A science-based approach to entrepreneurship from evolutionary genetic perspective

Abstract

The importance of entrepreneurship has been embossed within global financial crisis, and entrepreneurship has been regarded as a critical factor for firms to survive and grow. But one of the biggest problems is that entrepreneurship has various definitions by researchers, while there is no structured theory covering the whole entrepreneurship which has been changed frequently over time. This study proposes an interdisciplinary definition of entrepreneurship from its evolutionary genetic aspects to overcome the limitations and complexities in the existing definitions. This research newly defines entrepreneurship as the ‘initiator’ that manages and controls the firm`s entrepreneurial reaction propensity (e-DNA: entrepreneurial DNA), which is the combinations of firm’s entrepreneurial attributes (e-Base: entrepreneurial Base), to react optimally to environmental changes. Empirical analysis was utilized to exemplify correlation between firm performance and firm’s resource allocation. This study tries to elucidate unique patterns of resource allocation of firms in relation to their performances.For the validity and objectivity of the new definition, a series of literature reviews and technological empirical studies including mathematical matrix modeling methods was implemented. With the evolutionary genetic approach, this research analyzed the entrepreneurship patterns of firms` success. The e-DNA, the combinations of e-Base, can be optimized through empirical analysis on evolutionary process of key entrepreneurship factors. In mathematical matrix modeling, the weighted correlation coefficient (C), reaction (R), entrepreneurship (E), e-DNA (D), and e-Base (B) matrices are introduced.The procedures of this study include three steps. First, the organic aspects of individual firms were reviewed to define the new concept of entrepreneurship from evolutionary genetic perspective and the firm`s reaction was investigated in accordance with its surrounding environment. Sec...