Clarifying the Conceptualization and Measurement of Entrepreneurial Orientation

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is an emerging research area across the field of entrepreneurship and strategic management. On the leading edge of EO research are issues of conceptualization and measurement. This paper clarifies the EO conceptualization from two debates among current EO scholars. One is debate on whether EO should discuss from the perspective of individual-level or from firm-level, the other is debate on whether EO dimensions are independent with each other or not. Then the measurement of EO is discussed, three measurement approaches are introduced and the development of EO scale is classified and analyzed. Future research directions are also suggested.