Institutional Imprints, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Growth of Firms in a Transition Economy

Abstract

Entrepreneurial orientation is a key determinant for the performance of firms where a range of internal and external factors that affect the EO behaviour of the firms have been examined. Yet, there is no examination of the potentially important role that founding imprints may play in shaping EO. We examine how the past founding institutional environment, i.e. regulatory and market imprints, constrains the EO behaviour by deterring the growth of incumbent firms founded under the past non-market environment in a transition economy. Using the data from a cohort of 153 firms founded under a non-market environment in Myanmar, the current study demonstrates that both founding non-market regulatory and market imprints attenuate EO behaviour, and that EO promotes firms’ growth. The findings also indicate that EO serves as an essential intervening mechanism that dismantles the transmission of negative influences of institutional imprints on the growth attainment of firms established under a non-market system.