Problem Statement
Nowadays, entrepreneurship is widespread and important, as it is the core of the business culture and creates a basis for international transactions. In the article International Entrepreneurial Culture – Toward a Comprehensive Opportunity-Based Operationalization of International Entrepreneurship, the authors state that despite a continuously rising number of research articles covering the development of entrepreneurship, this sphere has not been studied or discovered in detail.
Specifically speaking, international entrepreneurship and its dimensions are not fully recognized, and this fact is believed to create difficulties for the companies that operate worldwide. At the same time, this matter implies that enterprises are not able to evaluate whether they take advantage of all opportunities for their international growth and expansion or not. Consequently, to resolve this problem, the authors suggest that it is essential to develop effective measures of the international entrepreneurship construct.
Hypotheses
In the first place, the authors expect that it is necessary to develop effective measures and assessments that can assist in evaluating the ability of the company to take advantage of opportunities of foreign markets. The reasons for focusing on this matter are related to the lack of research and the importance of these aspects for the successful development of international entrepreneurship. Another hypothesis is the need to include international market orientation, learning, innovation propensity, risk attitude, networking orientation, and motivation as the main dimensions to evaluate the company’s international focus.
The rationale for selecting these concepts is clearly discussed in the literature review section, and it could be said that this hypothesis is logical. Apart from the strong theoretical basis of these hypotheses, some of them have to be adjusted after analyzing the research results. It incurs due to the limitations of the study.
The Need for Study
As it was mentioned earlier, in the problem statement section, there is an extended variety of studies that attempt to discover different aspects and sides of entrepreneurship. However, they cover only general ideas and do not provide well-developed action plan or framework that one can use in this sphere. Simultaneously, international entrepreneurship has not been fully studied and discovered, and the companies do not have a scale that can be utilized to assess and take the opportunities of different markets successfully.
Consequently, based on these findings, the decision of researchers to design a well-developed approach to international entrepreneurship to take advantage of diverse opportunities is logical. It will not only help reveal new concepts of global entrepreneurship but also assist the companies in discovering benefits of international environment and contribute to the development of new theories and practices.
Methodology
As for methodology, the authors utilized the scales acquired from the previous studies to develop an effective opportunity-measurement tool. In this case, the initial scale included dimensions such as international consumer and competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination, learning, risk attitude and assessment, and innovation propensity. Overall, 50 aspects within described dimensions were identified.
The rest of the research focused on validating the appropriateness of these measures. In the first place, with the help of interviews and Likert-scale, the opinions of academic experts were acquired while judge-panel with CEO and representatives of the companies was organized to make appropriate adjustments. After that, the questionnaire was designed based on dimensions, and responses from 162 were received while initially it was distributed among 601 companies in the UK and the USA. The results collected from the questionnaires were assessed with the help of descriptive statistics and factor analysis. Overall, it could be said that quantitative method had a dominating position in this research study.
Summary of Literature Review
When discussing this problem, the authors rely on studies and theories acquired in the past and explain the idea of international entrepreneurial culture. This matter helps any company reach different goals in the international market by supporting its entrepreneurial activities. To understand the details of this term, the authors suggest several dimensions that can be used in this context. One of them is international market orientation, and it can be defined as the ability of the company to satisfy the needs of its clients abroad. This matter is included, as it assists the company in discovering the opportunities of the international environment.
In turn, international learning orientation is another aspect, and it focuses on the ability of the company to adapt and take advantage of the opportunities of the foreign markets. Meanwhile, innovation propensity is linked to the previous dimension, but it implies supporting innovation to cater the needs of international customers. Furthermore, the importance of risk attitude cannot be underestimated, and it can be defined as the company’s ability to take risks to encourage innovation and development to become a leader in the global arena.
