The measurement of effectuation: highlighting research tensions and opportunities for the future

McKelvie, Alexander; Chandler, Gaylen N.; DeTienne, Dawn R.; Johansson, Anette

doi:10.1007/s11187-019-00149-6

Cited by 81 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 115 publications

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“…Second, the existing literature contains significant tensions with respect to the proper way of conceptualizing the dimensions and measuring the effectuation and causation constructs (McKelvie et al, 2020). In the Methods section, we justified our choice of selecting the instrument of Chandler et al (2011).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The SPARK Interfax database contains constantly updated data from official government databases about all registered companies in Russia (http://www.spark-interfax.ru/promo/en). 2 We acknowledge the significant tensions in the literature regarding the proper way of measurement of effectuation and causation constructs (e.g., McKelvie et al, 2020). In practice, the two most broadly used survey instruments for these constructs were proposed in Chandler et al (2011) and Brettel et al (2012).…”

Section: Oleksiy Osiyevskyymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Navigating the emerging market context: Performance implications of effectuation and causation for small and medium enterprises during adverse economic conditions in Russia

Shirokova

Osiyevskyy

Laskovaia

et al. 2020

Strategic Entrepreneurship

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Research Summary This study aims to broaden the understanding of effectuation and causation by investigating their effectiveness for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the emerging market context during adverse economic conditions. We embrace a holistic view of the performance implications of these behavioral logics, theorizing and empirically testing their impact not only on the level of firm performance but also on its variability. The findings suggest that emerging market conditions create significant contingencies in the relationships between effectuation, causation, and firm performance, substantively affecting their effectiveness. In particular, we demonstrate that for the firms affected by adverse conditions, causation brings marginal performance improvements while also making it highly unreliable (variable), whereas effectuation leads to performance improvements coupled with higher reliability. Managerial Summary Entrepreneurial actions can be based on one of two behavioral logics: causation (rigorous forward‐looking analysis, relying on well‐prepared plans, pre‐defined goals, and required resources) or effectuation (leveraging the existing resources and controlling the environmental uncertainty through creating new markets, products, and opportunities). We investigate the effectiveness of these logics for Russian SMEs navigating adversity in the emerging market context. The results suggest that causation leads to performance improvements, yet these become marginal and highly unreliable if a firm finds itself in adverse conditions. Effectuation, on the other hand, is a costly and unreliable strategy in stable times, yet leads to reliable performance improvements in volatile contexts.

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Section: Limitations and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Oleksiy Osiyevskyymentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating the emerging market context: Performance implications of effectuation and causation for small and medium enterprises during adverse economic conditions in Russia

Shirokova

Osiyevskyy

Laskovaia

et al. 2020

Strategic Entrepreneurship

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“…Effectuation research has been developing for about two decades and is recognized as an important paradigmatic shift in understanding entrepreneurial decision-making and behavior (Alsos, Clausen, Mauer, Read, & Sarasvathy, 2019). Despite its considerable progress as a theory, many of its concepts require theoretical and empirical improvements (Arend, Sarooghi, & Burkemper, 2015; McKelvie, Chandler, DeTienne, & Johansson, 2019; Read, Sarasvathy, Dew, & Wiltbank, 2016). For instance, while effectual networks are the key building blocks of the effectuation process aiding decision-making under highly uncertain conditions (see e.g., Sarasvathy & Dew, 2003; 2005), our knowledge about their formation and constitution is still incomplete (Kerr & Coviello, 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectual Networks as Complex Adaptive Systems: Exploring Dynamic and Structural Factors of Emergence

Galkina

Atkova

2019

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

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The notion of effectual networks is one of the central concepts in the effectuation research. However, there has been little conceptual and empirical work on how they emerge and what structures they have. This article incorporates the concept of complex adaptive systems from complexity theory to understand both their dynamic and structural elements. We examine the effectual networks and networking of 10 startups from Finland and offer a process-system model of effectual networks. We derive propositions that connect dynamic and structural entrepreneur-related factors of their emergence and outline directions for future research at the intersection of effectuation and complexity theory.

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“…Second, applied effectuation studies simply operationalise the core concepts (Chandler et al 2011;Brettel et al 2012), apply, or test, the core concepts (e.g. Sarasvathy and Kotha 2001;Bhowmick 2011;Dew et al 2015;Reymen et al 2015;Parida et al 2016;Jiang and Rüling 2019) or present secondary analyses (Read et al 2009a;Fisher 2012;Perry et al 2012;Mauer 2014;Welter et al 2016;Matalamäki 2017;Mansoori and Lackéus 2019;McKelvie et al 2019). 6 Some researchers have proposed minor modifications to effectuation concepts while retaining the basic framework (e.g.…”

Section: Methodological Approach: Analysing Effectuation Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting effectuation theory: Why it does not explain new venture creation

Kitching

Rouse

2020

International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurs

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We evaluate whether the theory of effectuation provides – or could provide – a powerful causal explanation of the process of new venture creation. We do this by conducting an analysis of the principal concepts introduced by effectuation theory. Effectuation theory has become a highly influential cognitive science-based approach to understanding how nascent entrepreneurs start businesses under conditions of uncertainty. But by reducing the process of venture creation to a decision-making logic, effectuation theory pays insufficient regard to the substantial, pervasive and enduring influence of social-structural and cultural contexts on venture creation. Powerful explanations should conceive of venture creation as a sociohistorical process emergent from the interaction of structural, cultural and agential causal powers and must be able to theorise, fallibly, how nascent entrepreneurs form particular firms in particular times and places. We conclude that effectuation’s contribution to entrepreneurship scholarship is more limited than its advocates claim because it can offer only an under-socialised, ahistorical account of venture creation. Failure to theorise adequately the influence of structural and cultural contexts on venture creation implicitly grants nascent entrepreneurs excessive powers of agency.

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The measurement of effectuation: highlighting research tensions and opportunities for the future

Cited by 81 publications

References 115 publications

Navigating the emerging market context: Performance implications of effectuation and causation for small and medium enterprises during adverse economic conditions in Russia

Navigating the emerging market context: Performance implications of effectuation and causation for small and medium enterprises during adverse economic conditions in Russia

Effectual Networks as Complex Adaptive Systems: Exploring Dynamic and Structural Factors of Emergence

Contesting effectuation theory: Why it does not explain new venture creation

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