Abstract:

Traditional entrepreneurship theory posits that individual entrepreneurs take risks to make great gains, are agents of invention, and are quick to act when they discover new opportunities. Effectuation theory places the focus on experimenting with as many strategies as possible to achieve multiple outcomes from these opportunities. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) harnesses these as firm-level behaviours, enacted by individuals, within companies used in process of new creation. This process relies on the entrepreneurial decision-making of individuals that influence these decision outcomes. However, most of the extant EO research embraces causation, despite the intellectual origins of EO that link individual and entrepreneurial behaviour and organizational processes being effectual. As such, there are calls to apply the lens of effectuation to EO, which we will do in this research. By comparing the descriptor traits of the more adaptive and more innovative problem-solving styles of individuals using the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI), and different EO orientations, there is reason to believe a relationship exists. This multidisciplinary research combines concepts from psychology (KAI), EO and effectuation theory to address a gap in the EO literature linking entrepreneurial behaviour and the individual and organizational processes. We are collecting KAI and online survey data from 160 MBA/ExecMBA participants (80 UK, 80 USA) to explore these relationships. Our research is novel as the KAI and effectuation theory have not together been used before in EO literature and will create new insights and contributions to both EO and KAI literature.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Entrepreneurship

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Prof Curtis Friedel