Research On The Mechanism Of Learning Orientation To New Venture Performance

Entrepreneurship has become the driving force of the development of one country's economic and society.It plays an important role in promoting market innovation,creating jobs and improving the quality of employment.The development of entrepreneurial economy is of great significance for accelerating the transformation of economic development and improving the quality of economic development in China.Under the guidance of the innovation-oriented country strategy and the policy of mass entrepreneurship and innovation,the level of entrepreneurial activity in China has significantly improved.Different from high entrepreneurial activity,however,the quality of entrepreneurial activities and the success rate of entrepreneurial enterprises in China is still unsatisfactory.According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of 2018-2019,with the high Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity(TEA),the discontinuance rates in China is also high.Lack of profitability is the primary reason for the termination of business.Therefore,how to overcome the weakness of start-ups and enhance profitbility to achieve high performance return is a difficult problem for entrepreneurs to solve.In the fierce competition environment,the accumulation and application of knowledge resources is the premise for new enterprises to achieve good performance and sustainable growth.Learning orientation reflects the attitudes and values of active learning,which reflects the intensity of organizational learning and the direction of learning.More importantly,new ventures need strong knowledge absorption ability to acquire and successfully utilize external knowledge.Absorptive capacity theory and organizational learning theory explain organizational knowledge management ability from different perspectives,which has important implications for the growth of new ventures.However,the existing studies have not well explored the relationship between learning orientation and absorptive capacity based on the two theories.On the other hand,high organizational creativity can help enterprises break through resource constraints and other weak innovation,which is the key to the survival of new enterprises.The accumulation of knowledge resources can also enhance organizational creativity and help start-ups produce more innovative and valuable solutions to problems.However,the specific path for organizational creativity to play a role in new ventures has not been well analyzed.Based on the theories of entrepreneurial management,organizational learning and absorptive capacity,this study takes learning orientation as the starting point to analyze the mechanism of learning orientation on the performance of new ventures from the perspective of absorptive capacity and organizational creativity.Specifically,focus on the following aspects to conduct research.First,can learning orientation significantly affect the performance of new ventures? Second,how different absorptive capacities,ie,potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity,play roles independently and jointly in the process of learning orientation affecting the performance of new enterprises? Thirdly,what is the role of organizational creativity in improving the performance of new ventures,and what is the relationship between organizational creativity and the absorptive capacity of new ventures? Fourthly,as an important external environmental factor,how does competition intensity interfere with the relationship among the main variables in this study?In order to further explore the above issues,this study sorts out and analyzes the literature on learning orientation,absorptive capacity,organizational creativity,new venture performance and competitive intensity.We construct the research model based on entrepreneurial management theories,organizational learning theories and absorptive capacity theory.Based on theoretical derivation and combing existing research,the relationships between variables are fully demonstrated and research hypotheses are proposed.The scales used were revised and improved by discussions with experts and entrepreneurs and pre-survey analysis.In this study,the newly established enterprises less than 8 years old were taken as the research objects.And questionnaires were distributed for data collection.Using structural equation model and Bootstrap analysis,the hypotheses proposed in this study were empirically tested.The study draws the following conclusions.Firstly,learning orientation lays a strategic foundation for effective accumulation and utilization of knowledge.It has a positive impact on the performance of new ventures;Secondly,both potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity are important abilities,which play a mediating role in the relationship between learning orientation and the performance of new enterprises.And the two kinds of absorptive capacity jointly play a chain mediating role in this relationship.In other words,the influence path of "learning orientation-potential absorptive capacity-realized absorptive capacity-new venture performance" exists.Thirdly,organizational creativity is an important factor to improve the performance and realized absorptive capacity of new enterprises.In detail,the role of organizational creativity is reflected in three aspects.The first aspect,organizational creativity and realized absorptive capacity play a chain mediating role in the promotion mechanism of learning orientation to the performance of new ventures.That means,there is a path of "learning orientation-organizational creativity-realized absorptive capacity-new venture performance" among the variables.The second aspect,organizational creativity plays a mediating role in the process of transforming potential absorptive capacity into realized absorptive capacity;The last aspect,organizational creativity and potential absorptive capacity play a chain intermediary role in the mechanism of learning orientation on the realized absorptive capacity.That is to say,the relationship of “learning orientation-potential absorptive capacity-organizational creativity-realized absorptive capacity” exists.Fourthly,competitive intensity has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between realized absorptive capacity and performance of new ventures.Further,the intensity of competition regulates the mediating role of realized absorptive capacity between learning orientation and new venture performance.In a competitive environment,learning orientation is less likely to improve the performance of start-ups by enhancing their realized absorptive capacity.This study explores the relationship between learning orientation,potential absorptive capacity,realized absorptive capacity,organizational creativity and new venture performance.It validates the contingency of competitive intensity and enriches the research on the new venture growth further.Firstly,the study focuses on exploring the deep relationship between learning orientation and the performance of new ventures and revealing the specific mechanism of learning orientation to new venture performance.And the paper validates the applicability of the concept of learning orientation and its measurement scale in the context of new ventures in China.Secondly,it further enriches the theory of absorptive capacity.The paper also reveals the formation mechanism of different absorptive capacity and the effect of different absorptive capacities on the performance in the context of new ventures.Thirdly,the paper clarifies the specific ways in which organizational creativity plays a role,and proves its importance to the performance and absorptive capacity of new enterprises.Fourthly,the study clarifies the boundary condition of the influence of learning orientation on the performance of start-ups,that is,the moderating effect of external competitive intensity.At the same time,in practice,this paper has some guiding significance on how to improve the profitability of new enterprises and achieving sustainable growth.The research conclusion is helpful to improve the learning orientation of new ventures and promote the establishment of learning organization.The paper is helpful for new enterprises to make correct strategies to improve their absorptive capacity and to pay more attention to the cultivation of their creativity.This study has certain reference value for improving the quality of entrepreneurial activities and the survival rate of new enterprises in China.