Manifestação da orientação empreendedora em organizações sem fins lucrativos: estudo em associações médicas brasileiras

Abstract

In accomplishing this mission, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) can carry out several actions that reveal characteristics of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) in the following dimensions: innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, autonomy and competitive aggressiveness, in addition to reciprocity, which has appeared more recently as a proposed dimension, considering the singularities in the nonprofit context. The current study has as its central theme EO in NPOs, especially in Ophthalmologic Medical Associations (OMAs). Faced with the questioning of “how is the manifestation of EO in NPOs characterized?”, the main aim is to propose a theoretical and practical model with a set of dimensions and factors that characterize the manifestation of EO in NPOs organizations. An qualitative exploratory study were carried out. By means of secondary data (analysis of documents, archived records and site research), the field of study was contextualized. Whereas primary data, taken from 11 in-depth interviews with sector specialists, contributed to the identification of several actions carried out by the OMAs surveyed. For the qualitative analysis of data, the use of Atlas.ti software contributed to the carrying out of content analysis, and the method of constant comparison. As a result, from analysis empirical of the theoretical model, distinctive situations were retaken and adjustments, inclusions and exclusions of words and factors proposed, refining and enriching the original base of EO. the dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking were consolidated with the same total of initial factors, even after exclusions, adaptations and new aggregate factors. The autonomy dimension showed less variation with an excluded factor and none adapted or new and, in the dimensions of competitive aggressiveness and reciprocity, no factor was excluded and had an increase in total consolidated factors. The two theoretical propositions were analyzed and confirmed by the empirical evidence. Finally, the theoretical and empirical model of EO were consolidated, in terms of dimensions and factors categorized, and adapted to the context of NPOs. This study contributes to the academy by systematizing a set of theoretical dimensions and factors, which could be used in empirical research in different NPOs realities. The results contribute to the practice of entrepreneurial management of NPOs, mainly in the search for fulfillment of opportunities, with a view to improving their actions, administrative management and strategic decision-making.