Collected Essays on Finance and Economics ›› 2023, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (1): 79-92.

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Research on Configuration Effects of Environmental and Organizational Factors on Corporate Digital Entrepreneurship

LI Wei1,2, LI Fulin1   

  1. 1. Management School, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054, China;
    2. Collaborative Research Center for IDE, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054, China
  • Received:2021-09-26 Online:2023-01-10 Published:2023-01-13

环境与组织因素影响公司数字创业的组态效应研究

李巍1,2, 李福林1   

  1. 1.重庆理工大学管理学院,重庆 400054;
    2.重庆理工大学创新驱动创业协同研究中心,重庆 400054
  • 作者简介:李巍(1981—),男,四川三台人,重庆理工大学管理学院教授,重庆理工大学创新驱动创业协同研究中心主任,博士;李福林(1997—),男,四川渠县人,重庆理工大学管理学院硕士生。
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金项目(71872024);教育部人文社会科学研究项目(17YJC630066);重庆市教委人文社会科学研究重点项目(21SKGH171);重庆市教委科学技术研究项目(KJQN202101101)

Abstract: Under the guidance of the national development strategy, entrepreneurship has become the key driving force for China's economic development. In particular, as Chinavs entrepreneurial activities enter the golden age, the main body and the form of entrepreneurship have shown a new trend of development. In the management field, the research on corporate entrepreneurship has always been a major concern and has achieved rich results. However, corporate entrepreneurship in the digital economy era has undergone fundamental changes in its form and behavior. In addition, due to the constraints of path dependence, asset specificity, and potential low internal innovation efficiency, it is difficult for mature enterprises to flexibly respond to changes in the technological environment as new enterprises do, and explore and utilize the entrepreneurial opportunities brought about by digital technology. Therefore, the existing relevant research lacks the research on the corporate digital entrepreneurship (CDE) at the meso level, that is, the research on corporate digital entrepreneurship with incumbent enterprises as the main body, which makes it difficult for the existing research results on corporate entrepreneurship or digital entrepreneurship to provide effective guidance for corporate entrepreneurship in the digital era.
The CDE is an inevitable choice for incumbent companies to obtain and maintain competitive advantages in the digital economy era, and is an entrepreneurial activity for companies to seize digital opportunities. However, the current research on corporate entrepreneurship and digital entrepreneurship lacks integration, and there is still insufficient study on the promoting mechanism of CDE. Therefore, this study, which combines the ideas of entrepreneurship and strategy, integrates the dynamic matching of environment and organizational factors, highlights entrepreneurial scenarios and elements, and reflects the strategic perspective and framework, thus fully revealing that corporate digital entrepreneurship is a dynamic process of interaction between two mechanisms, namely, “seizing entrepreneurial opportunities under the influence of digital technology” and “implementing strategic behavior driven by organizational factors”.
From the perspective of organization and environment matching, this paper uses fuzzy set-qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) methods to explore the multiple factors and configuration mechanisms that lead to differences in the degree of CDE. It also measures the company's digital entrepreneurship from three aspects of digital strategy generation, digital innovation and digital business development, and uses the questionnaire method to obtain the research data. In addition, the research takes the age, scale and industry nature of the enterprise as the control variables. After completing the questionnaire development, it applies the preliminary survey to obtain data to modify and improve the initial questionnaire. Finally, after the survey questionnaires are sorted out and reviewed, the supplementary survey is conducted on the missing items, and the final form of the database of this study is formed. The survey for the study lasted for three months. A total of 800 questionnaires were distributed and 392 were recovered, including 367 valid ones, with an effective recovery rate of 45.9%.
Theresults from the analysis of the survey data are as follows: the TMT reflexivity is the necessary condition that drives the CDE, while the lack of technology spillover is a necessary factor to inhibit the CDE; there are three paths that drive high-level CDE, and the three configurations of the six factors can drive high-level CDE; meanwhile there are two paths to inhibit CDE, and the two configurations of the five factors will inhibit CDE, and have an asymmetric causal relationship with the driving mechanism. In addition, through the cross configuration comparative analysis of the driving and inhibiting mechanisms of corporate digital entrepreneurship, it can be found that the causal logic and the effect logic are mutually exclusive at the same time, that is, incumbent enterprises can choose one of the decision-making logic according to different scenarios to carry out strategic decisions and resource allocation actions, but cannot integrate and use the two kinds of decision-making logic to successfully promote corporate entrepreneurial activities. This research uses the fsQCA to explore the configuration effects that drive digital entrepreneurship, which has certain theoretical contributions and value. At the same time, the research conclusions provide management inspiration for incumbent enterprises to carry out organizational innovation activities and stimulate entrepreneurial vitality in the digital economy era.

Key words: Corporate Digital Entrepreneurship, Top Management Team, Policy Stability, Technological Spillovers, Decision Logic, FSQCA

摘要: 公司数字创业是数字经济时代在位企业获取和维持竞争优势的必然选择,是企业攫取数字机会的创业活动,但目前缺乏公司创业与数字创业的整合研究,对公司数字创业的实现机制探究还不充分。从组织与环境匹配的视角,运用定性比较分析方法探究导致公司数字创业程度差异的多重因素及组态机制。运用367家企业的调研数据分析表明,高管团队自省性是驱动公司数字创业的必要条件,而技术外溢性的缺失是抑制公司数字创业的必要因素;驱动高水平公司数字创业的路径有三条,六个因素构成的三种组态可以催生高水平的公司数字创业;抑制公司数字创业的路径有两条,五个因素构成的两种组态会抑制公司数字创业且与驱动机制呈非对称因果关系。研究结论为在位企业在数字经济时代开展组织创新活动,激发组织创业活力提供了管理启示。

关键词: 公司数字创业, 高管团队, 政策稳定性, 技术外溢性, 决策逻辑, 定性比较分析

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