Rethinking entrepreneurial orientation and performance: a 30 – year bibliometric review towards more contextual and sustainable perspectives
Ahmad Rafiki, Amir Hasnaoui, Sebastian Cruz, Redwan YasinPurpose
This paper examines the evolution of research on Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and its relationship with firm performance over a 30-year period. While EO remains a central construct in entrepreneurship studies, concerns persist regarding its conceptual consolidation, limited contextual diversity, and the peripheral treatment of sustainability, gender and community-based perspectives. By reassessing the field through a systematic and bibliometric lens, the study aims to clarify dominant trajectories, identify structural blind spots, and contribute to a more context-sensitive and inclusive understanding of EO-performance research.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 1,904 peer-reviewed articles published between 1994 and June 2024 were retrieved from Scopus using a transparent and reproducible search protocol. The study combines citation, co-citation and co-occurrence analyses to map authors, journals, institutions, countries and thematic clusters. The bibliometric results were interpreted following the principles of a bibliometric-systematic literature review (B-SLR), including explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria, the use of PRISMA guidance, and a brief expert validation step to strengthen the consistency of cluster interpretation.
Findings
The analysis identifies three phases of development, with a marked acceleration after 2005 and a relative conceptual stabilisation in recent years. The field is largely shaped by Western institutions and journals, with limited engagement with contextually diverse or sustainability-oriented perspectives. Dominant themes include export performance, market orientation, absorptive capacity and innovation. Topics related to community-based entrepreneurship, gender, and the Global South remain marginal. The results point to a need for broader contextualisation and greater integration of contemporary societal challenges in EO-performance research.
Research limitations/implications
The review is limited by its reliance on a single database and the constraints of bibliometric methods, which privilege indexed, English-language research. Local studies and non-indexed evidence are therefore underrepresented. Nevertheless, the review provides a consolidated basis for future enquiry and highlights structural gaps in the EO-performance literature. It suggests the need for greater contextual diversity, deeper theorisation of contingencies, and expanded engagement with sustainability, inclusiveness and socio-institutional conditions shaping entrepreneurial behaviour.
Originality/value
This study offers a consolidated and critical reassessment of three decades of EO-performance research. By combining bibliometric mapping with a systematic analytical perspective, it highlights structural biases, conceptual blind spots and under-explored themes. The review provides a foundation for repositioning EO research within more contextually grounded, inclusive and sustainability-oriented paradigms, in line with the journal’s focus on enterprising communities and locally relevant forms of entrepreneurship.