Entrepreneurial Orientation and Knowledge Integration: The Case of Mature Companies

Abstract

The dynamically changing environment of companies, in addition to the continuous collection and analysis of information, forces adaptation to the internal and external conditions of the business environment. Adaptation of companies and maintaining a competitive advantage is possible thanks to appropriate actions of the organization, including knowledge management, which consists of a number of elements and actions. It can be indicated that the knowledge resources of the organization are the most important source allowing for gaining a competitive advantage, and knowledge management (KM) is an important element of the entire process of managing the organization. One of the areas in the process of managing the organization's knowledge is knowledge integration (KI). According to the literature review, KI is an important element influencing the company's results, the ability to collect and process the organization's characteristic information resources, and is of key importance, among others, for the innovativeness of companies. The literature review indicates that many organizational behaviors correlate with KM, including entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The EO concept describes strategic behaviors of enterprises expressed by the desire to implement innovations, take risks, and take proactive actions more intensively than competitors. The paper is based on a review of international literature and the results of own research on a group of mature companies. The aim of the article is to identify dimensions of EO that affect KI in organizations. The actual research was preceded by a pilot study. During the study, an original questionnaire was used. The study involved 280 randomly selected Polish enterprises. The analysis conducted using descriptive statistics and linear regression indicated the relationship between dimensions of EO and KI in the organization. In addition, it enabled the identification of EO dimensions, which dimensions influence the level of KI in the organization. The conducted study has limitations, but it also constitutes a contribution to science. The novelty of the article is the indication of dimensions of EO that correlate most strongly with the level of KI in the organization.