Apart from the significance of the matters described above, international networking orientation is critical. It reveals whether the company is able to discover the external resources and opportunities of the market to support its development and growth by creating ventures and working together with rival firms and other market players. Additionally, international motivation is another aspect to be considered, and it implies inspiring and convincing employees to work in the international environment and consider all possibilities of the working conditions.
It could be said that all dimensions mentioned above support the idea of the authors and can be actively used to discover opportunities of the market and start using international entrepreneurial culture effectively. A combination of these factors is utilized to develop a scale discussed in the methodology section.
Assumptions, Limitations, and Potential for Future Research
In the context of this study, the main assumptions are related to the desire and honesty of the participants of the study, expected high response rate, and the fact that hypotheses will be discovered as true. As for limitations, they tend to include the fact that the authors are not able to consider that some of the dimensions will be connected. It creates difficulties to the interpretation of the findings.
At the same time, it could be said that another drawback is a relatively low response rate, as insignificant number of participants requires generalizing the findings. Nonetheless, the research tends to have future potential since the acquired outcomes lack details, and some definitions of dimensions are vague. Consequently, it can be actively utilized to discover each dimension in detail and offer more valuable insights to the specialists working in this segment.
Conclusion
Overall, it could be said that the research paper is able to reach its initial goals and develop a basis for the instrument to measure the ability of the company to take opportunities. It is revealed that the most appropriate dimensions are international entrepreneurial orientation, motivation, market orientation, learning, and networking and communication with rival firms and other companies.
Thus, these matters can be divided into subcategories, and it creates difficulties for determining the importance of each indicator separately. For example, innovation propensity and viewpoint of risks are considered as a part of international orientation. On the one hand, it creates difficulties, but on the other side, it can attract attention to the need to continue the development of this framework and help companies redesign their structures and become innovative and competitive in the international environment.
Critique of the Article
In the first place, it could be said that International Entrepreneurial Culture – Toward a Comprehensive Opportunity-Based Operationalization of International Entrepreneurship can be considered as a valuable source of information since it discovers the sphere of entrepreneurship from an entirely different perspective. The authors support the selection of dimensions with the help of theories while expanding the reader’s understanding of international entrepreneurial culture.
At the same time, multiple steps of scale testing ensure the reader that results are valid and reliable. Quantitative methods help support the hypotheses with statistics while interviews assist in improving the scale. Using these methods and discovering the theme from a different perspective add new insights to the previous studies and can be used as a foundation for future research.
Nonetheless, apart from the benefits described above and well-structured text of the article, there are some drawbacks. For example, low response rate and the assumptions made require generalizing the findings.
This matter has a negative impact on the validity of the information, as it is impossible to state whether the answers of participants were honest and true or not. At the same time, it could be claimed that apart from discussing all necessary terms in the literature review section, it seems that it lacks details. For example, a reader with no understanding of entrepreneurship may experience difficulties reading it. Overall, it could be said that these drawbacks not only question the validity and reliability of the findings but also may confuse the audience due to the absence of definitions of some important terms.
Despite the difficulties and limitations presented above, there are several ways to improve the quality of the publications and associated findings in the recent future. In the first place, the authors should expand the literature review section and provide the sufficient background to understand how these concepts were developed. For example, each dimension not only has to be defined but also valuable insights concerning each concept have to be provided.
In turn, the authors have to increase response rate by ensuring that the selected companies are eager to participate in the research. Conducting longitudinal studies can help understand the changes of answers over a certain period. Using a combination of these findings can help gain profound knowledge of the topic and improve the quality of the designed scale.
In the end, based on the analysis of the findings indicated above, it could be said that the selected article is valuable, as it provides entirely new insights of entrepreneurship culture. At the same time, it also proposes a well-developed framework to evaluate the ability of the company and its desire to take to opportunities of the foreign markets. It shapes a sufficient basis for the future research. Nonetheless, when discovering the proposed dimensions, it is necessary to expand literature review section and measure the changes in responses in the long-term. Using these methods will enhance the validity and reliability of the findings.