辽宁工程技术大学毕业设计（论文）
The seeming absence of theoretical foundations in the international entrepreneurship (IE) field significantly accounts for the fragmentation of research in the area. We seek to address this deficiency through an exploration of the IE concept in the overall context in which it is embedded, namely organizational culture. We develop and discuss a conceptual framework of an International
Entrepreneurial Culture, which consists of six interrelated dimensions: international market orientation,international learning orientation, international innovation propensity, international risk attitude,international networking orientation, and international motivation.
Keywords: international entrepreneurship, organizational culture
Both entrepreneurship and international business as fields of research have experienced an explosive interest during the last decade (McDougall and Oviatt,1997, 2000; Zahra and Garvis, 2000). Entrepreneurship and internationalization are closely interrelated inasmuch as entering and venturing in foreign markets are viewed as entrepreneurial practices for the firm (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Zahra et al., 1999b; Ibeh and Young, 2001; Zahra et al., 2001). However, although inter-national entrepreneurship (IE) has recently captured the ever-growing interest of inter-national business researchers, the field is still in its infancy (Hisrich et al., 1996;Thomas and Mueller, 2000).
In spite of this, the IE term is frequently used in a variety of different instances to the extent that this can create possible misunderstandings concerning its nature and applicability. In one of the early studies in the area, McDougall (1989) argues that IE is the development of new ventures that from inception go abroad, essentially rendering IE valuable only to the examination of ``born global'' firms. This view implies that IE is associated with the international growth of only new or small ventures, an assertion seemingly encountered in other recent writings also (Dana et al., 1999; Burgel and Murray, 2000; Peng, 2001a).
Nevertheless, there have been pleas for expansion of the IE domain in order to include also international activities of firms apart from ``born globals'' (Giamartino et al.,
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李辛梅：红珏高级时装有限公司企业文化研究
1993; Zahra and Schulte, 1994). To some degree, these considerations stem from the view that entrepreneurship is a behavior that equally holds for new and established as well as small and large firms (Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990; Covin and Slevin, 1991; Naman and Slevin, 1993). Therefore, recently McDougall and Oviatt (2000) suggested that IE should include the mixture of innovative, proactive, and risk-seeking behavior across borders. In addition, Zahra and George (2002) defined IE as a process in which the firm would discover and exploit opportunities in the international marketplace. Both definitions seek to capture the entrepreneurial behavior of any firm abroad regardless of age or size.
Also, many studies in IE seem to be devoid of holistic frameworks, a fact that can lead to fragmentation of research in the field. There is a need for development of theoretical frameworks in the IE area (McDougall and Oviatt, 2000; Thomas and Mueller, 2000) that may guide future empirical studies. The scarcity of holistic frameworks is a problem frequently encountered in the entrepreneurship field also (Brazeal and Herbert, 1999; Bruyat and Julien, 2000; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000), although as an area of intellectual study it has been around for over two hundred years (Morris, 1998).
The contribution of this paper is that it provides a conceptual framework for the examination of IE by investigating the general context in which it is embedded, namely organizational culture (OC). In accord with recent definitions and trends, we posit that IE can apply to any age or size of the firm. We explore the IE concept by investigating its overall organizational context in which it is embedded. The entrepreneurial activities of the firm are closely connected with its OC (Kanter, 1985;Zahra et al., 2001). By conceptualizing an international entrepreneurial culture (IEC)and exploring its six dimensions we provide the aspects of an encompassing framework for the IE construct employing concepts from organization theory studies. Toward this objective, we also use ideas from the IE, entrepreneurship and international business literatures.
Researchers (McDougall and Oviatt, 2000; Zahra and Garvis, 2000) seem to define
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辽宁工程技术大学毕业设计（论文）
and measure IE through the degree of innovativeness, risk taking, and proactiveness of the firm in international markets, a practice compatible with the customary operationalization of entrepreneurship (Zahra et al., 1999a; Lyon et al., 2000). However, we suggest that in order to comprehensively capture both its entrepreneurial and international business dimensions, an IEC should be expressed through six rather than three dimensions: international market orientation, international learning orientation, international innovation propensity, international risk attitude, international networking dimension, and international motivation.The paper is structured as follows. In the second section, we suggest a definition of IE in order to clarify this construct and establish its boundaries. We additionally discuss five aspects that are linked to the IE construct. In the third section, we elaborate on the concept of OC and approach it through a dynamic perspective that isof importance to our objectives. In the fourth section, we elaborate on the procedure we followed in order to come up with the dimensions of an IEC. In the fifth section,we propose and discuss the six dimensions of an IEC of the firm by drawing on studies of organization theory, IE, entrepreneurship, and international business.In the concluding section, we provide a synopsis and suggest directions for further research. A definition of international entrepreneurship
We propose that international entrepreneurship is an organization-wide process which is embedded in the organizational culture of the firm and which seeks through the exploitation of opportunities in the international marketplace to generate value. Five aspects are associated with this statement.
