| Summary: | 博士 === 臺灣大學 === 國際企業學研究所 === 98 === The previous literature presents two different streams of research in explaining organization risk-taking behavior. One line of argument is associated with prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979). It argues that when a firm is below a specific self-perceived reference point, then the firm will behave in a risk-taking manner. The second body of research is associated with the threat-rigidity hypothesis (Staw, Sandelands and Dutton, 1981; Ocasio, 1995), which suggests that organizations will behave conservatively under threat conditions (D’ Aveni, 1989; Fombrun and Ginsberg, 1990). Previous empirical studies have examined whether external threat stimulates risk-taking behavior. Less explored is the question of how change in internal capabilities stimulates risk-taking behavior. Therefore, we incorporate the concept of a resource-based viewpoint (RBV) into our analysis and highlight the role of risk-taking capabilities (Miller and Lessard, 2000) to answer two research questions. First, what influences drive a firm’s risk attitude and risk-taking behavior? Second, does risk-taking always lead to bad results? Could organizational characteristics moderate the relationship between risk-taking behavior and future performance?
We decomposed risk-taking capabilities into three dimensions, namely absorptive capacities, network resources and organizational slack. Results indicated that some aspects of risk-taking capabilities indeed drive firm’s risk-taking behavior and also moderate the relationship between past performance and risk-taking behavior. Thus, we asserted that firms equipped high level of risk-taking capabilities should embrace risk and benefit form risk-taking. Just as Miller and Lessard (2000; p201) argued that “sponsors gain comparative advantages not only through core competencies but also by embracing the risks over which they can achieve some degree of control by internalizing (endogenizing) them.
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