Entrepreneurial orientation: Assessing the construct's validity and addressing some of its implications for research in the areas of family business and organizational learning

Our commentary addresses three papers that we believe make important contributions to the emerging literature on entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The first paper rigorously assesses and enhances the construct validity of EO-an important antecedent to empirical research. The second paper draws on the concepts of identity and social identity and provides a means of predicting how various ownership types of family firms will affect the EO-performance relationship. The third paper synthesizes multiple theoretical perspectives and empirical research to provide insights on the role that EO plays in enhancing a firm's acquisitive and experimental learning. We close with a discussion of EO as an area for theory development. © 2011 Baylor University.