opportunity exploitation
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Purpose The study aims to investigate the extent to which interfunctional coordination (IFC) moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO), market orientation (MO) and organisational opportunity exploitation (OE) and business performance (BP); second, to examine the impact of EO, MO and organisational OE on the BP. Design/methodology/approach The study used a cross-sectional design approach, with the research framework tested on a sample of 203 cases of employees mostly at skilled, professional and management levels in Gauteng Province. Data was analysed through correlation, regression and moderation analysis. Findings The results indicated that EO, MO and OE account for BP. Furthermore, IFC significantly moderates only the relationship between MO and BP (financial) and OE and BP (non-financial). While the relationship between EO and BP is not significantly moderated. Practical implications The study highlights that IFC is not yet embedded in organisational practice and culture. Scaling interventions to promote IFC as a performance enabler, particularly in conjunction with the entrepreneurial, market-oriented and OE activities, is essential in the South African corporate entrepreneurial environment. Originality/value Although EO, MO and OE are widely recognised as performance enablers, very little is known about the potential moderating role of IFC towards these identified complementary strategic capabilities within the South African corporate context. The empirical research strengthens awareness about the need and criticality of IFC in improving organisational performance in emerging economies.

This study aligns with the objectives of this volume, presenting cases reflecting social entrepreneurs' lived experiences, seeking understanding, and conveying learning from practitioners and their emergent approaches embedded in contextual realities. Adopting an interpretative approach, this chapter presents First Fruit Group (FFG) as an illustrative case derived from a broader study – highlighting various dimensions of entrepreneurial parenting identified as core elements in the nurturing process at FFG and manifested in the relationship between social entrepreneur and mentee. Evidently fundamental for FFG's growth, it extended strategic vision and raison d'être continuity in leadership succession, motivating new opportunity exploitation and sustaining the group's enterprising expansion.

A given business or market environment and corporate responsibilities always offers opportunities that have a direct impact on the sustainable business performance. Several scholars have researched on how to take advantage of these opportunities in creating sustainable business performance.  This study analyzes determinants of the exploration, business opportunity exploitation, corporate social responsibilities (CSR) and sustainable business performance of manufacturing industry based in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. The data was collected by questionnaires. This study applying the Structural Equation Model (SEM) results, the author finds strong evidence of opportunity exploration, opportunity exploitation and CSR have positive impact with sustainable business performance. This study provides the guidelines to the regulators while developing the policies related to the opportunity exploration, and CSR that enhance the sustainable business performance.

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to establish the need to study the shame-proneness trait of entrepreneurs – what is it and why is it important to study.Design/methodology/approachIn this conceptual paper, the authors argue that shame-proneness is an important understudied trait of entrepreneurs and put up a case for further research. The authors argue that shame-proneness moderates the effect of social acceptability on opportunity exploitation decisions. The authors also argue that productive entrepreneurship can be promoted and unproductive entrepreneurship can be prevented through policy intervention, and the level of intervention can be determined by knowing the shame-proneness level of entrepreneurs.FindingsThe key argument is the following: an entrepreneur is homo economicus and homo sociologicus, i.e. she is driven both by rational economic value consideration and by the prevalent social norms, which influence opportunity exploitation decisions. Since shame enforces compliance with social norms, it is vital to study entrepreneurs' shame-proneness to understand entrepreneurial founding across different regions. Knowing the level of shame-proneness of entrepreneurs in a given region would help the government devise effective interventions to promote productive entrepreneurship and deter unproductive or destructive entrepreneurship.Originality/valueThis paper is an original creation of the authors.

PurposeMost studies investigating the adoption of lean startup (LS) practices by technology new ventures focus on software startups in mature entrepreneurial ecosystems and disregard their applicability for opportunity exploitation in other technological backgrounds. This study contributes to this research stream by exploring how Brazilian technology new ventures (in different technological fields) tentatively adopt LS to exploit opportunities and whether LS is suitable to their emerging economy context.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt an exploratory multiple-case study based on qualitative data collection and analysis of nine Brazilian biotechnology, engineering and software startups.FindingsThe study shows how technology new ventures tackle the activities of opportunity exploitation – namely, developing a product or service, acquiring human resources, gathering financial resources and setting up the organization – by leveraging LS tools and practices for business model validation; also, it identifies six contextual constraints hindering the systematic adoption of LS and reveals how technology new ventures cope with such constraints in their early stages by integrating LS with complementary strategies and practices. Furthermore, the study reveals that the systematic and comprehensive adoption of LS nurtures the development of an entrepreneurial experimental capability to explore opportunities in a quasi-scientific and hypothesis-driven fashion.Originality/valueThe study investigates how Brazilian engineering, biotechnology and software startups exploit opportunities and overcome constraints to business model validation through the combined adoption of LS and complementary strategies and practices and provides a set of propositions to guide future research.

Current dynamics of business environment and challenges that businesses are facing force firms to reorganize resources for becoming more effective at opportunity identification and exploitation. However, exploitation of new opportunities is often challenged by competency gap at the firm level. Often current level of competence of the firm does not meet the requirements coming with the new opportunities. In the literature on management science, learning is perceived as one of the greatest contributors in smooth and directed resource reconfiguration process. The outcome of learning is often linked to new knowledge and competencies that allow successful exploitation of identified opportunities within an external and internal business environment. Therefore, this paper aims to propose hypothetical model on how the successful implementation of new business opportunities is linked to multiple-loop organizational learning and closing of the competence gap of the firm. The aim is achieved by synergizing extant literature in the fields of dynamic capabilities, entrepreneurship and organizational learning. Critical analysis of relevant research leads to the development of a conceptual model explaining the process of how the firm is able to close the competence gap and assure successful opportunity exploitation within the firm. This results in the formation of the research questions for future empirical research. The study adds value to the existing literature by identifying the learning process that stimulates successful opportunity exploitation, drawing on the multiple-loop learning perspective, and applying dynamic capabilities framework.