Predicting sustainable corporate entrepreneurship and sustained company performance

Abstract

Sustainable corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is a new field attracting increasing attention from scholars of different interested disciplines. Based on an analysis of 646 cases of managers in Zambia, this research attempts to determine whether sustainable CE and sustained company performance can be predicted, and also to identify best predictors of the phenomena. Through the use of structural equation modelling, the study applied the measurement instruments for CE climate and external environmental factors to analyse the data. The study findings indicate that CE climate (management support for internal CE; management support for external CE; work discretion; rewards/reinforcement; time availability; and organisational boundaries, barriers and bureaucracies), and external environment (dynamism; hostility; and heterogeneity), are compelling determinants of sustainable CE which leads to sustained company performance. While the internal organisational antecedents largely work through entrepreneurial actions, the external contextual influences have direct effect on sustainable CE as well as indirect effects through entrepreneurial actions. Specifically the findings show that management support for internal CE and environmental dynamism are the best predictors of sustainable CE among the organisational antecedents and environmental factors respectively. Valuable management implications of the findings in relation to the pursuit of sustainable CE as well as the substantive significance of the findings are highlighted.