A significant amount of strategy research has centered on the importance of top management (e.g., Hambrick and Mason 1984) and entrepreneurial behavior (e.g., Covin and Slevin 1989; Lumpkin and Dess 1996) in determining firm performance. However, there has been a paucity of research examining how the entrepreneurial orientation of the top manager might enhance the performance of firms competing in today’s more dynamic and competitive economic environment (Bettis and Hitt 1995).
Hamel (2000) suggests that in order to successfully navigate an ever changing economy, strategic leaders need to position their organizations to: (1) Capture existing markets while also creating new ones; (2) Seize market share from more conservative and less innovative competitors; and (3)
Acquire the customers, assets, and perhaps even the employees of slow growing incumbent firms. Accomplishing these goals in a complex landscape requires that a manager display entrepreneurial leadership abilities (Ireland, Hitt and Sirmon 2003).