Organizational learning, top management team’s entrepreneurial alertness, and corporate entrepreneurship in high-tech firms

Abstract

This study investigates the mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness of a top management team (TMT) between organizational learning and corporate entrepreneurship (CE). We conducted two studies. In Study 1, based on TMT members’ responses from a group of Korean companies, we examined a factor structure of TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness and its influence on CE. We identified that TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness is a second-order construct, constituting scanning and searching, association and connection, and evaluation and judgment, which positively influence CE. In Study 2, based on TMT members’ responses from another group of Korean companies, we confirmed a second-order structure of TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness. Furthermore, while breadth and depth of learning positively influenced TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness, speed of learning had a negative effect. In addition, TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness partially mediated the relationship between breadth of learning and CE, and fully mediated the relationship between depth of learning and CE. This study contributes to extending the concept of entrepreneurial alertness to a TMT context and identifying TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness as an organizational capability. It helps understand how the three attributes of organizational learning can heterogeneously contribute to TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness and CE in organizations.

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