Great Ideas need More than Guts to Grow
Innovation isn’t born in a vacuum. It takes guts, yes — but also generosity. New research shows that risk-taking firms only gain a real edge when they combine entrepreneurial ambition with structured knowledge-sharing systems. In fast-moving, resource-tight environments, collaboration isn’t a soft skill. It’s a competitive advantage — and the key to survival.
Too often, the story of innovation is a superficial one, with too many people looking only at the snazzy advances of traditional technology hotspots. The true furnace of competitive advantage, at least in this age of inexorable change, lies in something much more central: the interdependent processes of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and knowledge sharing (KS).
An interesting new study has provided a new, data-based understanding of these ideas – a strong reminder that these are not merely academic or theoretical concepts, but rather keys to growth in a resource-craved environment. Innovation is not a luxury, it is a vicious necessity. Companies which do not manage to constantly innovate are, literally, on the fast track to obsolescence. And in emerging economies, which are usually considered to offer riskier terrains, stakes may be even greater.
The Entrepreneurial Compass
The notion of entrepreneurial orientation tries to embody the strategic stance of an organization in its desire to take risks, innovate and be proactive. It works as an internal compass within the company – helping it lead the way to new possibilities and expand boundaries.
The study’s analysis using data provided by such key Jordanian telecom giants as Zain, Orange, and Umniah revealed the fact that the effect of EO on innovation performance (IP) is moderate to significantly positive. This is by no means a surprise. Innovation naturally results when a company insists that people should test new things, identify holes in the market before competitors detect them and take risks in committing something despite uncertainty. They are companies which internationalize global technologies and adopt them in local situations, coping with such difficulties as shortage of resources or varying laws.
Yet, a strong entrepreneurial culture, powerful as it is, can be just a flash in the pan without a strong infrastructure of knowledge sharing. Collaboration does not only happen in formal databases; KS is also about the natural transfer and delivery of expertise, lessons learned and good practice across functions and hierarchies. It is the circulatory system that brings life-giving ideas to all the limbs of the organization body and ensures ideas do not die in the silos.
This fundamental role in the research is undoubtedly supported: EO plays an important role in KS, and KS, in its turn, has a positive influence on innovation performance. On a deeper level, research presents the fact that knowledge sharing is a serious mediator of the interconnection between EO and IP. It is a deep observation, implying that the potential energy of an entrepreneurial mind needs to be thoroughly converted into practical innovation via the channel of common knowledge. One which tells its employees that it wants them to be risk-takers and proactive and then does not have a way to make the process of what the employees learn efficient and systematic is literally leaving money on the table.
This message could not be simpler to managers in Jordan and industries in general, and to any company operating in a fast-paced market: encouraging an entrepreneurial culture cannot take place without the development of open and dynamic knowledge-sharing activities. This includes investment in research and development, experimentation laboratories, the use of customer data to provide customer-specific services, keeping one step ahead of market tendencies, and, most importantly, the implementation of effective knowledge management and cross-functional collaboration. To policymakers, there is a call to reduce bureaucracy, provide incentives in terms of investment in innovation, and promote interaction between universities, research institutes and enterprises.
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It is not just entrepreneurial vision, which can guide the way, but it is the wisdom of the crowd – shared knowledge – which will sustain the trip to innovation. It is the invisible handshake which makes ambition – competitive advantage.Read Qasim, D., Shuhaiber, A. & Rawshdeh, Z. The impact of entrepreneurial orientation on innovation performance: the role of knowledge sharing as a mediating factor. J Innov Entrep 14, 83 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-025-00543-3