Entrepreneurial Orientation, Organizational Learning, and Performance: Evidence from China

Abstract

This study examined the relationships among entrepreneurial orientation (EO), experimental learning (EL) and acquisitive learning (AL), and firm performance (FP). We tested our model in China as EO is the engine that is driving firms to take advantage of opportunities in an increasingly market–oriented transitional economy. From the responses of 607 firms, we found that EO was positively related to EL but had an inverse U–shaped relationship with AL. Both EL and AL enhanced FP although the effects from AL were weaker and became nonsignificant when external knowledge was embedded into the firm's internal private knowledge.