A Comparative Study of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Information Technology Utilization, New Product Success and Firm Performance: The Case of US and Thai Firms

This study seeks to ascertain the extent to which the success of new product development (NPD) is related to the critical organizational innovation activities of entrepreneurship and IT utilization among firms of two different countries - the U.S. and Thailand. The interest here is in discovering if, and how, these relationships may be different between the two national culture groups of firms. Employing a survey questionnaire, data were obtained from a total sample of 159 strategic business units representing 12 different industries. Path analysis was applied to examine the hypothesized relationships among entrepreneurial orientation, IT utilization, two aspects of NPD success and firm performance. The results reveal several notable differences between the two groups of firms. First, for both groups, there is a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and IT utilization, however, the relationship is stronger for the Thai group, contrary to what was initially expected. Second, for both groups, IT utilization does not have a relationship with NPD process effectiveness, however, for the U.S. group, IT utilization has a significant positive relationship with NPD product performance. Finally, for both groups of firms, NPD process effectiveness does not have a significant positive relationship with firm performance but NPD product performance does. Results, implications, recommendations for future research, and limitations are given.