Abstract
The Entrepreneurial Orientation construct is at the heart of Corporate Entrepreneurship. Built around dimensions such as innovativeness, risk-taking, pro-activeness, autonomy and competitive aggressiveness, the Entrepreneurial Orientation construct appears as a useful and powerful tool for assessing entrepreneurial behavior at firm level. Past research has focused on the impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on the firm’s performance. Little empirical research has been devoted to understanding the factors and conditions that produce Entrepreneurial Orientation. Generic explanatory variables such as environment, organization, strategy and culture have been mentioned in past research, but though a number of hypotheses have been proposed, few have been thoroughly developed and tested. In this paper, we focus on one explanatory variable - culture - that we develop along multiple axes. We propose a conceptual framework that aims to provide a better understanding of how three interdependent levels of culture - national, industry and corporate - influence Entrepreneurial Orientation.