Linking information technology use with corporate entrepreneurship: The mediation role of openness to external knowledge

Abstract

Firms are increasingly applying multiple information technologies (ITs) to pursue corporate entrepreneurship. However, how different ITs can be leveraged collectively to achieve corporate entrepreneurship remains largely underexplored. Drawing upon the knowledge‐based view, we develop an integrative theoretical model to delineate how three types of commonly deployed IT (i.e. organisational enterprise systems use, organisational social media use and top management team social media use) can be used collectively in the knowledge acquisition and utilisation processes to achieve corporate entrepreneurship. Specifically, we posit that organisational IT uses (i.e. organisational enterprise systems use and organisational social media use) enhance openness to external knowledge in the knowledge acquisition process, which in turn serves as the mediation mechanism to channel organisational IT uses into corporate entrepreneurship. Moreover, top management team IT use (i.e. top management team social media use) shapes the effect of openness to external knowledge on corporate entrepreneurship in the knowledge utilisation process. The empirical analysis using multi‐respondent survey data from 1252 managers in 313 firms provides strong support for the proposed model. This study contributes to the information systems research on how IT influences corporate entrepreneurship by distinguishing the roles of organisational enterprise systems use, organisational social media use and top management team social media use in enhancing corporate entrepreneurship through firms' openness to external knowledge.