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The Effectiveness of An Effectuation Approach on Opportunity Identification and Pursuit: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Field Experiment
... Moreover, since the enactment process plays an essential role in the creation of business opportunities, some scholars posited that the teaching approaches that help individuals to form opportunities through an enactment process such as effectuation could be efficacious in fostering OI based on creation perspective (Alvarez & Barney, 2010;Zhu et al., 2020). Sarasvathy's notion of effectuation clearly implies elements of social constructivism (Nab et al., 2014) and embraces the idea of opportunity creation (Berglund, 2007;Cohen et al., 2020). ...
... Sarasvathy's notion of effectuation clearly implies elements of social constructivism (Nab et al., 2014) and embraces the idea of opportunity creation (Berglund, 2007;Cohen et al., 2020). In this regard, Zhu et al. (2020) showed that individuals trained by the means-oriented approach of effectuation could generate more business ideas of higher quality than individuals who only practiced thinking creatively through various exercises. Based on Sarasvathy's (2001) "bird-in-hand" principle 2 of effectuation, Zhu et al. (2020) asked individuals in the effectuation group to define their resources by asking themselves means-oriented questions such as, "who am I?", "what do I know?", and "who do I know?". ...
... In this regard, Zhu et al. (2020) showed that individuals trained by the means-oriented approach of effectuation could generate more business ideas of higher quality than individuals who only practiced thinking creatively through various exercises. Based on Sarasvathy's (2001) "bird-in-hand" principle 2 of effectuation, Zhu et al. (2020) asked individuals in the effectuation group to define their resources by asking themselves means-oriented questions such as, "who am I?", "what do I know?", and "who do I know?". Afterward, Zhu and his colleagues asked them to integrate their resources and form business opportunities by communicating and discussing their ideas with potential customers. ...
The number of entrepreneurship education (EE) programs that aim to foster opportunity identification (OI) as a key entrepreneurial capability has grown considerably in the past few decades. However, these EE programs mostly lack a robust theoretical framework that could help educators and researchers select teaching approaches in line with their philosophical perspectives. This study proposes a theory-driven framework for fostering OI by bridging entrepreneurship and education fields, considering the ontological and epistemological assumptions that exist in both fields. The proposed framework includes different philosophical perspectives on entrepreneurial opportunities and strategies for identifying opportunities coupled with the most relevant learning theories and teaching approaches for fostering OI. Based on this framework, behaviorism and cognitivism are the most consistent learning theories with the opportunity discovery perspective's philosophical assumptions, and social constructivist learning theory is more appropriate for developing EE programs based on the opportunity creation perspective. This framework suggests that for developing an efficacious EE program to improve individuals' OI performance, different perspectives on the emergence of opportunities and learning should be combined and integrated into a consistent, constructively aligned EE program. The paper concludes with implications for the theory and practice in the entrepreneurship education field.
... Other scholars who adopted the opportunity creation perspective claim that opportunities should be created through social enactment (Wood & McKinley, 2010) and cannot exist apart from individuals (Baker & Nelson, 2005;Sarasvathy, 2001). Although some researchers explicitly referred to their philosophical perspective when developing an EE program to foster OI competence (e.g., Cohen et al., 2020;Fiet, 2002;Fiet & Patel, 2008;Zhu et al., 2020), they have failed to reasonably align their pedagogical approaches with their adopted perspective (Farrokhnia et al., 2022). This is problematic since pedagogy requires designed learning experiences guided by a clearly articulated philosophical perspective (Hollins, 2011). ...
... Previous entrepreneurship educators also employed several social constructivist approaches for fostering individuals' OI capability based on the creation perspective mainly by facilitating self-directed learning (e.g., Lindberg, Bohman, & Hultén, 2017;Lindberg, Bohman, Hulten, et al., 2017), team working (e.g., Hytti et al., 2010), coparticipation in a community of practice (e.g., Musteen et al., 2018), and networking with expert entrepreneurs (e.g., Kubberød & Pettersen, 2018;Lindberg, Bohman, & Hultén, 2017) and business advisors (e.g., Heinonen et al., 2011;Hytti et al., 2010). Also, training individuals by the means-oriented approach of effectuation has been reported to be effective in improving OI capability (e.g., Zhu et al., 2020). According to scholars, the notion of effectuation clearly implies elements of social constructivism (Nab et al., 2014) and embraces the idea of opportunity creation (Berglund, 2007). ...
The primary purpose of this conceptual study is to propose a theoretical framework for developing EE programs
that aim to foster individuals’ OI capability. This will be done by exploring the relationship between the two
main philosophical perspectives in the entrepreneurship field concerning entrepreneurial opportunities (i.e.,
opportunity discovery and creation) and learning theories in the education field based on their shared
philosophical roots.
The authors reviewed extensively related literature and research on different philosophical perspectives of
entrepreneurial opportunities in the entrepreneurship field and learning theories in the education field. This
detailed literature review formed the basis for developing the framework.
Based on the proposed theoretical framework, the behaviorist and cognitivist teaching and assessment
approaches are the most consistent approaches with the opportunity discovery perspective’s philosophical
assumptions, and social constructivist approaches are more appropriate for developing EE programs based on
the opportunity creation perspective. Moreover, our framework suggests that different philosophical
perspectives, views on opportunities, and learning theories do not exclude one another but can exist next to
each other in designing and developing efficacious EE programs.
The proposed framework would determine the pedagogical implications of different philosophical perspectives
in the entrepreneurship field concerning entrepreneurial opportunities, better informing future EE educators
and researchers about the most appropriate teaching and assessment approaches of EE programs that aim to
foster OI based on each perspective.
By conceptualizing how educational philosophies can be integrated into EE to support entrepreneurial learning,
the paper provides future entrepreneurial researchers and educators with a novel theoretical framework that
integrates the knowledge within both the entrepreneurship and education field.
