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Научни трудове на Съюза на учените в България-Пловдив, серия Б. Естествени и хуманитарни науки, т. XVIII, ISSN 1311-9192 (Print), ISSN 2534-9376 (On-line), 2018. Scientific researches of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria-Plovdiv, series B. Natural Sciences and the Humanities, Vol. XVIII, ISSN 1311-9192 (Print), ISSN 2534-9376 (On-line), 2018.
DEVELOPING A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF ENTREPRENEURIAL
CULTURE
Valentina Nikolova - Alexieva1, Mina Angelova2 University of food technologies1, University of Plovdiv Paisii Hilendarski2
Abstract
The significant role of entrepreneurship is an essential factor to increase the creativity and hence the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy. The development of entrepreneur spirit in the contemporary community is a leading theme that meets a great science, media and public support. This paper aims to study the organizational and entrepreneurial culture of Bulgarian companies from the food industry. Findings of this research can assist the managers in national institutions and business organizations to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of different dimensions of entrepreneurial culture which influence creativity and innovation. The empirical results support the conceptualization of entrepreneurial culture as a higher-order reflective multi-dimensional construct.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, economic growth, organizational and entrepreneurial culture
Introduction
In summary, the past examples of entrepreneurial culture's operationalization and measurement demonstrate a general inconsistency with past approaches to measuring organizational culture. This should not be considered a criticism of these articles specifically but rather, a sign that the field lacks a detailed construct that accurately and thoroughly covers the conceptual domain of entrepreneurial culture, and connects that theory with appropriate measures.
The subject of the study is the construction of entrepreneurial culture in Bulgaria. The object of the research is the Bulgarian enterprises from the food industry.
The theme significance takes a central position in discussions, researches and organizational activities connected with the process of entrepreneurial culture creating. This takes an essential role in the Bulgarian economic environment as well as the national strategies for economic growth. All statements lead to the necessity of investigating the level, factors and measurements of entrepreneurial culture connected with the separate specifications of different industries and sectors. This study is focused in two basic sectors for the Bulgarian economy - wine industry and meat manufacturing industry.
Literature review
Organizational culture is a complex and long studied field of interest in management research. With origins in anthropology and sociology, organizational culture studies in management research have adopted different research perspectives, including interpreting it as an organizational variable or a metaphor for the organization itself. The most contemporary perspective of culture views it as a dynamic construct, incorporating various research paradigms and mixed-methods of study.
Organizational culture can be seen as a socially constructed context with aspects that can be purposefully shaped to guide its evolution. Within that general framing of organizational culture,
this study adopts a Scheinian cognitive perspective on the nature and content of organizational culture. That is, organizational culture consists of shared values, beliefs, and underlying assumptions that were formed by a group through problem solving. Values, beliefs, and underlying assumptions in this context are shared cognitions that guide behaviors.
Since organizational culture is such a broad conceptual area, researchers have developed cultural subtypes to focus on specific and distinct forms of culture. These cultural subtypes can be used to describe general cultural configurations (e.g., clan, hierarchy), applied to describe specific organizations and industries (e.g., wineries, art museums), or organizational types oriented around particular outcomes (e.g., TQM, innovation supportive culture). Outcome oriented culture types consist of taking particular organizational culture elements and forming them into distinct constructs.
Entrepreneurial culture represents one of these formed cultural subtypes and is a topic that has generated much interest in the entrepreneurship field for many years. However, after reviewing the literature on entrepreneurial culture, it became apparent that there are two primary deficiencies in how the construct has been defined and measured. First, the definitions provide a colloquial and descriptive understanding of entrepreneurial culture but not a clear basis for use as a theoretical construct. As a result, it is difficult to determine if past scholars have been talking about the same entrepreneurial culture concept in both conceptual and empirical research. Second, with respect to measurement, examples of measures of entrepreneurial culture are inconsistent with each other and with extant perspectives on organizational culture. That is, the measures do not appear to be tapping the same underlying phenomena, nor are they accounting for the very important shared nature of culture.
The research seeks to remedy these issues by developing the conceptual domain of entrepreneurial culture, and describing and applying methods for measuring it that are more closely aligned with organizational culture research.
In the entrepreneurship research field when a firm is described as being "entrepreneurial" this often refers to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) or "what it means for a firm to be entrepreneurial at the most fundamental level" (Covin & Lumpkin, 2011: 861). EO is considered a strategic construct and is related to a firm's (or business unit within a firm's) strategic posture (Anderson, Covin & Slevin, 2009). EO is described as consisting "solely of sustained behavioral patterns (reflecting risk taking, innovativeness, proactiveness, autonomy, and/or competitive aggressiveness) whose presence enables entrepreneurship to be recognized as a defining attribute of the firm" (Covin & Lumpkin, 2011: 858). The relationship between EO, strategy, organizational configuration, and firm outcomes are very important features of the EO construct (Slevin & Terjersen, 2011). EO is considered a distinct theoretical construct, it is "not simply another label for a firm's entrepreneurial culture or climate" (Covin & Lumpkin, 2011:862). EO has a clear strategic orientation and its past application reflects the importance and interest in relationships between EO and outcomes such as performance and growth.
In comparison, entrepreneurial culture is meant to be about the patterns of underlying thinking (e.g., assumptions) and values that form the organization's cultural core, rather than a strategic orientation. Just as how an individual has a personality (described by trait theory as being composed of enduring traits that are stable over time) so too does an organization have a culture (Salama, 2011). Since entrepreneurial culture is a cultural construct, the conceptual theme of entrepreneurial culture is not just what an organization is trying to achieve strategically (e.g., to "behave entrepreneurially") but the entire social milieu of the organization (Schein, 1996), in the context of opportunities.
