Corporate Entrepreneurial Behavior of Latecomer Technology Firms

Latecomer firms in newly industrialized economies (NIEs) enter the market late by no choice of their own.Rather, these NIE firms enter the market late because they encounter obstacles to developing high-technology capabilities, such as access to consumers and to technology sources. One NIE that has successfully overcome these challenges is Singapore, which utilizes a foreign direct investment method in which the government actively recruits multinational corporations (MNCs) to set up operations in Singapore.Through the MNCs, many firms are able to access consumers and technologies.The impact of the MNC is considered in this investigation of corporate entrepreneurial behavior among Singapore's latecomer technology firms.The importance of both customer orientation and technology orientation is discussed, as is the interaction between both orientations. Based on the findings of previous studies, four important strategic orientations are focused on and described, including: the evolver, the pioneer, the specialist, and the disruptor.The four strategic orientations are then explained in regard to their respective relationships with either consumers or technologies.Several propositions are presented, focusing on the hypothesized entrepreneurial orientation of a firm as based on its strategic orientation.In closing, the importance of a latecomer firm's ability to balance both consumer and technology orientations is discussed. (AKP)