... By analyzing data collected over an extended period, the study seeks to identify patterns and trends that reveal how strategic management education influences career advancement, leadership roles, and organizational impact. Zhu et al (2020) emphasizes that strategic management is not just about making decisions; it involves cultivating a mindset that prioritizes strategic thinking as an ongoing process. This mindset, when nurtured through education, can have profound implications for an individual's professional journey. ...
This study explores the impact of strategic management education on professional development through a longitudinal analysis. The primary objective is to evaluate how strategic management education influences decision-making skills, leadership capabilities, and career advancement over time. Using a comprehensive review of theoretical foundations, this research integrates both traditional and contemporary perspectives to examine strategic management's role in professional growth. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to track the progress of individuals who have undergone strategic management education across various industries. Key findings reveal that strategic management education significantly enhances cognitive and analytical abilities, fosters leadership development, and promotes continuous learning. These improvements translate into accelerated career growth and increased job mobility. Additionally, the research highlights challenges in translating theoretical knowledge into practical application and emphasizes the need for adaptive learning frameworks that align with dynamic business environments. The study concludes that strategic management education is crucial for professional success, particularly in today's complex and competitive markets. The recommendations call for integrating emerging technologies, interdisciplinary learning, and ethical decision-making frameworks into curricula. Future research should focus on optimizing hybrid learning models, leveraging AI for strategic analysis, and exploring the global implications of strategic management education. This study contributes valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and professionals seeking to enhance strategic management education's impact on career trajectories and organizational success.
... Future research could also involve conducting empirical studies to examine the teaching effectiveness of using our framework. For example, future research could conduct a randomized controlled field experiment (e.g., Zhu, Bischoff, Kaap, Schmidt, Gielnik, & Frese, 2021) to investigate the training effectiveness of the integrative approach or its combination with other teaching methods (e.g., design thinking training) by comparing it with typical lectures or the component of the integrative approach only (e.g., activity-system maps or the NK model only). ...
Effectuation has become one of the core theoretical approaches in entrepreneurship research and attracted significant scholarly attention for over two decades. However, despite its influence and robust knowledge accumulation, the effectuation literature remains fragmented and hard to navigate, especially for researchers new to the field. This calls for interactively taking stock of the field’s current state and mapping future research directions. By utilizing a novel hybrid approach to researching effectuation literature, this article integrates augmented bibliometric analysis with a qualitative content analysis, thereby unveiling the intellectual structure of the field. Using data from 680 articles spanning 2001 to 2024, co-citation analysis of references reveals two influential publication groups: ‘pioneers’ and ‘expanders.’ Furthermore, we categorize contemporary effectuation literature into four subfields: antecedents, process, outcomes, and knowledge accumulation papers. This article contributes to the extant effectuation literature by exploring the field’s structure, categorizing its conceptual and methodological articulations and providing a roadmap for future effectuation research, enhancing the consolidation of effectuation research.
This Special Issue focuses on entrepreneurship education in rural areas and small towns, illuminating the dynamics of entrepreneurship education in these often-neglected contexts. The articles in the Special Issue examine the development and outcomes of entrepreneurship programs and initiatives in different parts of the world and aiming at different kinds of rural students. By doing so, they also raise questions about the effectiveness of applying one-size-fits-all approaches to entrepreneurship education regardless of the context, calling for a more nuanced approach to developing entrepreneurial mindsets, competencies and skills. The findings also identify new opportunities to improve pedagogical methods for entrepreneurship education in rural contexts. Among these, future entrepreneurship education should focus more strongly on the role played by place and community, the interplay between formal and informal pedagogical approaches, and the diverse support needs of rural students of different ages and backgrounds.
Who makes policy change happen, and how? Public policy scholars now take more seriously the role of agency in the policy process, and in particular the role of policy entrepreneurship, a contested term built mostly from classical, economic conceptions of entrepreneurship from the mid‐20th century. In this study, we introduce policy scholars to modern theories of entrepreneurship from sociology and management scholarship, including cultural entrepreneurship, effectuation, bricolage, and entrepreneurial assembly. We show that theories connect more easily with major theories of the policy process more easily than classical theories do and argue policy scholars should make room for multiple policy entrepreneurship archetypes. We also give three examples—organizational imprinting, the small firm effect, and survivorship bias—of the readymade research agenda modern entrepreneurship theories offer to policy entrepreneurship scholars. Finally, we show how these theories help policy scholars build bridges to other political science subfields.
We review the research on the psychology of entrepreneurship of the last decade. We focus on two key topics in entrepreneurship research: action and process. Combining action and process in a model of the psychology of entrepreneurship, we present the action theory process model of entrepreneurship and use it as a guiding framework for the review. We discuss theories of action, such as effectuation/causation, bricolage, theory of planned behavior, and action theory. Furthermore, we adopt a process perspective to discuss antecedents of actions in terms of cognition, motivation, and emotion and how they develop during the entrepreneurial process. The process perspective considers recursive relationships and dynamic changes in actions and their antecedents over time. We conclude that the action theory process model is a useful starting point to explain the psychological dynamics of entrepreneurship.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Volume 10 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
This study aims to explore the direct effect of effectual means (who I am, who I know, what I have) on the successful exploitation of opportunity by new ventures. Resource acquisition and strategy implementation ability are employed as indicators of opportunity exploitation. We also examine the mediating role of particular, effectual principles on the relationship between effectual means and opportunity exploitation. A total of 462 owners of early-stage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tanzania were surveyed. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regression were used to test a set of hypotheses. The results demonstrate that effectual means positively affected both resource acquisition ability and strategy implementation ability. Mediation effects differed based on the type of effectual means and different elements comprising opportunity exploitation. Implications are drawn from the results for theory and practice.