More specifically, how the organization treats its employees and external stakeholders, why it treats them this way (i.e., what are the underlying assumptions and values), and how these employees and stakeholders are socialized into this way of thinking about and doing things. Much as how a TQM culture may be focused on quality, an entrepreneurial culture would be focused on opportunities and the creation of new value.
Ultimately then, what is critical to understanding entrepreneurial culture is a focal concern with opportunities, and the culture that develops around that interest. Therefore, by adopting a definition of entrepreneurship as a process centrally concerned with opportunities (i.e., Schendel & Hitt, 2006), combined with the entity and general property information, a conceptual definition of entrepreneurial culture can be produced.
Enfrepreneurial culture is defined as a pattern ofvalues, assumgtions, end practices shared within an organization, that is centrally concerned with opportunities, where opportunity is the creatioE of new value to uociety in part o r in whole.
Summarizing the Model of Entrepreneurial Culture
Table 1. A model of entrepreneurial culture
DimeeaioT DefmitioT Key Characteristics/Attributes Opposite Characteristics/Attributes
1 2 3 4
Organizational Enthusiasm A pattern of values, assumptiens, and practices demonsùdting an excitem ent and passion for tile organization, its goals, and purposes. n enthusiasm for accomplishing organizational ¡goals and the organization's mission; • understanding the organizational vision; • pission for the wurk; • sense oa unity oupurpose . n failing to know or understand whae success for the organization is or how it can/will be achieved; • failing to believe or support the organization's gtrection or purpos e.
Stakeholder Alignment A pattern of valuec, assumpdens, and practicds demonstrating the importance of buiMing and maintaining mueually beneficial relationships with key stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, partners, and investors. A a focus on building and maintaining eelationships with key stakeholders; i- appreciating how stakeholders impact the business; i- emphasizing strong relationships based on loyalty and fairness. • viewing stakehoU^rs as a means to an end; • viewing stakeholder relationships as necessarily zero - sum; • viewing relationships as only valuable if benefits outweigh costs in the short term.
Learning & Development Support A pattern of values, assumptions, and practices demonstrating individual and group self-improvoment, learning, and professional development. A optimism toward improvement; i- valuing efforts to change, learn, and improve one's self and others; encouraging employee professional deven>pment. • organizational members lack ambition, imtiative, or an interest in improvement; • resistanoe to esquiring new knowledge or skills.
Opportunity Driven Change A pattern of values, assumptions, and practices demonstoating a willingin^ so change in orded to identify/develop opportunities end execute on nh^m. i- pursuing innovation and change to better execute on uxisting opportunities; i pursuing innovation and change as a means foe nreating new opportunities. • reluctance to try cew things or experiment; • hesitancy in the face of uncertainty; • disinterest in hearine new ideas or arproaches to existing problems.
Cohesiveness A pattern of values, assumptions, and practices demonstrating organizational membere' bond and commitment to each other and the oregacnhizatioont,heirrespeacntidve of circumstance. i- organizational members take responsibility for their actions; i- members feel like the organization can do things on its own (internally); 4 trust that everyone gives best effort; 4 members feel like they can rely on others em participate. • organizational members shirk responsibility or hide in the group; • members lack confidence in the abilities of one another; • members are secretive and uncooperative.
This proposed five dimension framework aims to comprehensively describe entrepreneurial culture as a cultural subtype. It aims to accurately describe entrepreneurial culture as an organizational culture centrally concerned with opportunities.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurial culture was defined as a pattern of values, assumptions, and practices shared within an organization that is centrally concerned with opportunities, where opportunity is the creation of new value to society in part or in whole. The construct of entrepreneurial culture is meant to represent a particular set of cultural elements that an organization possesses that identifies that organizational culture as being entrepreneurial in nature. The entrepreneurial culture construct as proposed here arose out of interpreting past descriptive and empirical attempts at developing the construct, integrating organizational culture research, and making sense of how these insights align with the phenomenon itself. This resulted in a framework consisting of values, assumptions, and practices proposed to constitute an entrepreneurial culture grouped into five, necessary and jointly sufficient sub-dimensions.
Entrepreneurial culture was also proposed to be a construct that was relatively stable over time, situations, and cases because of organizational culture's nature as being deeply entrenched and difficult to change. Finally, entrepreneurial culture was conceptualized as being of constructionist ontology, amenable to formative modeling. The logic behind this decision is due to entrepreneurial culture's interpretation as a cultural subtype, where researchers create a theoretical construct to explain a particular phenomenon not expected to exist independent of this theorizing.
References
Anderson, B.S., Covin J.G., Slevin D.P. (2009,) Understanding the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and strategic learning capability: an empirical investigation, Strategic Entrepreneurship journal, Volume 3, Issue 3 September 2009, Pages 218-240
Angelova, M. (2017) Enterpreneurship in Bulgaria - possible or not for young people, International scientific journal „Machines. Technologies. Materials" (Print ISSN 1313-0226, Web ISSN 1314-507X), vol.2/2017r, p.42-44
Covin, J. G., Lumpkin, G. T. (2011) Entrepreneurial Orientation Theory and Research: Reflections on a Needed Construct. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 35(5): 855- 872.
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