Previous researches have documented that error orientation affects individual’s working performance. It implies that error orientation might also has an important effect on entrepreneurs. This research hypothesized that entrepreneur’s error orientation could affect entrepreneurial performance through some organizational characteristics, which was error climate in this study. Here, error orientation consisted of error competence orientation, error communicating orientation, and error learning orientation. Moreover, error climate included error learning climate, error communicating climate, and error thinking climate. This research firstly tested this hypothesis by using Chinese and German samples, separately, followed by the measurement equivalence test. Afterward, a further comparison between the entrepreneurs in these two groups was conducted to find whether the impacts of the error orientation on firm performance and the mediating effect of error climate were the same cross-culturally.

This study was conducted by three steps. First, SEQ was used to analyze the impacts of error orientation on entrepreneurial performance and the mediating effects of error climate in Chinese and German samples, separately. Second, the measurement equivalence test was done to ensure comparability. Third, two structural models were deliberately analyzed and compared. The data used was collected with the same criteria in China and Germany separately. The surveys focused on firms, which were established less than 20 years and had less than 500 employees. Moreover, the surveys covered four industries: IT and software, car and machine components manufacturing, restaurant and hotel, and building and construction. Data was collected from 430 Chinese firms (rejected rate: 42%) and 557 German firms (rejected rate: 31%). In each firm, a set of standardized questionnaires were used to get the information on entrepreneurs, employees, and objective historical data. More specifically, to largely avoid the common method bias, questionnaires of error orientation and subjective performances were filled by entrepreneurs, and those of error climate were completed by three employees. In addition, sales and employee figures in the last three years were recorded to compute objective growth measures.

The results showed that there were two different patterns of impacts of entrepreneurs’ traits on performance. In the Chinese model, entrepreneurs’ error orientation had direct, positive and significant impacts on sales growth and employee scale growth. However, error communicating orientation had a negative and significant impact on perceived success. Moreover, firms’ error climates had no effect on entrepreneurial performance, although entrepreneurs’ error competence orientation had a positive and significant relation with error thinking climate. In the German model, entrepreneurs’ error orientation had only one direct impact on entrepreneurial performance: error communicating orientation’s direct impact on entrepreneurial satisfaction. Moreover, firms’ error climate had impacts on sales growth, employee scale growth and perceived success, but no impact on entrepreneurial satisfaction. Furthermore, entrepreneurs’ error learning orientation had a positive and significant impact on firms’ error learning climate, whereas entrepreneurs’ error communicating orientation had a positive and significant impact on firms’ error communicating climate.

The conclusions were drawn as follows. If entrepreneurs wanted to have greater influence on their entrepreneurial performance, they should pay attention to their working style in different cultures. Chinese entrepreneurs might have to dive into real action process by themselves, and German entrepreneurs might need to spend more time on training their employees. In addition, from the view of organization building, both the traits of Chinese and German entrepreneurs had “projection” effects on organizational characteristics. It was a new finding of this research and needs further exploration.