Driving Innovation by Managing Entrepreneurial Orientation, Cooperation and Learning for the Sustainability of Companies in the Energy Sector

Eduardo Sánchez-García (), Bartolomé Marco-Lajara, Pedro Seva-Larrosa and Javier Martínez-Falcó
Additional contact information
Eduardo Sánchez-García: Department of Business Organization, Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, University of Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain
Bartolomé Marco-Lajara: Department of Business Organization, Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, University of Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain
Pedro Seva-Larrosa: Department of Business Organization, Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, University of Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain
Javier Martínez-Falcó: Department of Business Organization, Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, University of Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 24, 1-17

Abstract: Nowadays, the attitude of companies seems to play a relevant role in detecting and exploiting opportunities to create value, especially in terms of knowledge and cooperation. Thereon, the concept of entrepreneurial orientation has become relevant over the last years. Firms are entrepreneurially oriented when their decision-making, techniques, and procedures allow them to identify opportunities, develop a proactive mindset, and use creative ways to achieve their objectives. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and companies’ innovation capacity, in addition to the mediating effect of entrepreneurial networks and firms’ learning capacity in this relationship. A sample of 197 Spanish companies in the energy sector is analyzed using the variance-based structural equation modeling technique (PLS-SEM), using the software “SmartPLS” in its version 3.9. The results show a direct positive and significant influence of entrepreneurial orientation on companies’ innovation capacity, as well as the existence of an indirect effect through the mediation of entrepreneurial networks and the learning capacity of firms. It is concluded that businesses must dedicate time and resources to develop a strong entrepreneurial orientation which, in addition to allowing them to exploit external entrepreneurial networks, boosts their learning and innovation capabilities, favoring the development of new sustainable possibilities for value creation.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation; innovation; sustainable development; networks; knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16978/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16978/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16978-:d:1007162

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().