Abstract:
The relationship between business objectives, human resources orientations, growth limitations and competitive advantage is investigated for four past-future growth opportunity types (exhausted, turnaround, maturing, continuing) for Japanese High-Tech entrepreneurs. The results indicate that entrepreneurs perceiving continuing growth opportunities show clear all-embracing relationships between business objectives, human resources orientations and competitive advantage with a thoughtful concern for growth limitations. Firms characterized by exhausted, turnaround and maturing growth opportunities show less comprehensive relationships among the four constructs. Concluding, we find that the past performance is driven by a relationship between the business objectives of the founder and competitive advantage, while the perceived future growth opportunity is largely determined by the strength of the relationship between the founder’s business objectives and HRM orientations.
