Effects of Entrepreneur Characteristics and Software Innovativeness on Performance of Software Company: The Moderating Effects of Institutional Pressure
This study shows that a sustainable competitive advantage and entrepreneurial characteristics are necessary for a software company to achieve competitive innovation and growth. This study investigates various software company characteristics and the effects of various company factors as its main research objectives. The data used in this research model were collected from software companies in South Korea. A total of 211 questionnaires were collected over a period of two months in 2013. EXCEL, AMOS, and SPSS were used to derive the study results. The hypothesis testing results of this study are as follows. First, a software company's entrepreneurial innovativeness and risk-taking behaviors have a positive influence on software innovativeness. A greater sense of innovativeness and entrepreneurial orientation leads to a higher propensity to take risks in software development. Second, the characteristics of software innovativeness, and flexibility have a significant influence on software company performance. Innovation during the initial periods of software usage can create a high demand for improvements and new features, requiring a flexible software design. Finally, this study analyzes the software features of entrepreneurial characteristics and the influence of institutional factors on the characteristics of individual innovativeness and software development. Entrepreneurial characteristics can affect governmental or institutional support, policies, and legal frameworks to promote the role of software innovativeness. The results of this study imply that software companies can adopt an entrepreneurial approach to promote technology development and product development for achieving a competitive advantage in the industry. This study also analyzes the environmental factors that affect the software industry and their implications for policy makers.