Social entrepreneurial behavior creates social value by developing innovative and sustainable solutions to social issues. As college students have chosen to enter high education and have the ambition to make the world better, they should be encouraged to become social entrepreneurs. Previous studies have shown that higher education can have a profound influence on social entrepreneurial policies, opportunity identification abilities, innovation abilities, and value orientations, with these also being the main factors influencing social entrepreneurial intentions. However, little is known about the most successful configurations of these factors. This study used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the configuration effect of these factors, from which three main influencing paths for college student social entrepreneurial intentions were found. The results provide practical guidelines to stimulate social entrepreneurial intentions in higher education students.KeywordsCollege studentsSocial entrepreneurial intentionFuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysisEducation
Corporate entrepreneurship is a challenge for organizations and their employees, for example because of structural rigidities or inertia. A promising approach of how to spark corporate entrepreneurship lies in effectuation research. Effectuation is a mode of action or decision-making logic that is based on empirical evidence from expert entrepreneurs. Following a Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, we develop and implement an effectuation intervention at a German multinational corporation. The intervention consists of two basic parts: The Market of Makers, an event that leads participants through the effectual process, and the Speedboat Regatta, a 3-months long project development phase. The intervention successfully generated 23 projects that identified opportunities for process innovation. This study contributes to design knowledge, theory and practice. First, we designed a blueprint for similar effectuation interventions and are able to formulate four design principles, which show how voluntariness, playfulness, and constraints enable effectuation and promote corporate entrepreneurship. Second, we contribute to corporate entrepreneurship theory by showing that effectuation is promising for approaching corporate entrepreneurship’s theoretical and empirical problems. Third, we contribute to practice by demonstrating that interventions based on effectuation may shift employees towards leading and engaging with innovative projects.KeywordsCorporate entrepreneurshipEffectuationDesign science
This research develops an exploratory study on the impact of brainstorming on students' creativity and innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this research study is to advance on: how much the creativity and innovation of students increases with the use of brainstorming; how contextual variables influence creativity and innovation when brainstorming is applied, and; how the legitimacy given by students to the brainstorming methodology influences the results achieved in creativity and innovation. The results show that the application of brainstorming, among a sample of 89 students of the technology and operations management course, leads to significant increases in creativity and innovation. They also show that there are no significant differences according to age, study background and gender. Finally, it demonstrates the importance of the degree of acceptability and desirability of brainstorming in the teaching and learning process to improve student outcomes. Having legitimacy is positive because it conveys confidence to students, encouraging learning. Future research could analyse the role of legitimacy of teaching methods on student outcomes.
Resumen
En esta investigación se desarrolla un estudio exploratorio sobre el impacto del brainstorming en la creatividad y la innovación de los estudiantes. Nuestro propósito es avanzar sobre: cuánto aumenta la creatividad y la innovación de los estudiantes con la utilización del brainstorming; cómo influyen las variables contextuales sobre la creatividad y la innovación cuando se aplica el brainstorming y; cómo influye la legitimidad otorgada por los estudiantes a la metodología del brainstorming sobre los resultados alcanzados en la creatividad y la innovación. Los resultados evidencian que la aplicación del brainstorming, entre una muestra de 89 estudiantes de la asignatura de tecnología y dirección de operaciones, conduce a incrementos importantes de la creatividad y la innovación. También muestran que no existen diferencias significativas en función de la edad, estudios de procedencia y género. Por último, se demuestra la importancia del grado de aceptabilidad y deseabilidad del brainstorming en el proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje para mejorar los resultados de los estudiantes. Tener legitimidad es positivo porque transmite confianza a los estudiantes, favoreciendo el aprendizaje. Futuras investigaciones podrían analizar el papel de la legitimidad de los métodos de enseñanza sobre los resultados de los estudiantes.
Various theoretical perspectives suggest that a means-oriented approach to new venture development can be a viable alternative to the conventional approach, which emphasizes predetermined goals, and that the former is favored by expert entrepreneurs. However, it is still unclear whether, and under which conditions, means-based action positively affects entrepreneurial performance and whether it would also be effective for novices. This study demonstrates the new venture performance impact of means orientation. We further contribute to various strands of entrepreneurship research by highlighting two moderating factors that are salient in the early-stage entrepreneurial process: opportunity recognition beliefs and process control practices.
In spite of all the scholarly attention it has garnered, effectuation research continues to face a series of theoretical and methodological challenges. In order to help move effectuation research forward, we content-analyze a comprehensive sample of 101 effectuation articles published in JCR®-listed journals between 1998 and 2016 (inclusively), with the specific aim of uncovering the main conceptual and methodological articulations that have underpinned effectuation research to date. In doing so, we not only uncover some the field’s achievements and shortcomings but also examine the extent to which published effectuation research addresses its most salient criticisms. We build on these observations to propose three recommendations for future advances, namely (1) conceiving effectuation as a “mode of action”; (2) developing new methodological indicators centered on effectuation’s concrete manifestations; and (3) examining the underlying dynamics explaining effectuation’s antecedents and consequences.
In this paper, we address issues related to the measurement of effectuation. We identify and examine 81 empirical studies focusing on research tensions (fundamental assumptions, theoretical underpinnings, boundary conditions, units of analyses, measures, and temporal issues) within the effectuation literature. Our findings suggest these tensions inhibit the accumulation of empirical knowledge. We highlight the challenges involved in effectively measuring effectuation and offer solutions and recommendations for systematic knowledge accumulation.
