Clarifying the Entrepreneurial Orientation Construct and Linking It To Performance

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Abstract
The primary purpose of this article is to clarify the nature of the en- trepreneurial orientation (EO) construct and to propose a contingency framework for investigating the relationship between EO and firm performance. We first explore and refine the dimensions of EO and discuss the usefulness of viewing a firm's EO as a multidimensional construct. Then, drawing on examples from the EO-related contingen- cies literature, we suggest alternative models (moderating effects, mediating effects, independent effects, interaction effects) for testing the EO-performance relationship. For both start-up ventures and existing firms, entrepreneurship car- ried on in the pursuit of business opportunities spurs business expansion, technological progress, and wealth creation. Entrepreneurial activity rep- resents one of the major engines of economic growth and today accounts for the majority of new business development and job creation in the United States (Business Week, 1993). As such, writers in both the scholarly literature (e.g., Covin & Slevin, 1991) and popular press (e.g., Peters & Waterman, 1982) have argued that entrepreneurship is an essential fea- ture of high-performing firms. Entrepreneurship scholars have developed numerous typologies to describe alternate perspectives of entrepreneurship (e.g., Cooper & Dunkelberg, 1986; Schollhammer, 1982; Webster, 1977). These classifica- tion systems typically depict differences in entrepreneurship as the result of various combinations of individual, organizational, or environmental factors that influence how and why entrepreneurship occurs as it does. Although these efforts have served to point out the various dimensions of the entrepreneurial process, they have not led to any widely held consen- sus regarding how to characterize entrepreneurship. This lack of consen- sus has impeded progress for researchers toward building and testing a broader theory of entrepreneurship, and has made it especially difficult

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