Grassroots innovation and entrepreneurial success : is entrepreneurial orientation a missing link?

Grassroots innovation is rapidly gaining research attention because of its crucial role in entrepreneurship development. Although entrepreneurial orientation holds the key for entrepreneurial success, research on how entrepreneurial orientation impacts the relationship between grassroots innovation (GRI) and entrepreneurial success is critical. This research is still in its infancy and has not adequately been addressed. This study endeavors to fill this gap while examining how the three factors of grassroots innovation such as new grassroots learning practices, local solution and networking capabilities influence entrepreneurial orientation enroute to affecting economic benefits and non-economic benefits from entrepreneurial activity. The study involved data from 400 grassroots innovators and a structural equation modeling approach was used to fit the data based on the aforementioned factors and components. The study reveals that entrepreneurial orientation is observed to fully mediate the relationship between the following three linear dependencies: new grassroots learning practices and economic benefits, networking capabilities and economic benefits, and local solution and non-economic benefits. This study also found that entrepreneurial orientation partially mediates the relationship in the following cases: new grassroots learning practices and non-economic benefits, networking capabilities and non-economic benefits, and local solution and economic benefits. The results provide empirical evidence to support that entrepreneurial orientation spurred by grassroots innovation significantly influence entrepreneurial success in the Indian context.