Inside entrepreneurial orientation: Do risk-taking and innovativeness influence proactiveness?

Abstract

The article focuses on the interdependencies within entrepreneurial orientation. The objective of the study was to verify the relationship between risk-taking and innovativeness, on the one hand, and proactiveness on the other hand, as three elements of entrepreneurial orientation of internationalized firms. The main research question the article answers is: In what way do risk-taking and innovativeness influence proactiveness within the interrelated three-dimensional construct of entrepreneurial orientation? The article employs structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) to analyse survey results based on a stratified sampling of 355 internationalized firms from Poland. The empirical findings demonstrate the positive impact of risk-taking (RISK) and innovativeness (INNO) on proactiveness (PROACT) within the interrelated three-dimensional construct of entrepreneurial orientation. Moreover, the level of risk-taking (RISK) and innovativeness (INNO) accounts for 36% of the variation in proactiveness (PROACT), which is considered high in social sciences, including business studies.