealt with the analysis of EO in NPOs without delimitation by year, including articles published in scientific journals or books, given that EO has been little explored in the nonprofit context (Martens et al, ). The exclusion of a document followed the analysis of the theory adopted and the contribution of its results to the objective of this study.…”

“…As a phenomenon, entrepreneurship can occur in different contexts, such as startups; small‐, medium‐, and large‐scale organizations; public institutions; and NPOs (Kuratko, Morris, & Covin, ). The field of study of entrepreneurship in the nonprofit context has shown growth and relevance (Helm & Anderson, ), which motivates the development of new studies (Andersson, ; Martens, Lacerda, Belfort, & Freitas, ).…”