Jens Schüler

• In an overall effort to contribute to the steadily expanding EO literature, this cumulative dissertation aims to help the literature to advance with greater clarity, comprehensive modeling, and more robust research designs. To achieve this, the first paper of this dissertation focuses on the consistency and coherence in variable choices and modeling considerations by conducting a systematic quantitative review of the EO-performance literature. Drawing on the plethora of previous EO studies, the second paper employs a comprehensive meta-analytic structural equation modeling approach (MASEM) to explore the potential for unique component-level relationships among EO’s three core dimensions in antecedent to outcome relationships. The third paper draws on these component-level insights and performs a finer-grained replication of the seminal MASEM of Rosenbusch, Rauch, and Bausch (2013) that proposes EO as a full mediator between the task environment and firm performance. The fourth and final paper of this cumulative dissertation illustrates exigent endogeneity concerns inherent in observational EO-performance research and provides guidance on how researchers can move towards establishing causal relationships.