Which Entrepreneurial Orientation Dimensions Pay Off? A Multi‐Method Study of Competitive Performance Under Changing Market Conditions

This study adopts a longitudinal, multi‐method design to examine how risk‐taking (R), innovativeness (IN), and proactiveness (PR) shape competitive performance (CP) across five distinct periods: a pre‐pandemic phase, three pandemic‐induced crisis phases, and a post‐pandemic recovery phase. The sample comprises small firms operating in the Polish printing industry and is based on two survey waves ( N 1 = 150, N 2 = 145; 49 firms participating in both waves), complemented by a follow‐up series of semi‐structured interviews. Methodological triangulation combines Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS‐SEM), fuzzy‐set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), and qualitative evidence. The results indicate that the strategic importance of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions is both context‐dependent and time‐sensitive. Innovativeness emerges as a key contributor to competitiveness under hostile and turbulent crisis conditions and remains central during the recovery phase. Proactiveness proves most beneficial in dynamic but more predictable environments, particularly during the late‐crisis and post‐pandemic phases. Risk‐taking plays a more limited, supporting role, contributing to competitiveness mainly in munificent pre‐crisis and post‐crisis contexts. The study extends EO and strategic change research by demonstrating that EO functions as a reconfigurable portfolio of entrepreneurial behaviors rather than a fixed posture and by showing how the strategic emphasis placed on EO dimensions shifts in aggregate in response to changing combinations of munificence, hostility, dynamism, and complexity.