Content area
Full text
This research is an exploratory study on the performance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) within the French hospitality sector. The study is based on data from French hotels as it relates to the differences between high and low performing business entities. The research examines the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and the high performing organization construct. The findings suggest significant differences across a number of construct dimensions and performance. The paper concludes with a discussion and suggestions research directions.
Introduction
One of the earliest articulations of the notion of "high performance organization" (HPO) was presented by Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) in their seminal work "Organization and Environment." In their 1982 book "In Search of Excellence" Peters and Waterman popularized the notion of the HPO. Collins and Porras (1994) and Collins (2001) further entrenched the idea of the HPO in business lexicon. While the idea of high performing organizations or business entities is an appealing concept until recently the notion has remained simply that-an ideal that a business might work toward. However, if the concept is to inform management research and management practice the dimensions of the concept need to be determined, validated, and tested with respect to contingencies and boundary conditions. Recently Waal (2008; 2011; & 2012), Waal, Orij, Rosman, & Zevenbergen (2014) and Waal, Goedegebuure, & Hinfelaar (2015) have articulated the theoretical dimensions of HPOs, developed a measurement scale to empirically determine HPOs, and empirically tested the scale in a specific industry setting. While this stream of research is intriguing and potentially valuable to the field, it is very early in its development and more studies using the scale to determine dimension reliability and construct validity are necessary. There are likely contingencies under which the measurement model may not hold together and boundary conditions outside of which it will not inform the discussion. This paper is an effort to examine the HPO measurement scale using data from small businesses with the intent to also to establish relationships among other more established and accepted constructs employed in organizational research.
Therefore the purpose of this paper is to establish the usefulness of the HPO measurement scale in the context of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and explore the relationships between the HPO scale,...