Young technology ventures in Europe: aspects of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation

The constructs of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation have been widely researched over the last decade. Critics increasingly demand the simultaneous testing of several orientations to increase the evidence of the results of the respective studies and clarify their interrelations. First empirical studies indicate that the two orientations considered here do not represent the same underlying business behaviour, although they seem to be interrelated (Miles and Arnold 1991). However the application of both constructs simultaneously for young ventures has not been conducted at all. An online single-industry study investigated the constructs on a factor, dimensional and full measurement level as well as clarifying the inter-construct relation. Using reviewed measures from the works of Kohli and Jaworski (Kohli, Jaworski et al. 1993), as well as Covin and Slevin (Covin and Slevin 1986; Covin and Slevin 1991) and Lumpkin and Dess (Lumpkin and Dess 1996) a total of 282 wireless application developers in Europe and Israel were surveyed. It can be concluded that entrepreneurial orientation is a multidimensional construct comprising of four distinct constructs, namely 'Proactiveness,' 'Risk-Taking,' 'Competitive Aggressiveness,' and 'Innovativeness of the Company.' Market orientation was found as a unidimensional construct comprising of five distinct dimensions, namely 'Intelligence Generation on Macro Environment,' 'Intelligence Generation on Micro Environment,' 'Intelligence Generation on Customers,' 'Intelligence Dissemination,' and 'Responsiveness.' As Entrepreneurial Orientation has proven to be a multidimensional construct, its interrelationship with market orientation needed to be reviewed for each single dimension. Risk-taking is negatively related to market orientation, while the other dimensions influence market orientation positively. That is, the more entrepreneurial a new venture is, the more emphasis it puts on understanding the market and responding to those insights.