The retailers were chosen for their relative homogeneity to enhance the reliability and validity of the instrument results. Initial contact was made by means of a three-wave mailing. The first wave included the questionnaire and cover letter, the second a reminder postcard and thank-you, while the third mailing only included those recipients who had not responded.
To interpret the results, Entrepreneurial Orientation was measured according to a six-item scale. These included: the propensity to take risks; tendency towards strategic planning; ability to keep contact with customers, identifying their needs and wants; innovation level, perseverance; and the ability to identify new opportunities. Marketing competencies were measured according to a 20-item scale.
Content validity was determined by means of a pretest for the survey. This included five independent apparel retailers not used as part of the sample. During the pretest, participants evaluated the questionnaire, including wording, general flow and structure, as well as its...
Suggestions were obtained and incorporated before mailing the final version to study sampling participants.
Nonresponse bias was tested by means of a telephone survey including 50 randomly selected nonrespondents. Independent t-tests comparing the results with those for respondents showed no significant difference, indicating negligible to no nonresponse bias.
A positive correlation between EO and business competence was obtained when analyzing the results. One limitation of the study was the lack of distinction between the years of existence of the participants. Future directions for study could include this factor to measure the rate of survivability and how this relates to EO. In general, the study provides interesting results upon which numerous future directions for study can be built.
Reference
Smart, D.T. And Conant, J.S. (2011). Entrepreneurial Orientation, Distinctive Marketing Competencies and Organizational Performance Journal of Applied Business Research, Vol. 10, No. 3.
