攘外还是安内?绩效落差、制度感知与企业家时间分配

External Networking or Internal Management?Performance Shortfalls,Perception of Institutional Environment,and Entrepreneurs'Time Allocation

面对企业绩效落差,企业家将如何回应并采取行动?现有研究虽然建立了绩效落差与众多企业行为(如研发与创新、并购、战略调整以及组织学习等)之间的直接关联,但忽略了绩效反馈模型中信息解读与问题评估等相关过程及其对最终决策的影响。在整合企业行为理论和制度理论的基础上,本文提出企业家的制度环境感知将影响其对绩效反馈的信息解读和问题归因,进而影响企业家后续的搜寻行为和战略选择,这为打开绩效反馈过程这一“黑箱”提供了解释。基于全国私营企业抽样调查数据的分析,本文发现:企业家的制度环境感知影响其对企业绩效落差的归因,继而影响企业家的时间分配。具体而言,当企业家感知到制度环境稳定向好时,会更多地将企业绩效落差归因为内部管理问题,从而加大在企业管理事务方面的时间投入;而当他们感知到制度环境恶化时,则更有可能将企业绩效落差归因于外部公关问题,从而加大在企业公关活动方面的时间投入。

In the face of performance shortfalls,how will entrepreneurs respond and take actions?Although existing studies have estab-lished a direct relationship between performance shorfalls and diverse organization behaviors and outcomes(e.g.,R&D,mergers and ac-quisitions,strategy adjustment,and organizational learning,etc.),they have ignored the role of information interpretation and problem assessment in the process of performance feedback and their impact on the final decisions.Integrating the behavioral theory of the firm and institutional theory,we propose that entrepreneurs'p perception of the institutional environment will affect their feedback interpretation and problem attribution,leading to subsequent search behaviors and strategic choices.Our study helps open up the"black box"of performance feedback process.Using data from a nationwide survey of Chinese entrepreneurial firms conducted in 2010,we find that entrepreneurs'perception of the institutional environment has a significant impact on their atribution of firm performance shortfalls,which in turn can influence their time allocation decisions.Specifically,when entrepreneurs perceive that the institutional environment is stable and well-functioning,they are more likely to attribute the performance shortfalls to internal management problems,thus investing more time in internal-oriented management activities.In contrast,as the perceived deterioration of the institutional environment increa-ses,they are more likely to attribute the performance shortfalls to external networking problems,leading them to allocate more time to ex-ternal-oriented networking activities.