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This article seeks to fulfill two main objectives. It firstly seeks to identify and quantify characteristics and behaviors of firms that are associated with what, in the evolutionary stream, is known as variety in innovation. A factor analysis is applied with a view to establishing, from a sizeable group of variables related to business innovation, the main factors or sources of variety in innovation in firms. The second goal is to estimate the influence of two variables that have been traditionally related to innovative firm activity on each of these sources: size and sector. The results of the analysis show seven important sources of variability in innovation for firms and that the influence of size and sector of activity on innovation occurs, at different levels of intensity, through these sources. The empirical analysis is based on the responses given for managers of a representative sample of enterprises in a personal interview.

PurposeThis paper aims to present an analysis of entrepreneurial activities that emphasises anticipation and the art of future exploration; in so doing, it identifies important aspects of entrepreneurship as aesthetic or creative activities.Design/methodology/approachAfter a short synthesis of the main entrepreneurial functions in terms of decision making in the financial sphere, the managerial sphere, and the “booster” sphere, the paper concentrates on the qualities required for a successful “booster” function (motivation, ambition, innovation, cooperation, proactiveness). Because proactiveness and innovation both require futures thinking and creativity, the paper presents relevant material from the literature on long‐term foresight to establish the artistic aspects of these important components of entrepreneurial activities.FindingsThe paper's linking of entrepreneurial functions to the capacity for anticipation establishes the need for entrepreneurs to acquire competencies (in the area of forecasting) that are usually associated with artistic endeavours.Practical implicationsThere is an urgent need for university curricula to include material that is oriented towards the training of entrepreneurs. This should include specific courses on creativity and forecasting.Originality/valueThe recognition that key entrepreneurial functions (proactiveness and innovation) are more art than science, and that they therefore require a set of operational tools, is relatively novel in the current literature on entrepreneurial (and managerial) functions, and opens a research field in business decision making.

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