This paper reports on a study testing whether and how the use of effectuation and causation

logics influences deliberate practice in businesses started by microfinance borrowers (“micro-

entrepreneurs”) in Sri Lanka. Using mixed methods, we surveyed clients of a large Sri Lankan
microfinance institution and deepened findings from the survey through 24 interviews. In this
way, we identified specific patterns of relationships between principles of the two logics and five
elements of deliberate practice identified in the expertise literature from cognitive science. We
found that both effectual and causal logics (but not effectuation alone) facilitate deliberate
practice, an important result since deliberate practice could be expected to help micro-
entrepreneurs gain business and entrepreneurial expertise. We also found interesting patterns
in the links among effectuation and causation and specific elements of deliberate practice. In
particular, one effectuation principle—acknowledging and leveraging the unexpected—impacted
all five elements of deliberate practice, suggesting that learning to manage uncertainty is a
central task—perhaps the central task—in becoming an entrepreneur. By contrast, causation
influenced elements of deliberate practice linked to “venture-building” or “entrepreneuring,” and
not the more personal elements linked to seeing oneself as an entrepreneur. As expected from
the literature on expertise, deliberate practice was more likely to occur in earlier stages of
venturing by younger, less-experienced entrepreneurs. Findings not only offer avenues for
future research into deliberate practice in entrepreneurship but also suggest new ways for
microfinance institutions to help their clients move toward entrepreneurial expertise.

Cubism was the most influential movement in modern art, and Pablo Picasso transformed the
art world like no other figure before him. Changes in institutional and market conditions have
been until now mainstream explanations for the emergence of art movements such as Cubism.
However, we argue that there are complementary explanations centered on the agency of the
artists themselves and based on entrepreneurial decision-making processes, in particular on the
theory of effectuation. We have analyzed the detailed accounts of art history experts to generate
a longitudinal process model of the creation of Cubism. Cubism emerged because Picasso and
Braque transformed their common set of means into a variety of effects. Cubist innovations
originated sequentially, as part of a chain of achievements. One innovation and artistic
achievement led to another. Picasso and Braque’s methods of producing series of paintings and
drawings and building upon previous achievements enrich our existing understanding of
effectuation on a central point—the transformation of means into effects. This research also
uncovers relationships among effectuation, bricolage, and subversion. This study illustrates how
the theory of effectuation can be a method for the creation of new artifacts in fields beyond
entrepreneurship and how effectuation can be a general-purpose decision-making schema for
operating under conditions of uncertainty. The results of our study offer lessons of interest to
scholars and practitioners in both art and entrepreneurship.

This research uses the experience of residents and a local neighborhood association in Brazil
before, during, and after a major natural disaster to examine entrepreneurial action in response
to a major environmental jolt. When the community of Córrego d’Antas was hit by deadly
mudslides in January of 2011, residents responded over time with combinations of different
varieties of effectuation, social bricolage, and gradually more causation, supporting grassroots
recovery efforts. We deepen inquiry into the intersection between entrepreneurship and disaster
recovery using a temporal approach, involving alternate templates and more inductive analyses.
Our results include new concepts, such as diseffectuation and extended effectuation, and a
deeper understanding of the relation between effectuation and bricolage that may prove useful
for the study of entrepreneurial action during crises and recuperation. We close with modest
propositions connecting disaster recovery and entrepreneurship.

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.

Although dozens of empirical studies have been published on effectuation as a whole, much
work remains to be done on elaborating each principle in more depth. Based on an exploratory
study of seven ventures from the Caribbean island of Curacao, this paper develops an
elaborated process model of the affordable loss heuristic in effectuation. The model breaks
affordable loss into two components—ability and willingness, and connects these to the concept
of loss aversion from prospect theory. Furthermore, these components are encapsulated in a
process involving identity, affect, and resourcefulness leading to the entry-stage entrepreneurial
investment decision.

There has been a growing interest among entrepreneurs and students in explicit guidance for
entrepreneurial action. Both scholars and practitioners have responded to this demand by
suggesting a variety of entrepreneurial methods. This has led, however, to a proliferation of
relatively unrelated methods with varying degrees of rigor and relevance. In an attempt to
organize and bring clarity to the range and diversity of entrepreneurial methods, this article
compares effectuation with five other entrepreneurial methods along nine conceptual
dimensions.

Through the application of two conceptual frameworks, core underpinnings of each method are
highlighted. In addition to revealing similarities and differences between the methods, the study
identifies some key implications for theory, practice, policy, and education. The strengths of
effectuation on a theoretical level could be used to develop other entrepreneurial methods.
Conversely, the strengths of other entrepreneurial methods could be used to shore up the
potential weaknesses of effectuation, such as a lack of behavioral tactics and limited
applicability in later stages of venture development. Findings from this article can thus aid
entrepreneurship scholars and practitioners to improve their prescriptions and can create new
avenues for developing entrepreneurial methods. Since the early 2000s, effectuation has gained
substantial interest in literature. Whereas Sarasvathy in her seminal 2001 article distinguished
effectuation from causal decision-making, still effectuation seems to get confused with ad hoc
decision-making or strategy absence. On the basis of a qualitative study with 12 managers from
10 Swiss small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), this manuscript analyzes their decision-making
approaches and distinguishes between causal, effectual, and absence-of-strategy reasoning.
Whereas principles for effectuation and causation are well established, this study reveals new
categories on which strategy absence can be mapped. The three decision approaches and their
interplay are then investigated in four business contexts (founding, takeover, new artifact
creation, and existing artifacts). Whereas causal reasoning is found in all four, signs of strategy
absence are apparent in three.
Effectual logic dominates all four contexts. Further, this manuscript finds that choice of the
strategic decision approach does not depend on company size but rather on decision context.
Also, firms demonstrate the ability to switch between effectual and causal decision models
according to the specific decision context. 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. 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 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.

This study examines how firms’ decision-making logics and entrepreneurial resourcing
behaviors combine to create value. We conduct a qualitative comparative analysis investigating
configurations of effectuation, causation, and bricolage that are associated with firm
performance. We consider firm size and development stage as contextual factors that
differentiate the effectiveness of ways in which firms combine effectuation, causation, and
bricolage. Using a sample of 305 Chinese firms, we find six solutions explaining entrepreneurial
processes in high-performing firms. Based on a comparison of effective configurations across
firm size and development stages, we theorize three paths along which small early-stage firms
can evolve into large late-stage firms while maintaining high performance.

Scholars have criticized effectuation research for being insufficiently embedded in a nomological
network of practically relevant antecedents. To address this research gap, the current study
uses a mixed-methods design. First, a qualitative study with 20 venturing experts
(entrepreneurs and investors) validates various effectuation logics and uncovers the following
four antecedents of effectuation and causation: founders’ perceived uncertainty, entrepreneurial
experience, management experience, and investor influence. Second, a large-scale quantitative
study of founders in online, software, and high-tech start-ups (n = 435) provides statistical
support for the identified antecedents, using structural equation modeling and multigroup
comparisons over early and later venture stages. The study confirms the multifaceted nature of
effectuation; experimentation is the only effectual logic that reflects influences of all the
determinants. Founders’ prior experiences affect experimentation and causation in the early
venture stage, but not during the later stages. Investor influence displays the broadest array of
effects on the decision logics, offering both theoretical embeddedness for effectuation and a
new, practically relevant driver.