Reflecting on the 12 works that compose this special issue, we are struck by the distinctiveness of effectuation as a theory native to the domain of entrepreneurship. While theoretical perspectives from disciplines including economics, psychology, and sociology have been applied to understanding the new venture phenomenon, entrepreneurship scholars have historically had little to offer in return beyond the testing bed. The authors in this special issue begin to make the case for transforming the bed into fertile soil in which the disciplines can grow and bear new fruit. Moreover, uncertainty, co-creation, resources, goals, and control all represent important and current issues in management, marketing, organizations, finance, and operations. Effectuation has something new to offer to each of these. In this article, we summarize what we learn from the works in the special issue in order to construct a research agenda that can move effectuation from entrepreneurship to the disciplines and beyond into new futures. Full version is accessible here, free of charge; https://rdcu.be/boewC (View only)
Field experimentation, although rare, is the sterling-gold standard of organizational research methods. It yields the best internally valid and generalizable findings compared to more fallible methods. Reviewers in many psychology specialties, including organizational psychology, synthesize largely nonexperimental research, warn of causal ambiguity, and call for experimental replication. These calls go mostly unheeded. Practical application is a raison d'etre for much organizational research. With the emergence of evidence-based management, field experiments enable us to deliver the most actionable tools to practitioners. This review explicates the role of experimental control and randomization and enumerates some of the factors that mitigate field experimentation. It describes, instantiates, and evaluates true field experiments, quasi-experiments, quasi-fields, combo designs, and triangulation. It also provides practical tips for overcoming deterrents to field experimentation. The review ends describing ...
Over 100 million of the 1.8 billion midlife adults living on less than $15 a day are attempting to create new firms. Another 110 million are managing new ventures. This is almost half of the global total of 450 million individuals involved with 350 million start-ups and new ventures. They are responsible for almost half of all new firms and one-third of new firm jobs. For the poor, business creation provides more social and personal benefits than illegal and dangerous migration, criminal endeavors, or terrorism. Almost all of the business creation by the bottom billions occurs in developing countries, half are in Asia. The ventures initiated by the bottom billion are a significant proportion of all firms expecting growth, exports, an impact on their markets, and in high tech sectors. Assessments based on multi-level modeling suggest that young adults, whether they are rich or poor, in countries with access to informal financing and an emphasis on traditional, rather than secular-rational, and self-expressive values are more likely to identify business opportunities and feel confident about their capacity to implement a new firm. Such entrepreneurial readiness is, in turn, associated with more business creation. Compared to the strong associations of informal institutions with business creation, formal institutions have very modest and idiosyncratic relationships. Expansion of access to secondary education and early stage financing may be the most effective routes to more firm creation among the bottom billion.
Opportunity identification is emerging as an important content area in entrepreneurship education. We propose that opportunity identification is a competency that can be developed as are other unique competencies and that the entrepreneurship classroom is an appropriate venue for developing the skills necessary to improve the ability to identify opportunities. Using a variation of a Solomon Four Group Designed experiment, our results show that individuals can learn processes of opportunity identification and improve both the number of ideas generated and the innovativeness of those ideas. In addition, the results indicate that a predisposition toward innovation does not significantly alter the ability to learn processes of opportunity identification.
This review systematically examines comparative international entrepreneurship (CIE) research, analyzing 259 articles published in 21 leading journals from 1989 to 2010. We outline the importance of multi-country studies of entrepreneurial activity in enabling the comparison and replication of research and generating meaningful contributions to scholarship, practice, and policy. Our systematic review classifies research findings into four levels—individual, firm, industry, and country—each with respect to characteristics, antecedents, and outcomes of entrepreneurial activities as well as theory and methodology. Taken together, our review highlights the heterogeneous nature of entrepreneurship across countries and its role in explaining outcomes at firm (e.g., financial and export performance) and country (e.g., economic growth) levels as well as antecedents at the country level (e.g., culture). We find the CIE literature is highly fragmented with substantial knowledge gaps related to content, theory, and methodology, for which we outline a detailed future research agenda. Given the atheoretical nature of most published CIE research, we provide specific suggestions to extend the current dominant theoretical perspectives (institutions, culture, resource-based view, transaction cost economics, economic growth, and human capital); consider new lenses from management, international business, and entrepreneurship; and integrate and test multiple theories. From a content perspective, we outline the need to define and cross-reference prior studies of entrepreneurship and prioritize emerging phenomena that are critical to practice, and policy, and offer specific directives for integrated and multi-level studies of characteristics, antecedents, and outcomes. Methodological suggestions include theory-based rationale for the selection of countries, greater attention to data collection and sample selection equivalence, and the solutions to the ecological fallacy problem. We urge scholars to work together and across countries, cooperating with interested agencies and associations to develop new longitudinal, multi-level data sets and introduce dual qualitative/quantitative approaches and new diverse, sophisticated analytical tools.
Action plays a central role in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. Based
on action regulation theory, we developed an action-based entrepreneurship training. The
training put a particular focus on action insofar as the participants learned action principles
and engaged in the start-up of a business during the training. We hypothesized that a set of
action-regulatory factors mediates the effect of the training on entrepreneurial action. We
evaluated the training’s impact over a 12-month period using a randomized control group
design. As hypothesized, the training had positive effects on action-regulatory factors
(entrepreneurial goal intentions, action planning, action knowledge, and entrepreneurial selfefficacy)
and the action-regulatory factors mediated the effect of the training on
entrepreneurial action. Furthermore, entrepreneurial action and business opportunity
identification mediated the effect of the training on business start-up. Our study shows that
action-regulatory mechanisms play an important role for action-based entrepreneurship
trainings and business start-up.
The concept and desiderata of an evidence-based entrepreneurship (EBE) is discussed as a strategy to overcome the divide between knowledge developed in the field of entrepreneurship and its use in practice. Evidence constitutes the best summary of knowledge based on several sources of information (several studies, several different research groups, several different methodological approaches, among them the best methods available) which clearly goes beyond individual experience and a few isolated studies. We argue that meta-analyses can and should be used in entrepreneurship research (and that they should also be used to review qualitative studies). Meta-analyses establish certain relationships; these should then be summarized in well-founded models and theories that can be translated into action principles. These action principles can then be used by various users of EBE. Users of EBE can be scientists, professionals who regularly deal with entrepreneurs (bankers, consultants, venture capital providers), policy makers (e.g., government), students of entrepreneurship, and last but not least the entrepreneurs themselves. Once a set of action principles has been developed from science, their application can be tested with the help of further evidence on the efficacy of interventions (including meta-analyses on the interventions). Evidence-based entrepreneurship (EBE) has the potential to change research, teaching, and practice.
