The Chicken or the Egg? Causal Inference in Entrepreneurial Orientation–Performance Research

While entrepreneurial orientation (EO) correlates with many organizational phenomena, we lack convincing evidence of causal relationships within EO’s nomological network. We explore the challenges to establishing causal relationships with a systematic review of EO–performance research. We then use a simulation to illustrate how popular research designs in EO research limit our ability to make causal claims. We conclude by outlining the research design considerations to move from associational to causal EO–performance research. Our message is that while experiments may not be practical or feasible in many areas of organizational research, including EO, scholars can nevertheless move towards causal understanding.