Managing Complexity and Unforeseeable Uncertainty in Startup Companies: an Empirical Study

Svenja Sommer, Christoph Loch () and Jing Dong
Additional contact information
Svenja Sommer: Krannert School of Management - Purdue University [West Lafayette]
Jing Dong: School of International Business Administration - Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Novel startup companies often face not only risk, but also unforeseeable uncertainty (the inability to recognize and articulate all relevant variables affecting performance). The literature recognizes that established risk planning methods are very powerful when the nature of risks is well understood, but that they are insufficient for managing unforeseeable uncertainty. For this case, two fundamental approaches have been identified: trial-and-error learning, or actively searching for information and repeatedly changing the goals and course of action as new information emerges, and selectionism, or pursuing several approaches in parallel to see ex post what works best. Based on a sample of 58 startups in Shanghai, we test predictions from prior literature on the circumstances under which selectionism or trial-and-error learning leads to higher performance. We find that the best approach depends on a combination of uncertainty and complexity of the startup: risk planning is sufficient when both are low, trial-and-error learning promises the highest potential when unforeseeable uncertainty is high, and selectionism is preferred when both unforeseeable uncertainty and complexity are high, provided that the choice of the best trial can be delayed until its true market performance can be assessed. Key Words: unforeseeable uncertainty, complexity, new ventures, empirical study, selectionism, learning.

Keywords: unforeseeable uncertainty; complexity; new ventures; empirical study; selectionism; learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Published in Organization Science, 2009, Vol.20,nº1, pp.118-133. ⟨10.1287/orsc.1080.0369⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Managing Complexity and Unforeseeable Uncertainty in Startup Companies: An Empirical Study (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00491684

DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1080.0369

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().