Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1985

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Business Administration

Major Professor

Max S. Wortman

Committee Members

H. Dudley Dewhisrt, John M. Larsen, David J. Barnaby

Abstract

How do organizations realign their strategic direction into new product, service, and/or market areas? To understand corporate level entrepreneurship, several issues were addressed concerning the roles of: (1) the chief executive's personality; (2) organizational characteristics; and (3) the interaction of these variables. These issues were investigated in a sample of 74 chief executive officers in Tennessee. Based on the responses from a pilot study, a mail survey was used to collect the data. An altruistic appeal was made to the chief executives and a book premium was enclosed in the survey. The data collection began on April 26, 1985 and ended 7 weeks later when the response rate had reached 64 percent.

The analysis consisted mainly of comparisons of the semipartial correlation coefficients from a given regression model with simple correlation coefficients combined with hierarchical regression analysis to analyze the pattern of intercorrelations among the variables. The results showed direct, negative relationships between entrepreneurial traits (i.e., need for achievement and internal locus of control), centralization, resource support, and past corporate level entrepreneurship with the predicted variable--corporate level entrepreneurship (present). In addition, entrepreneurial focus and organization size had direct, positive relationships with corporate level entrepreneurship. The interaction between entrepreneurial traits and resource support with corporate level entrepreneurship was supported. While entrepreneurial traits had an indirect effect on the dependent variable via centralization and entrepreneurial focus, past corporate level entrepreneurship had indirect effects via centralization, entrepreneurial focus, and organization size.

A major conclusion was that the causal paths among the variables appear to be more complex than was originally postulated. Considering variables which the organization might reorient in order to achieve a higher degree of corporate level entrepreneurship are decentralization, a high entrepreneurial focus, an adequate organization size, and a match between the chief executive's personality and resource support. The chief executive may be the most effective in impacting the entrepreneurial focus of the corporate planning group and decentralizing the responsibility for initiating strategic change. Finally, past corporate level entrepreneurship and resource support could serve as signals to potential problems created by an organization's past strategic direction.

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