Purpose

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is highly emerging in the management literature. However, recent studies highlight the necessity to associate with reflections on this theme, usually approached from an economic perspective, propositions also derived from relational approaches. This paper aims to investigate associations between EO and social networks, specifically about the still little explored relational coupling/decoupling theme.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides an empirical and qualitative study of religious entrepreneurs. A total of 18 pastors responsible for creating and leading independent neo-Pentecostal churches located in Belo Horizonte/Brazil, selected using the snowball technique, participated in this qualitative, case-study research. Two analysis categories guided data collection: pastors’ EO (behaviors suggestive of their innovativeness, proactivity, competitive aggressiveness, risk-taking and autonomy) and churches’ social framework (the resources and attributes that pastors obtain from their institutional structure).

Findings

The study concludes that pastors combine attributes representing their EO and their social structure in developing their religious endeavors.

Research limitations/implications

Among the limitations are the restricted use of semi-structured interviews as a data collection source and the absence of data proving the churches’ performance.

Originality/value

The paper contributes by showing that entrepreneurs can influence the structure of their networks by using EO; proving that networks influence pastors’ EO; revealing recursivity between EO and networks; emphasizing a relational dimension of the EO construct and presenting new theoretical propositions that can be explored and tested in future investigations.

中文翻译：

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对创业取向的关系影响：巴西小型宗教企业的探索性研究

目的

创业导向 (EO) 在管理文献中高度新兴。然而，最近的研究强调了与对这个主题的反思联系起来的必要性，通常从经济角度进行探讨，命题也来自关系方法。本文旨在研究 EO 和社交网络之间的关联，特别是关于仍然很少探索的关系耦合/解耦主题。

设计/方法/方法

本文对宗教企业家进行了实证和定性研究。共有 18 位牧师负责创建和领导位于贝洛奥里藏特/巴西的独立新五旬节教会，他们使用滚雪球技术选出，参与了这项定性的案例研究。两个分析类别指导数据收集：牧师的EO（暗示他们创新、主动、竞争进取、冒险和自主的行为）和教会的社会框架（牧师从其制度结构中获得的资源和属性）。

发现

该研究得出的结论是，牧师在发展他们的宗教努力时，将代表他们的 EO 和他们的社会结构的属性结合起来。

研究限制/影响

限制之一是限制使用半结构化访谈作为数据收集来源，以及缺乏证明教会表现的数据。

原创性/价值

该论文的贡献在于表明企业家可以通过使用 EO 来影响他们的网络结构；证明网络影响牧师的EO；揭示 EO 和网络之间的递归性；强调 EO 结构的关系维度，并提出可以在未来调查中探索和测试的新理论命题。