By considering the amount of uncertainty perceived and the willingness to bear uncertainty concomitantly, we provide a more complete conceptual model of entre- preneurial action that allows for examination of entrepreneurial action at the indi- vidual level of analysis while remaining consistent with a rich legacy of system-level theories of the entrepreneur. Our model not only exposes limitations of existing theories of entrepreneurial action but also contributes to a deeper understanding of important conceptual issues, such as the nature of opportunity and the potential for philosophical reconciliation among entrepreneurship scholars.
We employ two study designs for a more detailed examination of creativity in the opportunity identification process. We employ a correlational field study to test the hypothesis that divergent thinking affects venture growth through business idea generation. We use an experimental design to test the hypothesis that diversity of information moderates the effect of divergent thinking on business idea generation. Analyses based on 98 business owners across both study designs supported our hypotheses. Combining the findings from both designs points to boundary conditions of theories suggesting constraining information; this may weaken the indirect effect of divergent thinking on venture growth.
"Howard Aldrich and Martin Ruef’s tour de force shows us how the evolutionary approach can explain change not only in organizational populations, but within sectors and within organizations. Aldrich and Ruef display an astonishing command of the management literature, using vivid illustrations from cutting edge research to show how the processes of variation, selection, retention, and struggle operate within organizations and across them. A lucid and engaging book that should appeal both to the newcomer to organization theory and to the old pro."- Frank Dobbin, Harvard UniversityA keenly anticipated Second Edition of an award winning classic, Organizations Evolving presents a sophisticated evolutionary view of key organizational paradigms that will give readers a unified understanding of modern organizations. This Second Edition is up-to-date in its survey of the literature, as well as an overview of the new developments across organization studies. It contains new sections on organizational forms, community evolution and methods for studying organizations at multiple levels. The field of organization studies contains many contending paradigms that often puzzle and perplex students. This book is a stunning synthesis of the major organizational paradigms under the umbrella of organizational theory. Scholars and students will find it an excellent guide to the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches, as well as an outstanding review of the best recent empirical research on organizations. The book includes many helpful features, such as: " Review questions and exercises that will consolidate reader's learning " A methodological appendix that assesses common research methods " Engaging cases that bring principles and concepts to lifeThis Second Edition is a rich resource for study, discussion and debate amongst organizational scholars and postgraduate students of organizations.
Experimental research indicates that people in face-to-face brainstorming meetings are less efficient at generating ideas than when working alone, This so-called productivity loss has led many brainstorming researchers to conclude that there is overwhelming evidence for the ineffectiveness of these sessions, We question this conclusion because it is based on efficient idea generation as the primary effectiveness outcome and on studies that do not examine how or why organizations use brainstorming. We report a qualitative study of a product design firm that uses brainstorming sessions. These sessions had six important consequences for this firm, its design engineers, and its clients that are not evident in the brainstorming literature, or are reported but not labeled as effectiveness outcomes: (1) supporting the organizational memory of design solutions; (2) providing skill variety for designers; (3) supporting an attitude of wisdom (acting with knowledge while doubting what one knows); (4) creating a status auction (a competition for status based on technical skill); (5) impressing clients; and (6) providing income for the firm, This study suggests that when brainstorming sessions are viewed in organizational context and the ''effectiveness at what'' and ''effectiveness for whom'' questions are asked, efficiency at idea generation may deserve no special status as an effectiveness outcome. We propose a broader perspective for assessing brainstorming effectiveness in organizations.
Opportunity is a central concept within the entrepreneurship field, and there is now a critical mass of literature centered on the concept. The authors seek to make two main contributions to this literature. First, we provide a detailed review of research on the opportunity concept and the processes surrounding it, highlighting extant insights and future needs. Second, we describe ways that the entrepreneurship literature’s insights about the opportunity concept could be enhanced by research in other fields, both inside and outside business-related domains.
I explore the promise organization research offers for improved management practice and how, at present, it falls short. Using evidence-based medicine as an exemplar, I identify ways of closing the prevailing "research-practice gap", the failure of or-ganizations and managers to base practices on best available evidence. I close with guidance for researchers, educators, and managers for translating the principles governing human behavior and organizational processes into more effective manage-ment practice.
In Experiment I, each "subject was given a creative thinking problem which involved production of ideas for a 5-minute period. The resultant ideas were evaluated by a trained rater… . The findings demonstrated significantly more good ideas to appear in the last half than in the first half of the idea lists. A significant relationship was also found between total quantity and total quality scores." In Experiment II, Ss trained in the brain-storming principle of deferred judgment were used. "The findings showed significantly more good ideas to appear in the final third of the S's idea lists." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Brainstorming instruction is an effective method for increasing the production of good ideas in a particular type of creative thinking problems, and is even more effective if preceded by extensive training in its use. (5 tables) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Effectuation represents a paradigmatic shift in the way that we understand entrepreneurship. Since its introduction, however, few researchers have attempted to empirically test effectuation. Our purpose is to encourage effectuation research. To do so, we review the effectuation literature and make suggestions for how to design and conduct empirically rigorous effectuation studies consistent with the developmental state of the research stream.
The concept of effectuation is as subtle as it is profound. On the one hand, it challenges long held beliefs about the nature of cause and effect in social science. On the other hand, it generates a host of new insights about social phenomena. This concept is particularly well suited to analyzing entrepreneurial behavior - behaviors undertaken in settings where the relationship between cause and effect is understood, at best, very poorly.
