This article examines two potential causal mechanisms underlying the observed entrepreneurial orientation (EO)–performance relationship. We find empirical support for the notion that EO might be a performance–variance–enhancing strategic orientation rather than a performance–mean–enhancing orientation. With such a conceptualization, performance variance (along with, or instead of, mean performance) and failure take center stage. To address the question of “where to from here,” we discuss a number of research opportunities that we believe are going to make important contributions to the entrepreneurship and strategy literature.
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