Organizational learning, top management team’s entrepreneurial alertness, and corporate entrepreneurship in high-tech firms

This study investigates the mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness of a top managementteam (TMT) between organizational learning and corporate entrepreneurship (CE). Weconducted two studies. In Study 1, based on TMT members’ responses from a group ofKorean companies, we examined a factor structure of TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness andits influence on CE. We identified that TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness is a second-orderconstruct, constituting scanning and searching, association and connection, and evaluationand judgment, which positively influence CE. In Study 2, based on TMT members’responses from another group of Korean companies, we confirmed a second-order structureof TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness. Furthermore, while breadth and depth of learningpositively influenced TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness, speed of learning had a negativeeffect. In addition, TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness partially mediated the relationshipbetween breadth of learning and CE, and fully mediated the relationship between depth oflearning and CE. This study contributes to extending the concept of entrepreneurial alertnessto a TMT context and identifying TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness as an organizationalcapability. It helps understand how the three attributes of organizational learning canheterogeneously contribute to TMTs’ entrepreneurial alertness and CE in organizations.