Abstract
The paper extends the study of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance by introducing gender as a moderating variable and investigating how its effect is contextualised in China using sequential mixed-methods. Drawing on extant literature, this paper hypothesises that EO is positively correlated with firm performance and gender moderates the relationship between EO and firm performance. After studying 398 SMEs in China, the paper confirms that innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness are positively associated with firm performance. In other words, firms with a “strong” EO tend to perform significantly better. In addition, gender’s moderating role is partially supported, with stronger associations in males. While gender moderates the relationship between risk-taking and firm performance and that between proactiveness and firm performance, its effect on the relationship between innovativeness and firm performance is not statistically significant.