Author(s): Hector Montiel-Campos
In contrast to previous research that emphasizes strategic decision making in general, this study investigates how middle managers’ entrepreneurial capabilities and their interaction with the environment influence two broad dimensions of the strategic decision process. Data were collected from 113 middle managers in Mexico, and a hierarchical moderated regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses presented in the study. The results demonstrate that middle managers’ entrepreneurial passion for developing is related to each dimension of the strategic decision process, namely strategic decision comprehensiveness and strategic decision speed. Furthermore, these relationships are moderated by environmental dynamism. On the other hand, the results also show that middle managers’ entrepreneurial alertness is only related to strategic decision speed and not to strategic decision comprehensiveness, maintaining in the same sense the moderating effect of environmental dynamism. This study contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship and strategy by demonstrating that entrepreneurial capabilities at the individual level are important precursors for the strategic decision-making process and that this relationship can be better understood when the influence of the context is considered.