January, 2006 57 This research examined the effects of three strategic process variables—strategic decision- making participativeness, strategy formation mode, and strategic learning from failure—on the entrepreneurial orientation (EO)–firm sales growth rate relationship. Results based on a sample of 110 manufacturing firms indicated a positive effect of EO on sales growth rate. Moreover, the relationship between EO and sales growth rate was more positive among firms that employ autocratic decision making and that exhibit an emergent strategy formation process. Perceptions of proficiency at learning from strategic mistakes differen- tially affected the growth rates of firms at different ends of the EO continuum, but in manners inconsistent with the hypothesized relationship. Introduction Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has emerged as a major construct within the strate- gic management and entrepreneurship literatures over the years (Morris & Kuratko, 2002). EO is a strategic construct whose conceptual domain includes certain firm-level outcomes and management-related preferences, beliefs, and behaviors as expressed among a firm’s top-level managers. As originally proposed by Miller (1983), EO is revealed through an organization’s exhibition of risk taking, innovativeness, and proac- tiveness. According to Miller (1983), the “entrepreneurial” label is most defensible as a descriptor of established firms when those organizations are simultaneously risk taking, innovative, and proactive with respect to their overall business operations, product offer- ings and technologies, and interactions with competitors, respectively. While these three dimensions of EO can vary independently of one another (e.g., Kreiser, Marino, & P T E & Strategic Process Effects on the Entrepreneurial Orientation–Sales Growth Rate Relationship Jeffrey G. Covin Kimberly M. Green Dennis P. Slevin 1042-2587 © 2006 by Baylor University Please send correspondence to: Jeffrey G. Covin at covin@indiana.edu, to Kimberly M. Green at greenk@indiana.edu, and to Dennis P. Slevin at dpslevin@katz.pitt.edu.