Studies the theory of effectual reasoning with focus on the creation of firms in nonexistent or not-yet-existent markets. Effectuation takes "a set of means as given" and focuses "on selecting between possible effects that can be created with that set of means." The effectuation process is actor dependent whereas the causation process is effect dependent. Some key characteristics of effectuation are: selection criteria based on affordable loss or acceptable risk, excellence at exploiting contingencies, and explicit assumption of dynamic, nonlinear, and ecological environments. The theoretical works of March, Mintzberg, and Weick are explored to identify connections between their work and the proposed theory of effectuation. Recent empirical works that fall outside of the traditional causation models are also discussed. The four principles of effectuation are affordable loss, strategic alliances, exploitation of contingencies, and control of an unpredictable future. Based on these principles, a series of testable hypotheses are presented. The hypotheses consider the role of effectuation at different levels including the economy, the market or industry, the firm, and the founders/decision makers. The theory of effectuation advanced in this analysis concludes that the essential agent of entrepreneurship is the effectuator. (SRD)
Human artifacts lie on the interface between their inner environments and their outer environments. Organizations, therefore, are apt subjects to be studied through a science of the artificial. Furthermore, organizational design happens at two interfaces: first, at the interface between organizational founder(s) and the firms they design, and second, between the firms and the environments in which they operate. We use recent developments in the study of entrepreneurial expertise to show why an effectual logic of design is necessary at the first interface, and what its consequences are for designing at the second. In particular, we use the exemplar case of Starbucks to codify three key characteristics of the design problem at the first interface - namely, Knightian uncertainty, goal ambiguity and environmental isotropy. We then use an 'alternate histories' method to trace four strategic options - namely, planning, adaptation, vision and transformation - for designing at the second interface. In the final analysis, organizational design is important because effectuators using transformational approaches not only design organizations, but concurrently end up designing the environments we live in.
The study meta-analytically integrates results from three decades of human capital research in entrepreneurship. Based on 70 independent samples (N = 24,733), we found a significant but small relationship between human capital and success (rc = .098). We examined theoretically derived moderators of this relationship referring to conceptualizations of human capital, to context, and to measurement of success. The relationship was higher for outcomes of human capital investments (knowledge/skills) than for human capital investments (education/experience), for human capital with high task-relatedness compared to low task-relatedness, for young businesses compared to old businesses, and for the dependent variable size compared to growth or profitability. Findings are relevant for practitioners (lenders, policy makers, educators) and for future research. Our findings show that future research should pursue moderator approaches to study the effects of human capital on success. Further, human capital is most important if it is task-related and if it consists of outcomes of human capital investments rather than human capital investments; this suggests that research should overcome a static view of human capital and should rather investigate the processes of learning, knowledge acquisition, and the transfer of knowledge to entrepreneurial tasks.
Four experiments were conducted to identify the mechanisms that mediate the impact of production blocking on the productivity of idea-generating groups and to test procedural arrangements that could lessen its negative impact. Experiment 1 manipulated the length of group and individual sessions. Although Experiment 1 failed to find a closing of the productivity gap over time in equal man-hour comparisons, real 4-person groups produced more than nominal groups when given 4 times as much time. Because lengthening the time of session increases thinking as well as speaking time, speaking time was manipulated in Experiment 2. The finding that individuals who brainstormed for 20 min but were allowed to talk either for all or for only ƈ of the time did not differ in productivity eliminates differences in speaking time as an explanation of the productivity loss in idea-generating groups. In Experiments 3 and 4, procedural strategies to lessen the impact of blocking were examined.
Though much research in entrepreneurship makes the fundamental assumption that opportunities are found, new work is emerging which questions this core tenet. Effectuation, for example, positions the entrepreneur as co-creator of opportunities, together with committed stakeholders. In this study, we conduct a meta-analysis of the articles published in the Journal of Business Venturing, summarizing data on 9897 new ventures to connect three of the principles of effectuation positively with new venture performance. In so doing, we offer both specific insight into precisely measuring effectuation and a general method for extracting variables from prior work to measure new constructs.
This article extends and elaborates the perspective on entrepreneurship articulated by Shane and Venkataraman (2000) and Venkataraman (1997) by explaining in more detail the role of opportunities in the entrepreneurial process. In particular, the article explains the importance of examining entrepreneurship through a disequilibrium framework that focuses on the characteristics and existence of entrepreneurial opportunities. In addition, the article describes several typologies of opportunities and their implications for understanding entrepreneurship.
How do people approach marketing in the face of uncertainty, when the product, the market, and the traditional details involved in market research are unknowable ex ante? The authors use protocol analysis to evaluate how 27 expert entrepreneurs approach such a problem compared with 37 managers with little entrepreneurial expertise (all 64 participants are asked to think aloud as they make marketing decisions in exactly the same unpredictable situation). The hypotheses are drawn from literature in cognitive science on (1) expertise in general and (2) entrepreneurial expertise in particular. The results show significant differences in heuristics used by the two groups. While those without entrepreneurial expertise rely primarily on predictive techniques, expert entrepreneurs tend to invert these. In particular, they use an effectual or nonpredictive logic to tackle uncertain market elements and to coconstruct novel markets with committed stakeholders.
Effectuation is a proposed new theory of entrepreneurship, with insufficient empirical testing and critical analysis. Drawing on a new, comprehensive set of theory-building criteria - sourced from and complementing those of Robert Dubin and others - we provide the first formal assessment of effectuation as a theory. We highlight its strengths and weaknesses, leveraging the former to address the latter in five different directions that would build on the existing work to improve this theory. The assessment exercise also displays the value of our assessment framework in guiding the evaluation and development of other existing and future theories in entrepreneurship and management.
The perception of market opportunities is acknowledged as a major act in the entrepreneurial process that spurs economic progress and development.
