The Influence of Entrepreneurial and Market Orientation on the Degree of Innovation and Success of New Ventures in Technology-Oriented Industries

Kurztext / Annotation
The wireless communications industry has seen major challenges in the past years. The introduction of new services based on emergent technologies was meant to be the driving force into future growth. But what does it take to introduce a successful new service that gains the acceptance of the customer? To elaborate on this, one must take a look at new ventures since innovation in the wireless industry is driven by these numerous small, young companies.

This study investigates the impact of entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and the degree of innovation on the success of these new ventures. A structured large-scale research project was set up to identify all relevant companies in Europe and Israel. A total of 1,510 companies were contacted, from which 282 useable responses could be collected, representing a response rate as high as 18.16%. Linear structural relationship modeling was used to analyze the data.

It can be said that new ventures can benefit from an entrepreneurial stance that emphasizes the development of new technological solutions. It is critical that these new developments do not require a shift in customer behavior or planning. To translate a proactive, innovative, and risk-embracing orientation into market success, new ideas and developments need to go through the filter of customer judgment. While customers are overemployed with the development of new solutions, they can give very valuable feedback on new ideas and developments. The belief that customers are not immediately able to see the benefits of a new development but will soon learn about it is a dangerous one.

Über den Autor:

Stefan Roskos was born in 1974 in Paderborn (Germany). He studied business administration at the universities of Paderborn, St. Gallen (Switzerland), Stockholm (Sweden), and Denpasar (Indonesia), with a focus on marketing, and holds a degree as Diplom-Kaufmann. In 2004, the author received a Dr. rer. pol. Degree from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel (Germany), KfW Endowed Chair for Entrepreneurship (Prof. Dr. Heinz Klandt). His research interests cover new ventures, market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and innovation topics. Since 2000, the author has been working as a management consultant with Accenture. He consults for global clients in the communications and high-tech industries in questions of marketing and sales strategy.

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4 Data Collection Method, Process, and Results (p. 85-86)

Any data collection through a survey is subject to at least four types of possible errors (Dillman and Bowker 2001 p. 160):

- Coverage Error: The result of all units in a defined population not having a known nonzero probability of being included in the sample drawn to represent the population.

- Sampling Error: The result of surveying a sample of the population rather than the entire population.

- Measurement Error: The result of inaccurate responses that stem from poor question wording, poor interviewing, survey mode effects, and/or some aspect of the respondents' behavior.

- Nonresponse Error: The result of nonresponse from people in the sample, who, if they had responded, would have provided different answers to the survey questions than those who did respond to the survey.

This chapter describes in detail the surveying process and instruments and addresses the coverage and sampling error in the first subchapter (4.1). The measurement error is addressed in subchapter 4.2 as well as in the measure sections of the corresponding chapters (e.g. the market orientation measures in Chapter 9), the nonresponse error in the fourth subchapter (4.4).

4.1 Identification of the Population

The approach used in this study is to try to cover the full population and carry out a census rather than a sample survey. If one does so, the sampling error and coverage error are equal, or in other words, sampling error is non-existent. Therefore, the efforts are concentrated on reducing the coverage error. Many authors (Dillman and Bowker 2001; Ilieva et al. 2002; Best et al. 2001; Hauptmanns and Lander 2001; Witte et al. have pointed at the coverage error as a major obstacle in Internet-based surveys due to the technological entry barriers of those members of the population who do not have access to the Internet or are not technological savvy enough to use web-based surveys. Another common objection to Internet research is the absence of comprehensive directories for the population. The targeted population as described below can be assumed to have Internet access as well as sufficient technological knowledge as the members of the population are themselves involved in the development of wireless Internet applications or are involved with it in another capacity on an everyday basis. Furthermore, the composition of a defined population is evidence of the attempt to overcome the problem of incomplete directories.

4.1.1 Development of Selection Criteria

Research in entrepreneurial firms poses a challenge to conventional statistical techniques that do not adequately describe the stochastic processes of entrepreneurs' firms and their environments (Alonso 1991). Industry-specific studies are a way to alleviate the bias and prevent inconsistent findings (Schwartz and Tech 2000 p. 77). The concepts of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation are regarded as contextspecific in their relationship with performance. A single industry study is expected to homogenize context-specific variables, such as environmental influences.

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