First, IE as an organization-wide phenomenon extends to all hierarchical levels and geographic boundaries of the firm. This implies that it is not specific to the top-levels of the organization, the foreign country subsidiaries or the international operations department. The entrepreneurial capabilities of top-level managers represent a major resource strength (Penrose, 1959; Castanias and Helfat, 1991). Nevertheless, the organizational context favors the empowerment of middle- and low-level managers and employees in firms with an entrepreneurial posture (Peters and Waterman,
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李辛梅：红珏高级时装有限公司企业文化研究
1982;Covin and Slevin, 1991; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Hornsby et al., 2002). This is expected in an internationalized firm also since these managers and employees often contact and interact with the international markets of the firm, and thus, may generate innovative ideas on how to service them better.In addition, the fact that IE is an organization-wide phenomenon presupposes that it is not solely an individual entrepreneur event, notwithstanding the major effect that specific people within the firm may have on generating and pursuing entrepreneurial ideas (Horne et al., 1992;Man et al., 2002).
Second, IE is a process, suggesting that IE embraces a dynamic and evolving development whose end products may take considerable time to materialize. In order to be successful, such a process can involve interrelated and integrated decisions(Jones, 1999) necessitating a significant degree of resource commitment (Mackenzie,2000). The outcomes of this process may be attained over a long-term horizon(cf. Pettigrew, 1997; Van de Ven and Poole, 1995) because investments in entrepreneurship should be assessed like any other investment whose results take place in the long run (Wiklund, 1999). By stressing this process feature we corroborate the same view recently expressed by Zahra and George (2002) concerning IE, and also shared by many scholars regarding entrepreneurship (Low and MacMillan, 1988; Brazeal and Herbert, 1999; Bruyat and Julien, 2000; Ireland et al.,2001; Ucbasaran et al., 2001).
Third, IE is embedded in the OC of the firm, a statement that forms the central thesis in this paper. We argue that in order to fully understand the manifestations of IE, which is viewed as a process, we have to examine the outer and over all organizational context in which it is embedded. We fully concur with Pettigrew's argument in that ``processes are embedded in contexts and can only be studied as such'' (1992: 9). In addition, OC may be an important contextual factor affecting the response of the firm to international entrepreneurial motives (cf. Liesch and Knight,1999). In order to nurture and foster an entrepreneurial posture firms should establish an OC that helps nourish such a posture (Cornwall and Perlman, 1990;Covin
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辽宁工程技术大学毕业设计（论文）
and Slevin, 1991). Also, the entrepreneurial activity viewed as an organizational behavior can be seen as influenced by the cultural fabric of the firm (Meyer, 1982). Drawing on these arguments, we argue that research into the area of IE can benefit from an OC orientation and the respective concepts of the organization theory literature.
Fourth, IE evolves around the discovery and exploitation of opportunities in the international marketplace. The theme of exploitation of opportunities lies in the heart of entrepreneurship research (Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990; Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000; Brown et al., 2001; Hitt et al., 2001). Such a pursuit of opportunities can be achieved through the creation of ``new enterprises'' (Low and MacMillan, 1988), which is closely associated with the organization and recombinations of resources (Moran and Ghoshal, 1999; Davidsson and Wiklund, 2001; Gartner, 2001), and the entry into new markets or market segments (Schumpeter,1934; Lumpkin and Dess, 1996). From a rather extreme viewpoint, some researchers assert that real entrepreneurs create and pursue opportunities regardless of the resources possessed (Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990; Timmons, 1994). While this may seem an overstatement, we posit that international entrepreneurial firms possess a mindset that enables recognition of opportunities in the international marketplace and views exploitation of them achievable (cf. Hisrich and O'Brien, 1982).
附录C调查问卷
确定企业文化类型
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