Researches On The Relationships Between Proactive-orientation And Entrepreneurial Performance Under Different Industry Pressure

Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in China economic development.Entrepreneurship not only can promote economic growth,increase jobs,but also plays a role in maintaining social stability.Entrepreneurship has become a new engine to promote China's economic and social development.However,the fact is that the survival rate of new ventures is low.New ventures that make successful establishments and grow up to lead industries are still minorites.In particular,the level of survival of proactive-oriented new ventures is more alarming.Start-ups as industry pioneers on the one hand need to bear their own vulnerabilities as new,on the other hand also need to face the uncertainties and the market competition as first movers to enter markets.Therefore,it is an important research task to focus on the survival rate of proactive-oriented new ventures and the factors that influence their entrepreneurial performance.It concerns to the survival of new ventures,the growth of new industries,also the overall development of the entrepreneurial economy.What factors will affect entrepreneurial performance of first-mover new ventures? First movers usually have first competitive advantage in the accumulation of technology,learning level,market occupation,establishing barriers to markets,brand locking and other aspects because of its earlier movement in the market.But at the same time,the first movers are also threatened by some disadvantages,such as "free ride" effect,lacking of legitimacy,price war and so on.In different competitive circumstances,the impacts to entrepreneurial performance and effectivenesses of the first-mover advantages and disadvantages are different.Scholars have been discussing the existence and effectiveness of the first-mover advantages for more than four decades,but the answers are still two-sided.The relationship between proactive-orientation and entrepreneurial performance is still unclear.Entrepreneurial strategies can help entrepreneurs solve the problems about the task,the direction and the competitive posture in entrepreneurial processes.Effective and appropriate strategic decisions and strategic portfolios are keys for new ventures to response to environmental challenges.Under proactive-orientation,if the enterprise can implement a reasonable strategic adaptive behavior based on the situation of competition,it will be able to effectively maintain their own advantages.They will improve their survival situation and achieve better level of performance.However,at the present stage,entrepreneurial strategy is still a new research field and its concept and theoretical structure is not complete.There are few effective and specific strategic means to help proactive-oriented ventures cope with environments in different competitive strength at present.In the context of a transition economy,the uncertainty of the market is severe and the institutional system is imperfect seriously.First movers will face higher institutional pressure and challenge from lacking of legitimacy.When entering new markets and promoting new products enterprises lack of information about new market and useful channels and accesses.Enterprises may be able to solve these problems by establishing relationship networks.They can obtain informal market informations to breakthrough system barriers by establishing social networks and can share resources and establish alliances by establishing business networks.However,there are few scholars to study and prove the effect of relationship networks existing between proactive-orientation of new ventures and entrepreneurial performance.Based on above problems and theoretical problems,this study are trying to solve following questions:(A)How proactive-orientation influences entrepreneurial performance under different levels of competitive pressure in the industry?(B)How entrepreneurial strategies influence the relationship between proactive-orientation and entrepreneurial performance under different levels of competitive pressure in the industry?(C)Whether social networks and commercial networks play roles of mediating effects between the proactive-orientation and entrepreneurial performance of the enterprise? In order to solve these problems,this study reviews relevant researches to build the theoretical base,and then elaborates the relationship between variables in order to build the theoretical model and propose hypotheses.Then,235 valid questionnaires were collected and the models and hypotheses are tested by empirical analysis.This paper focuses on the study of proactivness,the essential characteristics entrepreneurial activities,thinking about the situation that proactive-oriented strategy impacting positive impact on entrepreneurial performance,and tries to find out means that proactive-oriented ventures can use to promote performance in entrepreneurial strategy field and relationship networks field which are key areas of entrepreneurship research.To this end,this study conduct a two-groups discussion in accordance with the level of industry competive pressure,and defines competitive strategies and steady strategies.The conclusions of this study have enriched the existing entrepreneurial theory and solved some of the previous theoretical problems:First,this paper breaks through the previous research mode between proactivness and entrepreneurial performance that considering proactivness(proactive-orientaion)as a subordinate to the entrepreneurial orientation system.This research makes a discussion about the relationships between proactive-orientaion and entrepreneurial performance under different industry pressure levels.The results show that,proactive-orientaion is positively related to entrepreneurial performance under low industry pressure situation,but there is no significant relationship between them under the high industry pressure level.The conclusion is not the same as the previous research on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial performance.Although it has not yet broken the inconsistency of the conclusion of the research on the relationship between this two,it still provides a new research dimension and a more specific answer about the relationship between proactive-orientaion and entrepreneurial performance.Second,this study integrates entrepreneurial theory and strategic theory and explores the moderating effect of entrepreneurial strategy between proactive-orientaion and entrepreneurial performance.The research stretches the present theoretical framework of entrepreneurial strategy and makes a contribution to communicating entrepreneurship theory and strategic theory.Specifically,this study provides strategic guidances for new companies about taking action ahead of their competitors.The start-ups can not suffer the consequences of strategic errors because of the vulnerable organizational structure and resource constraints.Choosing appropriate business strategies in different environments is very critical for the new enterprises.The study finds that under low industry pressure,competitive strategy and steady strategy will promote the positive impact on entrepreneurial performance made by proactive-orientaion.However,in high industry pressure environment,there is no significant moderating effect impacted by steady strategies on the relationship between the two.The competitive strategies will amplify the negative impact on entrepreneurial performance made by proactive-orientaion.Thirdly,this study explores the role of relational networks in the context of specific situations.The novelty of this study lies in the research background considering transitional market in China and in the situation of the progress of new ventures entering new market and marketing new products.The study of the relationship networks in this paper is in the specific economic context,a specific stage of the market and in the view of a specific kind of new ventures.The research has an inherent particularity in working principle.In this study,we can find that it is important for the start-up enterprises to adopt appropriate strategies in different external environments concerning the conclusion about proactive-orientaion,entrepreneurial strategy,relationship networks and industry pressure in this study.And making strategic adjustment to external environment feedbacks is also necessary for enterprises to improve their own survival status.The success of a new venture depends on the strategic decision of the organization itself,as well as the usage of resources and informations from external partners in their relationship networks.The practical value of this study,on the one hand,is prompting rational judgments of entrepreneurs to the new market situation when they want to be first movers and adjusting their strategy considering the change of competive environment of competition in order to maintain the advantages and get rid of unnecessary market risk.On the other hand,we also prompt the market pioneers to improve product quality at the same time pay attention to and make good use of the relationship networks.The ultimate goal of this study is to improve the survival rate and performance level of new ventures.