The moderating effects of entrepreneurial orientation on technological opportunism and innovation performance

Abstract

PurposeResearch shows how with the evolution of technologies, technological opportunism enables firms to effectively identify and exploit innovations and opportunities through strategic management practices, such as adopting an entrepreneurial orientation. The study’s purpose is to explain the nature of the relationship between technological opportunism and innovation performance, while accounting for any possible moderating effects of entrepreneurial orientation.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional design was used to collect primary data from targeted respondents (n = 347) in the South African banking sector. Initially, instrument validity and reliability is established and the hypotheses are tested using multiple regression analyses.FindingsThe findings support the hypotheses insofar higher levels of technological opportunism are positively associated with higher levels of innovation performance, which is moderated by entrepreneurial orientation in terms of innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness. Moreover, competitive hostility, as a control played a significant role in the moderation effect between technological opportunism and innovation performance.Practical implicationsLeaders need to appreciate the importance of an entrepreneurial organization in leveraging technological opportunities which is pivotal for emerging economies, rather than individual entrepreneurial activities, which are rarely scalable in African economies.Originality/valueThe study provides an original contribution by increasing the theoretical and empirical reach of research on entrepreneurial orientation and technological opportunism. Since the original scales have primarily been employed in developed economies, by verifying their psychometric properties, this now allows for further replication studies to take place in other similar emerging market contexts.

Technological sensing and response capabilities as drivers for radical innovation in the context of apocalyptic uncertainty

“…We adopted all the measures from the existing literature. The technological opportunism scale was adopted by Urban and Maphumulo (2022). Service innovation was operationalized using 10 items (five items each for incremental and radical service innovation) adopted from Johansson et al ( 2019).…”

“…Technological opportunism is depicted as a sense‐and‐respond capability of firms toward new technologies (Urban and Maphumulo, 2022) and includes both, the ability to understand and acquire knowledge about new technology developments (technology‐sensing capability) and the willingness and ability to respond to new technologies (technology response capability). Under technological opportunism, when faced with new technologies, firms try to ‘sense’ information about the development of new technologies with the partner that could be the new source of development.…”

Seizing the moment in the flux of Industry 4.0: technological opportunism, innovativeness and new product performance in international markets

“…In line with the dynamic capabilities theory, the literature from marketing and strategic management also expressed a firm's ability or capacity to sense and respond to newly emerging opportunities as a critical driver to achieve competitiveness in dynamic and turbulent environment (Augier and Teece, 2007;Orlandi et al, 2020;Srinivasan et al, 2002;Urban and Maphumulo, 2021). Specifically, in the domain of technological upheaval, firm's ability to sense and respond to the technological changes has been articulated in numerous studies under the concept of technological opportunism (Chen and Lien, 2013;Sarkees, 2011;Srinivasan et al, 2002).…”

“…Previously, Ngo et al (2019) described the technology sensing and market sensing capabilities can influence a firm's explorative and exploitative innovation. Urban and Maphumulo (2021) addressed the role of technological opportunism on innovation performance along with the moderating effect of entrepreneurial orientation. Also, Hortinha et al (2011) articulated technology orientation as one of the strategic orientations that form innovation capabilities.…”

Exploring the Nexus Between E-Business Processes and Organizational Performance: Can Technological Opportunism Play Any Role?

“…Thus, robust responsiveness toward technological developments would be resourceful to address procurement, channel management, and service delivery lapses (if any) while consistently improving them for better organizational performance. Importantly, recent studies have also supported the strategic vitality of technological opportunism ( Orlandi et al, 2020 ) and how it can boost various performance-based prospects ( Feiz et al, 2017 ; Urban and Maphumulo, 2021 ). Resultantly, these shreds of empirical evidence have confirmed the role and vitality of technological opportunism for businesses aspiring to boost performance in the world rapidly digitizing.…”