Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the mediating role of market orientation in the relationship between social skills and organizational entrepreneurship in Nab Steel Company. The current research is developmental and applicable in terms of its purpose, and descriptive-correlative in terms of the nature and method of data collection. And it is specifically based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this research is all the employees of Nab Steel Company of Mazandaran, which are 150 people; and according to Morgan's table, 108 people were selected as a sample and the random sampling method is simple. In the current research, three questionnaires were used, including the organizational entrepreneurship questionnaire of Robbins and Coulter (1996), the social skills of entrepreneurs of Matson's standard questionnaire, and the market orientation questionnaire of Narur and Slater. The findings of the research showed that the index of social skills has a coefficient of 0.718, or in other words, a 71.8% effect on organizational entrepreneurship with the presence of the mediating variable of market orientation in Nab Steel Company. At the confidence level of 0.95 and according to the t-value which is equal to 18.577, it can be said that there is a relationship between social skills on organizational entrepreneurship using the mediating component of market orientation in Nab Steel Company.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Entrepreneurship is one of the skills of the 21st century, during which people learn how to start a new business and succeed in their career (Amiri, 2020). Efficient and successful organizations are organizations that consider entrepreneurship as an inseparable part of their characteristics and make no effort to strengthen the spirit of organizational entrepreneurship (Rahimi & Rahimi, 2022). Baron & Markman(2003) believe that one of the components of this equation is the social skill of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs' social skills are effectiveness in interacting with others and setting relationships with them, which are influenced by individual characteristics and environmental factors (Rezai, 2019). With the increase in the competitive level of the markets, the use of innovation strategy to gain a competitive advantage has achieved a special place. Therefore, identifying factors affecting the success of innovation strategy has become very important. One of these factors is market orientation. Market orientation is the most important factor in the success of innovative strategies of companies (Lio, 2013; Newman et al, 2016; Fernandes Sampaio, 2020). In fact, the concept of market orientation, developed by marketing researchers, serves as a strategic framework to ensure the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage (Buratti, 2021).
According to the mentioned points, the researcher is trying to answer the main question of whether market orientation plays a mediating role in the relationship between social skills and organizational entrepreneurship in Nab Steel Company.
Theoretical framework
Market orientation means marketing, and a organizational culture that provides a greater value for customers, and must be clarified in the company's activities and processes (Noruzi et al, 2017). Market orientation is an important source at data collecting about the customers and the competitors (yan et al, 2017). Social skills refer to ability of making effective communication with others. This skill has various dimensions in the service industry, such as: the ability of making a good personal relationship with the customers, offering services to the customers in a friendly and truthfully way, truthful relationship with the customers, eager to help and offer full information to the customers (Ainin et al, 2015). Organizational entrepreneurship is a programmed and purposeful process that is supported and advertised by organizations in the current organizational framework in order to log out of the inactivity, proper reaction toward the changes, and better use of the existing resources. Organizational entrepreneurship is used to describe the existence of the inner entrepreneurship tendencies of the employees (Hermawan et al, 2021).
Naeiji et al, (2022) conducted the effect of market orientation and innovation strategies in the innovative performance of the knowledge-based companies. The results indicate that the market orientation's both dimensions are effective on the discovery and utilizing. Also, there is a positive relationship between the innovation strategies and performance; however, the discovery innovation is more effective on the innovative performance than utilizing innovation.
Rashed Hasan Polas & Rajo (2021) investigated the technology and decision making of entrepreneurship marketing during Covid 19 crisis. This study shows a positive and significant relationship between the entrepreneurship opportunities recognition, opportunity development, and utilizing of opportunities; and entrepreneurship marketing decision making. Also, it has been shown that the entrepreneurship enthusiasm plays a mediating role in the relation between entrepreneurship opportunity recognition and opportunity development, and entrepreneurship marketing decision making.
Methodology
In terms of the objective, the current research is of the type of applicable and developmental, and in terms of the method used, it is a descriptive-correlative research. The statistical population of this research is all the employees of Nab Steel Company of Mazandaran, which are 150 people; And according to Morgan's table, 108 people were selected as samples. A simple random sampling method was used in this research. In order to collect data related to the organizational entrepreneurship variable, the organizational entrepreneurship questionnaire by Rabinz & Kolter 1(996), and the social skill variable of entrepreneurs was used from the standard Matson questionnaire, and the market orientation variable was used from Neror & Slater's market orientation questionnaire.
Research findings
In order to investigate the hypothesis of the research, the modeling of structural equations, the method of structural equation modeling with the help of spss software was used to test the hypotheses from inferential statistics. Then, regression was used to test the hypotheses with pls software, confirmatory and content factor analysis, as well as the effect of factors; and the results of the main hypothesis showed that the index of social skills with a coefficient of 0.718, or in other words, 71.8% on organizational entrepreneurship with the presence of the market mediator variable Orientation has an effect in Nab Steel Company. At the confidence level of 0.95 and according to the t-value which is equal to 18.577, it can be said that there is a relationship between social skills on organizational entrepreneurship using the mediating component of market orientation in Nab Steel Company. The results of the first sub-hypothesis showed that the index of social skills with a coefficient of 0.388, in other words, has an effect of 38.8% on market orientation in Nab Steel Company. At the confidence level of 0.95 and according to the t-value which is equal to 3.755, it can be said that there is a relationship between social skills and market orientation in Nab Steel Company. The results of the second sub-hypothesis showed that the index of social skills with a coefficient of 0.725, in other words, has an effect of 72.5% on organizational entrepreneurship in Nab Steel Company. At the confidence level of 0.95 and according to the t-value which is equal to 18.218, it can be said that there is a relationship between social skills and organizational entrepreneurship in Nab Steel Company. The results of the third sub-hypothesis showed that the organizational entrepreneurship index with a coefficient of 0.384, in other words, has an effect of 38.4% on market orientation in Nab Steel Company. At the confidence level of 0.95 and according to the t-value which is equal to 3.263, it can be said that there is a relationship between market orientation and organizational entrepreneurship in Nab Steel Company.
Conclusion
The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the mediating role of market orientation in the relationship between social skills and organizational entrepreneurship in Nab Steel Company. These results are consistent with the findings of researchers such as Allahyar (2020), Rashed Hasan Polas & Rajo (2021), Naeiji et al, (2022), Azaryan & Haji Pour Shoshtari (2021); and with the research of Fathi & Moeini (2021) and Job Rodrigo-Alarcon et al, (2017) does not match; entrepreneurs' social skill through understanding customers' needs can lead to product innovation and proactiveness towards competitors, and in this way organizational entrepreneurship can be achieved. Social skills help improve their marketing skills. In fact, entrepreneurs with social skills are capable of high social understanding, and in this way, they can understand customers' views of current products and their needs for new products faster, and as a result, collect market information more easily than their competitors and with Using the feature of self-openness, make it available to other members of the organization, and in this way, involve all members of their organization with issues related to the market and customer needs and respond to them, which in turn can be a big step in the direction of the organization's progress through product innovation and as a result the development of the organization. Also, the social skills of entrepreneurs through understanding the needs of customers can lead to product innovation and proactiveness towards competitors, and in this way, organizational entrepreneurship can be achieved. According to the results of the research, it is suggested that the entrepreneurs of industrial and manufacturing companies, in addition to strengthening their communication skills, pay special attention to their communication skills in the recruitment of the company's employees, especially in the marketing department. It is also necessary that entrepreneurs of industrial and manufacturing companies use their communication skills to establish more communication with customers and in this way identify their needs and transfer this need to all organizational forces so that they can be a driving force at the organization level to respond to the needs of customers.