Business group affiliation and entrepreneurial orientation: Contingent effect of level of internationalization and firm’s performance

Abstract

This paper explores effect of business group affiliation on entrepreneurial orientation of the affiliated firms. Building on the argument that organizational and governance structure influence entrepreneurship, we argue that despite some potential advantage that business group affiliation has on a firm through intermediate market filling roles, the entrenchment behavior of business groups discourages entrepreneurial orientation of affiliated firms. Taking a firm-specific contingent perspective we also posit that the level of internationalization of a firm and its performance helps to alleviate- even counter–the negative influence of business group affiliation on the firm’s entrepreneurial orientation. We find support for our predictions in a longitudinal data set of 419 Indian firms for the period from 2006 to 2019. The implications and directions for future research are discussed in the context of business group affiliation in emerging economies.