Customer functional value creation through a sustainable entrepreneurial orientation approach

Ana Criado-Gomis,M Ángeles Iniesta-Bonillo,Amparo Cervera-Taulet,Domingo Ribeiro-Soriano

doi:10.1080/1331677x.2019.1694560

Abstract

This paper advances a theoretical model to empirically test firms’ behaviour regarding sustainable entrepreneurship, enhancing what researchers have recently proposed at a solely conceptual level; this entails sustainable entrepreneurship being understood as a discipline that reliably allows organizations to successfully respond to sustainable development and market requirements. The authors suggest an integrated approach of dynamic-capabilities, S-D logic and product-service system views, which highlights the managerial predisposition to adopt a strategic position that fosters value in use (instead of regular property value), according to the current school of thoughts engaged with innovation and sustainable development. In this regard, this paper investigates structural influences (direct and indirect) of sustainable entrepreneurial orientation and customer functional value creation in firm performance. Hypotheses are tested using the partial least squares method on a multisectoral sample of 210 companies randomly stratified with proportional allocation. The findings indicate that a sustainable entrepreneurial orientation not only has a positive and direct relationship with firm performance, but also that this relationship improves when it is mediated by customer functional value creation. Further research pathways are provided.

Highlights

The offer of better value to customers, that may result in the generation of benefits for the firm, has focused much of the research in strategic management
Sustainable entrepreneurial orientation (SEO) has been measured using the proposal by Criado-Gomis, Iniesta-Bonillo, and Cervera-Taulet (2018), which is based on two scales, following the recommendations of Miles, Munilla, and Darroch (2009): one that measures entrepreneurial orientation (EO) - based on the scale proposed by Matsuno et al (2002), and another measuring sustainability orientation (SO) - based on BosBrouwers’s measurement (2010 b) (See Appendix)
At the theoretical-empirical level, this paper attempts to contribute to the consolidation of sustainable entrepreneurship research and the advancement and strengthening of the perspective of dynamic capabilities in the study of topics of growing academic interest

Summary

Introduction

The offer of better value to customers, that may result in the generation of benefits for the firm, has focused much of the research in strategic management. Sustainable entrepreneurial orientation (Hernandez-Perlines & Ibarra Cisneros, 2018; Kraus, Burtscher, Vallaster, & Angerer, 2018), is one of the recent concepts that, together with business strategy, offers organizational performance research a new direction. In this regard, there is a research gap in literature mainly due to the newness of the sustainable entrepreneurial orientation concept and the limited number of studies on sustainable entrepreneurship from a value creation perspective. This paper examines the theoretical and empirical relationship between sustainable entrepreneurial orientation and customer value creation ( in terms of functional value); this work analyses the direct and indirect effects of these variables on firm performance

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion