Effect of Environmental Turbulence in the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Management and

Firm Performance? Rio Tinto Company case study

Field of Research:
The research topic is chosen from the field of management. The chosen topic is Effect of
Environmental Turbulence in the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Management and Firm
Performance? Rio Tinto Company case study. This study wants to investigate the innovativeness
in the management policy in controlling the performance in the turbulent environment of
Australia.
Source of secondary data:
The variables chosen for this study is revenue or sales, profit or net income and the stock prices
along with the R&D to Sales ratio. These chosen variables have to be studied individually. Data
will be chosen since 2012 and will be available from annual report. 2017 Annual Report -
https://www.riotinto.com/documents/RT_2017_annual_report_financial.pdf, 2016 Annual Report
- http://www.riotinto.com/documents/RT_AR2016_Financial_statements.pdf
Revenue and net income data are available from the income statement and data on R&D to sales
ratio and the stock is also available through the annual reports of the company.
Research Question: How is the growth performance of Rio Tinto is linked with the
Entrepreneurial Orientation of the company?
Variable: Measure for the firm performance would be done through the profits & revenue of the
firm which is the dependent variable, while the independent variable will try to address the
Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), being measured by secondary measures of R&D Sales Ratio.
Another secondary measure for measuring EO is the prices of the stocks as available in annual
reports.
Search term: High growth firm, innovative firm Rio Tinto, growth of revenue, profit and assets,
R&D Sales ratio.
Brief highlights on three scholarly literatures
Miller & Le Breton-Miller has been able to find a relationship through secondary measures
between firm performance & EO (Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2011). Prajogo (2016) examined
the role of business environment fluctuation in the determination of innovative strategy. Both
papers provide a concept of research methodology and research variables. On the other hand,
focuses on the performance of higher growth firms in the US economy in the environment of
decreasing entrepreneurship (Decker, Haltiwanger, Jarmin, & Miranda, 2016).
References
Decker, R., Haltiwanger, J., Jarmin, R., & Miranda, J. (2016). Where has all the skewness gone?
The decline in high-growth (young) firms in the U.S. European Economic Review, 86, 4-
23.

Rajesh Jaganathan
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Prajogo, D. I. (2016). The strategic fit between innovation strategies and business environment in
delivering business performance. International Journal of Production Economics, 171,
241-249.
Miller, D., & Le Breton-Miller, I. (2011). Governance, Social Identity, and Entrepreneurial
Orientation in Closely Held Public Companies. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice,
1051-1076.