A capability-anchored articulation of the EO-organizational performance relationship in emergent and post-emergent organizations

•Conceptualize entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as a higher-level dynamic capability.•Develop a moderated-mediation framework to articulate the EO-organizational performance relationship.•Offer theoretically anchored explanations for the mixed results found in the literature.•Elucidate why the relationship between EO and organizational performance may be more complex than was previously envisioned.•Provide scholars an opportunity to develop new pathways for EO-organizational performance research.