Influence of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Team Innovation: A Study among Small and Medium Enterprises in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on team innovation and the moderating role of power distance and collectivism in small and medium sized (SMEs) enterprises. Two hundred and two participants from 32 SMEs organizations in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana were used. A cross sectional study design was employed. Having in mind that, the entrepreneurial orientation construct has been considered as being present throughout the organizational structure without much empirical research to support this claim, this study investigated whether entrepreneurial orientation is indeed visible at various levels of the organization. This studied looked at whether individual entrepreneurial orientation, team leader entrepreneurial orientation and team entrepreneurial orientation impacted on team innovation. The result of the multiple regression conducted shows that the individual, team leader and team entrepreneurial orientations all influence or predict team innovation with team entrepreneurial orientation having the greatest impact on team innovation. The Pearson correlation conducted showed a significant positive correlation among the individual, the team, the team leader and the firm entrepreneurial orientations. The hierarchical regression results indicated that collectivism moderated the relationships between the predictor variables (individual, team leader and team EO) and the outcome variable (team innovation). However, power distance did not moderate the said relationships between the predictor variables (individual, team leader and team EO) and the outcome variable (team innovation). The rapidly changing global market that calls for the need for organizations to innovate in order to stay competitive makes the result of this study very important to leaders and mangers that run organizations particularly SMEs. Keywords: Firm, Team leader, Team and Individual entrepreneurial orientation, Team Innovation, Power Distance and Collectivism.