中国情境下投机导向、创业战略与新企业竞争优势的关系研究

创业战略是新企业获取竞争优势的关键手段，现有研究对这一问题展开了初步探讨，但存在不足，仍需要进一步完善。一方面以新企业作为对象来剖析创业战略作用机理的研究缺乏；另一方面，转型情境的关注不足，即转型环境特征对创业战略的作用研究不足。以现有研究为基础，结合新企业特点和中国情境独特性，探讨投机导向、创业战略与新企业竞争优势之间的关系。通过对226家新企业的数据分析，实证结果表明：投机导向和创业战略对新企业竞争优势都会产生积极影响，并且产品创新战略和营销差异化战略在投机导向与竞争优势之间起到部分中介作用。研究成果进一步拓展了战略管理和创业研究领域，并为新企业发展提供了实践指导意见。

Opportunistic orientation,entrepreneurial strategy and competitive advantage of a new venture

Entrepreneurship has gradually become the driving force of economic development, and its importance has been tested in practice. More and more theory researchers, practitioners, policy makers pay attention to new ventures and the failure of new venture is a hot topic of entrepreneurship research. However, the high failure rate of new venture is an unresolved issue. How to improve the survival rate of new ventures is attracting more and more attention from academics and practitioner. Existing research has discussed the issue from different perspectives, and entrepreneurial strategy is one of the representative perspectives. As new venture tends to have relatively limited resources and short development time, entrepreneurial strategy is considered to be the key factor to determine whether a new venture can successfully survive. Entrepreneurial strategy is the key means for new ventures to gain competitive advantage. Previous research has made some discussion. However, it is not enough to explain the issue. First, the role mechanism of entrepreneurial strategy on new venture is not clear. Second, existing research about the effect of transitional context on entrepreneurial strategy is lacking. Based on existing research, and combining the features of new ventures and the transitional context, this paper discusses the relationship among opportunistic orientation, entrepreneurial strategy and competitive advantage. To resolve the above issues, this paper discusses the composition of entrepreneurial strategy as production innovation strategy, cost leadership strategy and marketing differentiation strategy based on the characteristics of new venture. Production innovation strategy refers to the degree to which a new venture develops and introduces new products in the market, and thus, gains a first mover advantage and improves its productivity and profitability. Cost leadership strategy focuses on imitating and improving the production processes or technology of competitors to reduce R&D costs and risks, and thus produces competitive advantage as its price. Marketing differentiation strategy refers the extent that new venture pursues a strategy based on unique marketing efforts (such as advertising, promotion, customer experience et al.), and this strategic decision may help new venture deliver the value of their productions to the consumers to gain competitive advantage. China is a transition economy, which implies that formal rule is not incomplete, that the competition behaviors of new venture may be opportunistic. The strategic orientation of new venture may impact the strategy selection of new venture, so we believe that opportunistic orientation is an important factor that impact strategy selection of new venture. Taking the underdeveloped formal market institutions into account, this paper analyzes the opportunistic orientation of new venture. Opportunistic orientation refers to the tendency to achieve growth through opportunistic behavior, which is a short-term profit-seeking orientation. Opportunistic orientation has been seen as a key characteristic of underdeveloped formal market institutions, and been shown to have a significant impact on the behavior of new venture. However, there is rare research to explore the role mechanism of it on new venture strategic behavior. Thus, based on the types division of new venture, and taken opportunistic orientation into consideration, this paper constructs a model to explain the relationship among opportunistic orientation, entrepreneurial strategy and new venture competitive advantage. And we propose ten hypotheses to explain the model. To test the hypotheses, we collected data from new ventures in China (Changchun, Harbin, and Beijing), utilizing a questionnaire-survey approach. To design questionnaire, we utilized the items developed in prior studies to measure the key constructs in this study, and we made some modification during the translation process. To tell if a venture is new or not, we use the criterion that a firm has been established for no more than 8 years as new venture. We removed the incomplete ones and which have been established more than 8 years. At the conclusion of our survey, a total of 226 new ventures provided completed and useable returns. Through analyzing data from 226 new ventures, we obtain the following results. (1) Opportunistic orientation is positively related to new venture competitive advantage. H1 is supported. (2) Opportunistic orientation is positively related to entrepreneurial strategy. Hence, opportunistic orientation will promote new venture select production innovation strategy, cost leadership strategy and marketing differentiation strategy. H2b and H2c are supported, but H2a is not supported. (3) Entrepreneurial strategy is positively related to new venture competitive advantage. Hence, production innovation strategy, cost leadership strategy and marketing differentiation strategy all are useful strategies for new venture as they help gain competitive advantage from different means. H3a, H3b and H3c are supported. (4) Production innovation strategy and marketing differentiation strategy are partly mediating the relationship between opportunistic orientation and new venture competitive advantage, however, the mediating role of cost leadership strategy is not supported. H4a and H4c are supported, but H4b is not supported. The research finds that entrepreneurial strategies of business level are positively impacting new venture competitive advantage, and opportunistic orientation may impact new venture competitive advantage by the mediating role of entrepreneurial strategies (production innovation strategy and marketing differentiation strategy). On one hand, new venture are characterized as “liability of newness”. As the research results, to gain competitive advantage, we should pay attention to entrepreneurial strategy. On the other hand, the selection of entrepreneurial strategy is influenced by the environment of new venture. The typical characteristic of transitional context is that the formal rule is not incomplete. Hence, opportunistic orientation may impact the strategic behaviors of new venture. This research used 226 new ventures to explain the importance of entrepreneurial strategy for the survival of new venture and the impact of contextual factors, which provides suggestions for new ventures to select their entrepreneurial strategies to achieve competitive advantage in Chinese context. This study analyzes the impact of entrepreneurial strategy on new firms and the impact of contextual factors on the competitive advantage of new firms. It provides suggestions for new ventures to match their entrepreneurial strategies to achieve competitive advantage in Chinese context. In short, this research can provide some suggestions for entrepreneurs and policy makers. Simultaneously, it extends the research scope of strategic management and entrepreneurship, which makes some contribution to improve the theory of strategic management and entrepreneurship.