In an empirical investigation of 532 Finnish firms, and using the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) literature to frame our arguments, we demonstrate that relationships among proactivity, risk-taking and innovation output differ in family and non-family firms. Specifically, we find evidence that risk-taking does not affect innovation output in family firms, whereas in non-family firms, innovation output is increased through risk-taking. Also, proactive family firms influence their innovation output more positively than proactive non-family firms do. This study adds important new insights to the growing knowledge of EO, which are discussed in the following for both academic and business audiences.