The Epistemology of Entrepreneurial Orientation: Conceptual Formation, Modeling, and Operationalization

Abstract

In this manuscript, we examine the evolution of the Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) concept in an effort to identify areas of concern for the future development of knowledge around the construct and provide conceptual analyses to suggest how we might best move forward in the construct's development. We suggest that the continued accumulation of knowledge in the field is best facilitated by conceptualizing EO as a reflective model utilizing three dimensions that can be extended through the use of a classical classification scheme and that additional subcategories of EO should be developed within the EO conceptual family utilizing new measurement items.

Sustainable Entrepreneurial Orientation: A Business Strategic Approach for Sustainable Development

“…In line with the proposal by George and Marino [127] about the possibilities of EO conceived as a family of constructs rather than as a single construct, this paper extends this categorization scheme to include SEO, as one of constructs in the EO family, as these authors did with social entrepreneurship orientation. To explain its conceptualization, George and Marino [127] considered that Satori's [128] conceptual development methodology was appropriate for the creation of concept categories with well-defined attributes depending on whether they are classic or radial categories.…”

“…EO is thus measured according to numerous authors who estimate that their empirical measurement, even following the aggregate/composite/unidimensional current proposed by Miller [12] and Covin and Slevin [13], should be multidimensional and reflective in order to capture the essence of what the conceptual construct means [127,131], although other authors such as Dess et al [132] believe that EO can be investigated as both a formative and a reflective construct. SO is considered a latent unidimensional reflective construct.…”

“…To explain its conceptualization, George and Marino [127] considered that Satori's [128] conceptual development methodology was appropriate for the creation of concept categories with well-defined attributes depending on whether they are classic or radial categories. According to this classification, each categorization has a primary category (i.e., EO) and a secondary category (i.e., SEO) whose meaning is based in part on the main category.…”

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Firm Performance in the Context of Upper Echelon Theory

“…There is a recurring call in the EO literature to develop new measures of EO, however few researchers have answered this call (George & Marino, 2011;Lyon et al, 2000), which is due to the complexity of developing such measures and the dominance of the Miller (1983) /Covin and Slevin (1989) scales (Covin & Wales, 2012). The Covin and Slevin EO scale (1989) has been widely used in the literature to study the EO-performance relationship (Rauch et al, 2009).…”

Business mating: when start-ups get it right

“…Although, we acknowledge that Lumpkin and Dess (1996) have developed an alternative measurement scale of EO which includes two additional attributes (competitive aggressiveness and autonomy), we use the original Covin and Slevin (1989) scale that has been widely accepted as the standard scale. Recent discussions have pointed toward the usefulness of keeping the original three attributes of EO (George and Marino, 2011). For a manager to be conceived as having an entrepreneurial posture, Miller (1983), the founder of the original thought of EO, theorized that all three attributes have to be present simultaneously.…”