Title: Adopting entrepreneurial orientation to improve agile manufacturing

Authors: Mehdi Ebrahimi Nejad; Seyyed Abdolmajid Jalaee; Saeed Khosravi

Addresses: Faculty of Management and Economics, Department of Management, Shahid Bahonar University, P.O. Box 76169-14111, 22 Bahman Blvd, Kerman, Iran ' Faculty of Management and Economics, Department of Management, Shahid Bahonar University, P.O. Box 76169-14111, 22 Bahman Blvd, Kerman, Iran ' Faculty of Management and Economics, Department of Management, Shahid Bahonar University, P.O. Box 76169-14111, 22 Bahman Blvd, Kerman, Iran

Abstract: In today's business environments which are accompanied by change and uncertainty, firms can improve their performance through entrepreneurial orientation adoption. On the other hand, the organisational agility concept has emerged as a solution to encounter rapid change and uncertainty of the environment. This study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and agility in manufacturing firms. In order to perform mentioned investigation, a case study in this regard has been done on a statistical sample consisting of 100 manufacturing firms of Kerman Province. The data of entrepreneurial orientation and its five components namely innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy as independent variables and agility as dependent variable gathered by a questionnaire. The survey's hypotheses were investigated by Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficient tests. The results of statistical analysis confirmed a positive and significant relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and agility. In addition, all components of entrepreneurial orientation except risk taking indicated positive and significant relationship with agility. Consequences of this study can help business managers and owners to evaluate the status of entrepreneurial orientation and agility in their firms and to enhance them in order to improve the performance of their businesses if needed.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; organisational agility; entrepreneurial orientation; agile manufacturing; manufacturing industry; Iran; innovativeness; risk taking; proactiveness; competitive aggressiveness; autonomy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2014.062500

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2014 Vol.22 No.2, pp.179 - 195

Published online: 02 Jul 2014 *

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