Causation and effectuation processes: A validation study

Gaylen N. Chandler, Dawn R. DeTienne, Alexander McKelvie and Troy V. Mumford

Journal of Business Venturing, 2011, vol. 26, issue 3, 375-390

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Causation; Effectuation; Measurement; validation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (165)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:26:y:2011:i:3:p:375-390

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