Investigating factors affecting the desire for organizational entrepreneurship (a case study of private banks in Rasht city

Academic Thesis for Master's degree (M.Sc.)

Department: Business Management, Domestic Business Orientation

Abstract

Today, organizations not only need to cultivate entrepreneurial behavior in order to compete successfully in this changing and complex environment, but also to be more creative and innovative in order to survive and grow. Therefore, in order for organizations to be more competitive in the market, they must have an entrepreneurial approach. To benefit from the benefits of organizational entrepreneurship, it is necessary to know the factors that influence the tendency to develop innovative and entrepreneurial behaviors in the organization. Therefore, the present research has investigated the factors affecting the desire for organizational entrepreneurship. In order to achieve the objectives of the research, the private banks of Rasht (including Saderat Iran, Mellat, Qavamin, Parsian, Pasargad, and Tejarat Bank) were investigated. To collect data, 400 questionnaires were distributed in 40 branches of these six active private banks in Rasht city (10 questionnaires per branch), from which 328 acceptable questionnaires were extracted and analyzed. In addition, in the current research, the available non-probability sampling method was used. In the following, structural equation modeling was used to test the 7 hypotheses proposed in this research. The research method is practical and causal in terms of purpose. The results obtained from the hypothesis test show that attitude, mental norms as well as perceived behavioral control have a direct effect on the desire for organizational entrepreneurship. Also, the variables of motivation, individual skills, perceived environmental support and perceived environmental dynamism indirectly affect the desire for organizational entrepreneurship. In addition, it was determined that the variables of motivation and individual skills have a positive effect on attitude, and the variables of perceived environmental support and perceived environmental dynamism also have a positive effect on perceived behavioral control. Key words: organizational entrepreneurship, banking industry, innovation. Extensive changes, increasing complexity and competition, and today's organizations operate in a complex yet dynamic environment. Huge and continuous changes are the characteristics of this environment and business environment, which highlights the need to pay attention to harmony with the environment (Menzel et al., 2007, 737). On the other hand, the global economy is about to transform and create deep and fundamental changes, and of course, production and service organizations are not exempt from this. Environmental and competitive conditions are so complex, dynamic and uncertain that organizations can no longer guarantee their long-term survival and survival with only structural changes such as changing methods, systems, structure, technology, etc. (668, 2012, Boso et al). Also, they cannot overcome small, agile, innovative, opportunistic and low-cost competitors with only a number of creative and entrepreneurial people or the implementation of several entrepreneurial plans (D'Souza and Mulla, 2011, 209), but must provide conditions for all employees to find an entrepreneurial spirit and be able to carry out their entrepreneurial activities easily, continuously and individually or in a group. This requires the implementation of an important phenomenon called organizational entrepreneurship (Hosseinpour and Zarei Vash, 1389, 171-172). Organizational entrepreneurship means the company's commitment to create and introduce new products, new processes, and new organizational systems (Maghdisi, 2008, 3). In other words, organizational entrepreneurship is a process in which products or processes are innovated through the induction and creation of an entrepreneurial culture in an organization in order to achieve innovative results. This process requires the desire to be an entrepreneur. The desire for organizational entrepreneurship refers to the conceptualization and implementation of an idea, process, product, service or a new business (Srivastava and Agrawal, 2010, 164). As a result, identifying factors affecting organizational entrepreneurship has become a necessity for organizations today. Organizational entrepreneurship is influenced by many factors, and in this research, based on the research model of Finney et al. (2013), the impact of motivation, individual skills, perceived environmental support, perceived environmental dynamics, attitude, mental norms, and perceived behavioral control on organizational entrepreneurship will be measured.In Iran, due to recent developments in the banking industry, such as the expansion of private banks and the joining of state-owned banks to the private sector, the competition in this industry is increasing. (Mohammadians and Shafi's, 1387, 55). On the other hand, until the last few years, Iran's banking industry was completely dominated by the government sector, and banks operated in a non-competitive and stable environment and did not see the need to pay attention to the quality of services, but in recent years, the emergence of private banks changed the atmosphere of the banking industry, and now the competition in this sector has also increased greatly (Shahin and Abolhasani, 2019). The increase in the number of banks and the competition between them has resulted in consequences such as a decrease in market share. Therefore, in order to gain more market share, banks are inevitably looking for ways to gain more satisfaction and loyalty of their customers. Considering the intensity of competition in the banking industry, today many of these banks are looking for entrepreneurial and innovative ideas and show more inclination and enthusiasm to use entrepreneurship (Dess et al., 2003, 352). The complexity and turbulence of today's business environment has forced organizations to increase their capabilities in responding to environmental changes. In response to significant changes in the business environment, many organizations attach more importance to entrepreneurship to create new value for their customers (Mobini Dehkordi, 2013, 48). In fact, the environmental conditions of an organization and its wide demand, as well as the existence of opportunities and threats, have made strategic decision-making a key element in the organization. Taking advantage of organizational entrepreneurship and innovative ideas that originate from within the organization are among the strategies that some organizations use. With the institutionalization of entrepreneurship in the organization, not only the people of the organization become interested in making changes in their surrounding environment, but they also accept the desired innovations of the organization more easily, and as a result, the organization adapts to the environment faster (Kamalian et al., 2019, 184). Unlike conservative organizations that are risk-averse and far from innovation, entrepreneurial organizations are risk-taking, innovative and progressive (Yadollahi Farsi and others, 2015, 58). The entrepreneurial tendencies of the people of the organization is one of the basic and necessary characteristics for the high performance of the organization (Mobini Dehkordi, 2013, 48). Organizational entrepreneurship is one of the factors that has the greatest impact on the success and economic growth of companies, countries and governments. The necessity of organizational entrepreneurship is caused by the inconsistency and slow reaction of organizations to the ever-increasing, rapid, complex and uncertain changes in the environment, and it introduces the speed of action and innovation as the key factors and the key to the life and survival of the organization in today's intensive competition scene (Yadollahi Farsi and others, 2015, 56-56). Therefore, identifying and paying attention to the factors affecting the desire for organizational entrepreneurship is considered the first step and the most fundamental problem of today's organizations. Organizational entrepreneurship is considered an important element in economic and organizational development and can be important not only for large organizations, but also for small and medium-sized organizations (Bohringer and Maurer, 2004). In addition, organizational entrepreneurship causes structural changes, challenging the culture of the ruling organization, forming entrepreneurial groups and creating a common vision between employees and managers to achieve the goal of the organization and ultimately become an entrepreneur of the organization (Yadollahi Farsi and others, 2015, 59). In fact, organizational entrepreneurship is a process in which the organization tries so that all employees can perform their duties in the role of entrepreneur and all individual and group entrepreneurial activities are continuously, quickly and easily achieved in the central or covered organization. In organizational entrepreneurship, an organization provides an environment so that members can participate in entrepreneurial affairs and during which innovative products, services or processes emerge through the creation of an entrepreneurial culture (Ansari and Salmanizadeh, 1388, 171-172). Today, many organizations have realized the necessity of organizational entrepreneurship. This change of orientation in the strategy of organizations is in response to three needs that have been imposed on them: 1) the rapid increase of new competitors, 2) creating a sense of distrust towards traditional management methods in organizations and 3) the departure of the best workers from organizations and their action to independent entrepreneurship (478, 2012, Adonisi and Van Wyk).