This distinctive behavior is also emerging as a central theoretical concern for the discipline. Given the acknowledged importance of opportunity identification, it follows that it should be a central topic in programs that aim to train future entrepreneurs. However, little is known about whether and how this issue is addressed in education. This study examines how entrepreneurship educator-practitioners from fourteen top masters-level entrepreneurship programs in the US conceptualize and teach the opportunity identification process. The results indicate remarkable consistency across programs regarding pedagogical content and approaches. The implications of such consistency for the future of entrepreneurship theory and practice are discussed.
G*Power (Erdfelder, Faul, & Buchner, 1996) was designed as a general stand-alone power analysis program for statistical tests commonly used in social and behavioral research. G*Power 3 is a major extension of, and improvement over, the previous versions. It runs on widely used computer platforms (i.e., Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4) and covers many different statistical tests of the t, F, and chi2 test families. In addition, it includes power analyses for z tests and some exact tests. G*Power 3 provides improved effect size calculators and graphic options, supports both distribution-based and design-based input modes, and offers all types of power analyses in which users might be interested. Like its predecessors, G*Power 3 is free.
This study provides a critical examination of how different theoretical perspectives in entrepreneurship research translate into individual behavior, and whether such behavior is evident in the creation and development of new ventures. Using an alternative templates research methodology, the behaviors underlying the theories of effectuation, causation, and bricolage are evaluated to see whether such behaviors are observable in case study data describing the early development of six new ventures. The analysis highlights behavioral similarities and differences between the various theoretical perspectives in entrepreneurship research, providing insight into how these perspectives contrast and complement one another, and how they could be integrated in future research.
Reviews the literature on the Hawthorne effect (HE) which originated out of the studies at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company. This effect is generally defined as the problem in field experiments that Ss' knowledge that they are in an experiment modifies their behavior from what it would have been without the knowledge. An examination of the Hawthorne studies conducted 50 yrs ago does not reveal this "effect" probably because there were so many uncontrolled variables. HE is inconsistently described in contemporary psychology textbooks, and there is lack of agreement on how the effect is mediated. Controls for the HE in current field research (mostly in education) took several forms, each designed for different purposes. In 13 studies designed to produce HEs, only 4 using adult Ss were successful. It is suggested that most persons in any clearly identified situation define the context for their behavior and respond accordingly; the necessity to ascertain Ss' view of the experiment requires different procedures than those typically used to control for HEs in the past. It is concluded that better articulation of how to adapt postexperimental questioning procedures to a diversity of experimental settings is needed. (68 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Previous research suggests that people tend to discover the same opportunities in a given technological change. Austrian economics challenges these assumptions and, since the accuracy of these assumptions is important to the development of entrepreneurship theory, they are explored further. The following propositions are presented: (1) all individuals are not equally likely to recognize a given entrepreneurial opportunity; (2) people can and will discover entrepreneurial opportunities without actively searching for them; (3a) people's prior knowledge about markets will influence their discovery of which markets to enter to exploit a new technology; (3b) people's prior knowledge about how to serve markets will influence their discovery of how to use a new technology to serve a market; and (3c) people's prior knowledge of customer problems will influence their discovery of products and services to exploit a new technology. Data were collected from interviews with entrepreneurs, investors, and others involved in the evaluation or exploitation of eight new venture opportunities which utilized the three-dimensional printing (3DPTM) process invented in 1989 at MIT. Findings demonstrate that, although many people were exposed to information regarding the invention of the 3DPTM process, not many people identified entrepreneurial opportunities to exploit the technology. Also, each of the entrepreneurs interviewed indicated that he or she was not searching for an opportunity prior to its discovery. In fact, all respondents said that they recognized the opportunity almost by accident and seemed surprised by its discovery. Finally, it was shown that prior knowledge comes from many different sources, including work experience, personal events, and education. (SFL)
The relationship between the level of prior knowledge of customer problems and potential financial reward in the identification of opportunities is examined in terms of both the number of opportunities identified and the innovativeness of these opportunities.Considered is whether prior customer knowledge is directly related to opportunity identification, whether potential financial reward is directly related to identification, and whether prior knowledge moderates the relationship between potential financial reward and the identification of opportunities. Research is based on Austrian economics and cognitive psychology, which are used to emphasize how an individual’s level of prior knowledge impacts the identification of opportunities.Based on an experimental study with78 MBA and executive MBA students in Colorado, results suggest that the relationship between potential financial reward and the identification of opportunities is moderated by prior customer knowledge. While prior knowledge of customer problems leads to the identification of more—and more innovative—opportunities, it also moderates the relationship between potential financial reward and opportunity identification. Financial reward motivates people with little prior knowledge of customer problems, but is not a major motivator for individuals with considerable customer knowledge. (JSD)
This article helps develop the creativity perspective within entrepreneurship in two ways. First, it elaborates on the nature of opportunity as a creative product. Rather than viewing opportunities as single insights, it suggests that they are emerging through the continuous shaping and development of (raw) ideas that are acted upon. Second, rather than attributing them to a particular individual, it highlights the contextual and social influences that affect the generation and shaping of ideas. This helps move entrepreneurship research beyond the single-person, single-insight attribution that currently permeates it.
We develop and validate measures of causation and effectuation approaches to new venture creation and test our measures with two samples of entrepreneurs in young firms. Our measure of causation is a well-defined and coherent uni-dimensional construct. We propose that effectuation is a formative, multidimensional construct with three associated sub-dimensions (experimentation, affordable loss, and flexibility) and one dimension shared with the causation construct (pre-commitments). As specified by Sarasvathy (2001), we also show that causation is negatively associated with uncertainty, while experimentation, a sub-dimension of effectuation, is positively correlated with uncertainty. The major contribution is the resulting validated scales that measure causation and effectuation.
