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The study investigates the prevalence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) amongst diverse South African firms (n = 315) in a multicultural environment. Through literary investigations innovation as an important predictor of competitiveness is emphasized and EO is validated as a multidimensional construct, acknowledging that in addition to individual and firm differences, forces operating within cultural contexts also influence levels of EO. Based on global competitiveness indices, the country level innovation index is interpreted in the context of a developing country. By addressing methodological concerns of sample representativeness and firm size, survey data is obtained at the firm level and analyzed using correlational analysis. The findings indicate that EO is positively associated with overall firm performance and the overall significance of the study emerges when links with South Africa's innovation levels are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]