This paper builds on existing theoretical and empirical studies in the area of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development. It utilizes Dubin's [Theory Building, (second ed.). Free Press, New York, 1978.] theory building framework to propose a theory of the opportunity identification process. It identifies entrepreneur's personality traits, social networks, and prior knowledge as antecedents of entrepreneurial alertness to business opportunities. Entrepreneurial alertness, in its turn, is a necessary condition for the success of the opportunity identification triad: recognition, development, and evaluation. A theoretical model, laws of interaction, a set of propositions, and suggestions for further research are provided.
Data from repeated measures experiments are usually analyzed with conventional ANOVA. Three well-known problems with ANOVA are the sphericity assumption, the design effect (sampling hierarchy), and the requirement for complete designs and data sets. This tutorial explains and demonstrates multi-level modeling (MLM) as an alternative analysis tool for repeated measures data. MLM allows us to estimate variance and covariance components explicitly. MLM does not require sphericity, it takes the sampling hierarchy into account, and it is capable of analyzing incomplete data. A fictitious data set is analyzed with MLM and ANOVA, and analysis results are compared. Moreover, existing data from a repeated measures design are re-analyzed with MLM, to demonstrate its advantages. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that MLM yields higher power than ANOVA, in particular under realistic circumstances. Although technically complex, MLM is recommended as a useful tool for analyzing repeated measures data from speech research.
Cognitive approaches to creativity are discussed as they relate to an important task of entrepreneurs: generating novel and useful ideas for business ventures. Attention is given to the paradoxical role of knowledge, which can either enhance of inhibit creativity, as well as to the properties of knowledge and a selected set of processes that influence the originality of newly generated ideas. Experimental findings are discussed along with suggestions about how those findings might be translated to practical applications.
In support of theory, this study demonstrates that entrepreneurial experts frame decisions using an “effectual” logic (identify more potential markets, focus more on building the venture as a whole, pay less attention to predictive information, worry more about making do with resources on hand to invest only what they could afford to lose, and emphasize stitching together networks of partnerships); while novices use a “predictive frame” and tend to “go by the textbook.” We asked 27 expert entrepreneurs and 37 MBA students to think aloud continuously as they solved typical decision-making problems in creating a new venture. Transcriptions were analyzed using methods from cognitive science. Results showed that expert entrepreneurs framed problems in a dramatically different way than MBA students.
This study examines nascent entrepreneurship by comparing individuals engaged in nascent activities (n=380) with a control group (n=608), after screening a sample from the general population (n=30,427). The study then follows the developmental process of nascent entrepreneurs for 18 months. Bridging and bonding social capital, consisting of both strong and weak ties, was a robust predictor for nascent entrepreneurs, as well as for advancing through the start-up process. With regard to outcomes like first sale or showing a profit, only one aspect of social capital, viz. being a member of a business network, had a statistically significant positive effect. The study supports human capital in predicting entry into nascent entrepreneurship, but only weakly for carrying the start-up process towards successful completion.
It is suggested that the recognition of new business opportunities often involves pattern recognition--the cognitive process through which individuals identify meaningful patterns in complex arrays of events or trends. Basic research on pattern recognition indicates that cognitive frameworks acquired through experience (e.g., prototypes) play a central role in this process. Such frameworks provide individuals with a basis for noticing connections between seemingly independent events or trends (e.g., advances in technology, shifts in markets, changes in government policies, etc.), and for detecting meaningful patterns in these connections. We propose that ideas for new products or services often emerge from the perception of such patterns. New business opportunities are identified when entrepreneurs, using relevant cognitive frameworks, "connect the dots" between seemingly unrelated events or trends and then detect patterns in these connections suggestive of new products or services. To obtain evidence on these proposals, we compared the "business opportunity" prototypes of novice (first-time) and repeat (experienced) entrepreneurs--their cognitive representations of the essential nature of opportunities. As predicted, the prototypes of experienced entrepreneurs were more clearly defined, richer in content, and more concerned with factors and conditions related to actually starting and running a new venture (e.g., generation of positive cash flow) than the prototypes of novice entrepreneurs. These findings offer support for the view that pattern recognition is a key component of opportunity recognition.
Creative thought requires planning to support the refinement and successful implementation of new ideas. In this study, 174 people were given training intended to provide more effective strategies for executing two key skills held to be involved in implementation planning-penetration (e.g., identification of key causes) and forecasting. The quality and originality of the plans obtained on a transfer task, involving implementation of a new educational curriculum, were assessed. It was found that training forecasting strategies and penetration strategies proved particularly beneficial for creative people, as defined by scores of divergent thinking tests. The implications of these findings for understanding the role of planning in creative thought are discussed.
Investigated the effect of improvement of one mental function upon other functions allied to it. Six Ss were tested on a particular function and then trained to enhance another function, after which the first mental function was reevaluated, and its effect in the improvement estimated. Concluded that the senses evaluated could not be generalized or be considered within a narrow perspective. Improvement in any single mental function need not improve the ability in similar functions, it may injure it. Spread of practice occurred only where identical elements were concerned in the influencing and the influenced function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved), (C) 1901 by the American Psychological Association
The distinction between psychology and praxics provides a clear answer to the question of animal cognition. As Griffin and others have noted, the kinds of behavioral phenomena that lead psychologists to speak of cognition in humans are also observed in nonhuman animals, and therefore those who are convinced of the legitimacy of psychology should not hesitate to speak of and to attempt to study animal cognition. The behavior of organisms is also a legitimate subject matter, and praxics, the study of behavior, has led to significant advances in our understanding of the kinds of behaviors that lead psychologists to speak of cognition. Praxics is a biological science; the attempt by students of behavior to appropriate psychology has been misguided. Generativity theory is an example of a formal theory of behavior that has proved useful both in the engineering of intelligent performances in nonhuman animals and in the prediction of intelligent performances in humans.